My El Degas Story
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:03 pm
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!
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!
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.
)