RARE JETGLO RICKENBACKER 3000 SHORT-SCALE BASS

Repeat customer Gareth (he of “Brian Helicopter” fame with The Shapes, who are Big In Japan, finally acquired a rare 3000 bass, after hunting high and low for some time. It was quite heavily used, with more than a trace of fret wear and a body that had been split along the center glue line and badly re-glued. Result was that the body was shaped like a potato chip. STUDIO CALIFORNIA managed to flatten it out, clean up the glue line, and refinish it over a period of several days in glasslike Jetglo, infrared-cured, and then wet-sanded and buffed to a ne’er-thee-well.

The neck had seen better days, too, so it was stripped, sanded, bleached, and the fretboard de-fretted, planed flat with a consistent crown radius, re-fretted and given a low-sheen protective coating after filling the grain. Originally, the 3000 and 3001 basses had unfinished fretboards, but this leads to staining over a period of playing time, so STUDIO CALIFORNIA applies a coating that retains the unfinished look, but protects against staining.

Hardware was ultrasonically bathed overnight and reinstalled. Gareth himself did the reassembly and setup. The results, as I’ve said before, speak for themselves, with the thunderous voice that only short-scale basses possess!