My El Degas Story

[sirtonski]

I bought this guitar at yard sale just down the street from me when I was about 7, it had no strings, never even got to try it for only $15 CAD(not that I would have known what to do with it) and it stayed around (mostly in my basement) for the next 10 years, I would occasionally bring it out to basically just play with it even though it had no strings. On multiple and I mean multiple occasions my mother tried to throw it out, it actually got buried in a snow storm for about a week before I noticed she had tried to chuck it, another time it was out in a thunderstorm before I noticed it. So about ten years later I finally picked it back out from the basement and decided to learn how to play it, seeing as all my friends were trying to learn guitar I though I should try to learn bass. I went to the store bought some strings and a crate amp (which i will never buy again) Plugged it in...AND IT WORKED! Through my research as well I found that this bass is made sometime between the late 60's to very early 70's.

I've been using it as my main instrument ever since them, until this weekend I have NEVER had it cleaned even though it has been through so much and it still sounds amazing, so good in fact that I went to the guitar shop to buy an American made P-bass and found the sound wasn't as good as my knock-off! This weekend I'm taking it in to have it cleaned and I'm installing Originality 60's Fender P-bass pickups because the pickups are rusted and all the playing that I have been doing I figured I can get just a bit better deep clear sound out of these (though I tried the regular quarter ponders and they were not as good!). I have mine equipped with those new pickups as of this weekend, as well as the amazing super high quality nut it came with, I bought a vintage style case seeing as really this is an awesome sounding vintage guitar it should have a vintage case, as well I'm running it through a minimark combo amp which is AMAZING, high price tag and only available in Italy and on guitar center but it pumps the clearest sound with 150 watt plus it will take another cab with the size of maybe a 25 watt amp and under 20 pounds.

My El Degas is my favorite bass throughout my playing, I have had a Gibson, fenders, bc rich, ibanez and even a Tobias but nothing compares to this beauty!

[charles]

That bass looks amazing despite all the abuse it's seen!

El Degas P basses with that logo style normally feature brass nuts and Dimarzio pickups (which is why you were hard-pressed to find anything better).

Some of the best of the 70's MIJ P-basses copies, in my opinion; and because there were a whole lot of them back then, they tend to be able to be had at great prices.

[sirtonski]

I know its crazy huh, it's just amazing the quality you get out of one of those, I've heard you get much much better quality out of anything MIJ compared to China or Korea. I really want to find some more of these, that bass has a lot of physical damage too from bumps and scratches yet it still holds up. I even got the plate on the back engraved with what I got my wife to write on the bass when I first met her so it's really special to me.

Do you think that if you get some free time you could put up some more pictures of the rickenbacker copy? I would LOVE to see some more details of it!

Thanks

Shawn

[Barry]

Hey Mr. Bassman...nice to have you in the club!
This thing looks amazing, considering the abuse it's seen (poor baby).

Your story sounds a little bit like mine
viewtopic.php?t=31
in as much as it took us both a long time to smarten up and realize what an extraordinarily well made instrument we had.

The difference is that I kept the GB25 in good shape even though I wasn't using it for a long time.
And...I kept mine in its case under the bed, not um, in the snow...

As for the bumps and scratches...well, consider them battle scars. After all, you did gig the beast! I have a 1985 Westone Spectrum ST (mini strat style) which I used on stage for many years, also black, also bearing similar bumps and bruises. Goes with the territory it seems.

You could refinish it but I kinda think you'd lose some of its MoJo!
Cheers!

[sirtonski]

Yeah I feel the same way I COULD refinish it but I like all the scratches and bumps lol. Still blows me away that the poor thing survived. I really wish I could come across more of these but I have only ever seen them online, never even saw another in person and now I'm in Dallas so my chances are pretty slim!

[charles]

Don't you dare refinish her! Looks great as-is. Again, I still can't believe how good she looks despite the stories of the rain and snow she's endured. You'd expect the finish to be stressed and peeled.

There aren't a lot of us who like the bridge & pup chrome covers on their Precisions - I think it makes them look mah-velous!

[sirtonski]

Check this out, I haven't come across an El Degas amp before, it's in Montreal so sorry for the french lol

http://montreal.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sel ... Z110502658

[charles]

Check this out, I haven't come across an El Degas amp before, it's in Montreal so sorry for the french lol

http://montreal.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sel ... Z110502658

Ha ha - I saw that last night too!

I have now seen about four El Degas amps. I think they are all smaller solid state amps for practice/bedroom situations, from the MIK era under Kaman (but I am guessing about that (but I think I'm right )