Jeremy Crockett
TDPRI Member
Last month, I was looking for a semi-hollow bass. I was familiar with the Epiphone Jack Casady but couldn't justify the $800 asking price.
After spending some time looking on FB Marketplace, Craigslist, and other usual locations, I decided on a bass I had never heard of before, an Ibanez Artcore AGB140 in Transparent Brown.
It's a bit of an odd critter being a full 34" scale. The neck feels much longer than my Ray34CA, but I love the aesthetic so much that I am learning to deal with it.
One of the previous owners for reasons that will forever remain shrouded in mystery, decided to first super-glue a CLIP-ON tuner to the upper bout of the bass. Then, when that failed miserably, they glued it to the back of the headstock. As I've pointed out, this is a weird bass that seems to have garnered weird ownership over its 19-year existence.
This is how the strings were wound when I bought it. The photo on the right shows the Fender flats that I properly installed.
I polished the frets, oiled the fretboard, and removed what I could of the glued-on remains from the upper bout.
After the clean up, I was ambivalent about its fate and could not decide if I wanted to keep it or flip it. I listed the bass in several places. And while these listings produced a lot of "clicks", there was not a single, serious inquiry.
I finally decided to keep it and make it my own, sow's ear that it is.
The stock knobs were cheap plastic and oversized so I replaced them with some chrome Gretsch knobs that I had laying around.
I have taken my desire for the over-wrought, ostentatious, and Baroque Cowboy Fancy Vine decal I was considering for a different guitar and applied it to the Ibanez.
Saturday morning, I spent about two-and-a-half hours positioning, cutting, and adhering them.
Overall, I'm very happy with the way this mongrel is shaping up. Because, all my whining and protestations aside, this thing sounds fantastic! I look forward to using/abusing it for as long as I can.
Thanks, as ever, for looking.
After spending some time looking on FB Marketplace, Craigslist, and other usual locations, I decided on a bass I had never heard of before, an Ibanez Artcore AGB140 in Transparent Brown.
It's a bit of an odd critter being a full 34" scale. The neck feels much longer than my Ray34CA, but I love the aesthetic so much that I am learning to deal with it.
One of the previous owners for reasons that will forever remain shrouded in mystery, decided to first super-glue a CLIP-ON tuner to the upper bout of the bass. Then, when that failed miserably, they glued it to the back of the headstock. As I've pointed out, this is a weird bass that seems to have garnered weird ownership over its 19-year existence.
This is how the strings were wound when I bought it. The photo on the right shows the Fender flats that I properly installed.
I polished the frets, oiled the fretboard, and removed what I could of the glued-on remains from the upper bout.
After the clean up, I was ambivalent about its fate and could not decide if I wanted to keep it or flip it. I listed the bass in several places. And while these listings produced a lot of "clicks", there was not a single, serious inquiry.
I finally decided to keep it and make it my own, sow's ear that it is.
The stock knobs were cheap plastic and oversized so I replaced them with some chrome Gretsch knobs that I had laying around.
I have taken my desire for the over-wrought, ostentatious, and Baroque Cowboy Fancy Vine decal I was considering for a different guitar and applied it to the Ibanez.
Saturday morning, I spent about two-and-a-half hours positioning, cutting, and adhering them.
Overall, I'm very happy with the way this mongrel is shaping up. Because, all my whining and protestations aside, this thing sounds fantastic! I look forward to using/abusing it for as long as I can.
Thanks, as ever, for looking.
