eldegas.com

Hey,

When a friend of mine found out I played the bass, he offered me an old one he had lying around his house. He had told me it was an 'El Degas', as I had never heard of the brand before I was excited to get a look at it. I picked it up this evening, and wasn't surprised to see it in pretty rough shape. But my god does it have character. The input jack is almost fully detached, the back plate is missing, with wiring strewn about, and there are some general signs of heavy usage. (Also, I'm fairly certain the pickups aren't original, but who knows) Not that it matters, Im going to have a blast getting it back into working order.

My question is, where did this thing come from? What year was it made? Why can't I find a single piece of information about it or its brand name on the web?

Thank you for your time.

(256 kb size limit on the pictures? What is this madness, made a photobucket account just for this occasion.)

http://s247.photobucket.com/albums/gg14 ... %20Guitar/

That link should hopefully work!

It seems I should have done a little more digging in the forums.

http://www.eldegas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=551

Same bass.

That's an 80's MIK (Made in Korea) P-J copy (Precision and Jazz combination pickup configuration)

The 256 KB limit is there because I pay for the server costs of the website from my own pocket, and there are numerous free image hosting sites like Photobucket that can ease the disc space usage and bandwidth this site uses.

Thanks for posting your bass

Hey there Charles, thanks for taking the time to put this site together.

As you can see on the bass, the electronics are massive mess. Are you familiar with any resources I could use to figure out the wiring? Ive found this site,

http://www.guitarnucleus.com/wiring.html

and I think I can handle it, do you have any advice for me on this amateur repair job?

I am all thumbs when it comes to the electronics and soldering stuff - so all I can offer is "take your time". There is lots of good soldering advice to be found on the interweb, but it's lost on me

I bet forumite Barry would have some good advice. He checks in pretty regularly so I bet he'll find this thread soon

Hello Rossum and welcome.
Looks like you're on your way already but here's one of the best references out there for wiring:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wi ... d_p_j_bass

If you're at all comfortable with a soldering gun it should not be too hard to put her right again. Take your time and good luck!

Wow, excellent. Thanks a million fellas. My friend who gave me the bass told me he thought it would make a great 5-string, with that wide neck. Who knows, a new machine head and a saddle and there we are! Just gotta get the electronics out of the way. Any idea for what to do about the missing backplate situation? I can't imagine all backplates being universal, but then again, it being as rugged as it is a piece of duct tape would only seem suitable.

You can buy a 8x10 sheet of pickguard/backplate material from several vendors such as guitarpartsresource.com and AllParts.

You might even be able to find that particular style of backplate at thyose sites (but be aware that the fit may or may not be perfect on the El Degas)

Rossum wrote:...My friend who gave me the bass told me he thought it would make a great 5-string, with that wide neck...

I'd caution against doing that unless you are a very confident in what you are doing. Even then...you run the risk of very quickly destroying an otherwise nice little bass. The headstock, bridge and neck are not really designed for this setup and you'll likely end up wrecking the headstock and putting too much tension on the neck.

Good point, hadn't even thought about that. Ah well, who needs 5 strings anyways? Thats just just greedy.