My El Degas Bass

[nmeisenh]

Hey gang, brand new to this forum but I thought I'd post some pictures of my one of a kind El Degas bass, mostly because its been brutalized beyond belief.

I bought it from a fellow who was in the middle of restoring it, he had carved the sides of the body to get rid of some serious gouges, and the person who had it before that had installed three dip switches, and somewhere along the way ripped all the wiring out as well as losing the backing plate. I've since rewired it, but I believe the bridge as removed at one point, as the screw heads are non-matching, and stripped in some cases. All I know about it for sure, is that its a neck through, and weighs about *a million* pounds.

Unfortunately I only have pictures of me playing the thing, so you'll have to put up with my ugly mug...

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak- ... 4857_n.jpg
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak- ... 7718_n.jpg

I do have one question about restoration, the parts of the body that have been carved have no finish from what I can tell, and I'm worried that sweating on that thing night after night is gonna destroy the wood, any recommendations for applying a quick finish to the natural wood?

[charles]

I actually really like the body contouring that's been done.

The rest of the body finish might just be poly so you might want to go that route... dunno

[nmeisenh]

I think it adds quite a bit of sex appeal to the bass, and some playability too. Last year lived in an apartment next to a girl who had the exact same bass, in perfect condition, without all the contouring and mods. It was not as much fun to play, felt very awkward in comparison to mine, but then again it might just be because that's what I was used to. The man I bought it off of runs this place actually, http://www.dontfret.ca. One of the nicest guys I've ever met, and a huge collection of instruments. Bumped into him when I had him rebuild a saddle for my Framus 12-string acoustic.