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Thought this was interesting...only seen one other "vintage" short scale bass in the flesh...and I've owned that one for 20+yrs! Found this baby at a fellow junkie's house, he was tired of it, so I get have some fun. AFAIK it's almost all original, just missing the finger rest from the pickguard and the nut was changed recently. There's precious little info on the "President" brand. So little, on the first page of google searches - a GFSA thread stands out! My educated guess is that it was made under the Teisco brand, re-badged as President. Some searching of Teisco produced basses turns up : Pickup(s) on their short scale basses (Teisco/Beltone/Kimberly/Melodier/Kingston/Lero) that are identical to what is in this one. Apparently a copy of a Hofner two coil design...in a single coil variant. Pickup & Paint on a "Global" is identical to the President. Same for the bridge cover & screws. Neck, headstock and binding look pretty similar too And finally, the tuners are identical to the ones on the Yahama Flying Samurai bass. First job, get everything working 100%. Tuners desperately needed a refurb, felt rather gritty, a tad vague and one or two keys are a little bent, but they straightened out easily enough. A degrease, some fresh lube and they're good for another 40+yrs! The pup works (6.5k) but was sounding a bit sick - but checking the wiring reveals a bit of a hack, both pot operating as volume's, with a cap in the oddest place. Reckon that wiring it up as a vol/tone should sort it out...I have a plan B in case it doesn't 8) Neck is solid, some fret wear, but these frets were low from the factory. The truss adjusts fine too. Binding on the neck feels like deluxe touch, though it is a bit wavy on the one side of the neck as it approaches the zero fret (Yes, it has a zero fret!). Fingerboard is a pretty piece of rosewood, interestingly neck looks like mahogany instead of maple. Body is laminated plywood, many, many layers of it - but reasonably light and feels solid. Guitars of this era where apparently mahogany ply - not sure about that. Paint was touched up before I got it. Wish they hadn't, I reckon the roadworn look will suit this one, so I'm undo the touch-ups and see what we find. I'm not going to re-finish it - there's much mojo lurking in this one =D. The bridge is ugly. Like wow. Properly ugly. This definitely reveals this babies budget roots...Two saddle (ack!) on a pressed steel plate. The intonation screws were stripped (and a imperial/british thread) so that was fun to find. Took some convincing at the bolt and nut shop that they had some. I was more convinced than they were, eventually they dug up a stash for me. The saddle height screws look crappy and get in the way of palm muting with the cover off - I would replace with grub screws, but...imperial thread again! Still debating re-tapping the saddle threads for metric. Tempted to replace the bridge with something else, but the bass is all original - so I'll keep it that way for now. If it becomes a daily player, replacing the bridge would be a good idea. Unfortunately I've been man down for the past week, so I have made zero progress since last weekend - hoping to have it up and playing by this time next week!
6 days later
After a bit of elbow grease, it's a playable President 8) Turns out the knobs were Ibanez 'soft touch', looked good, but I thought jazz bass style looked better. Undid some of the touch-ups - the ply is definitely mahogany and -imho- looks great revealed. The edge of the body got slightly rolled for comfort so it doesn't dig into the right forearm. Works quite nicely! It plays, though it needs another round of work to dial in a setup. I only had a set of old strings, so kinda pointless spending too much time now trying to get action & intonation. When I find some strings I'll spend some more time on it. Still a few things to do : Pup works fine now it's rewired, not a bad sound, vintage single coil-y vibes. Alas, it is microphonic - not a train smash, options are to leave it as a vintage vibe, get it re-wound and potted or slap in a Dimarzio Chopper I've been hanging onto. One tuner is still a tad sloppy, works okay-ish - but let's see if I can improve on it. Bridge...umm, under the corrosion and crap lurked brass saddles! Very cool touch, but I'm still struggling to figure out how I'm gonna solve the height adjustment without having the height adjustment screws digging into the palm - I've used a set I found, cut them down & temporarily flipped them under the bridge - it works - kinda. Might have to get it re-threaded for metric grub screws. And that's it for now, think I'll have a chance to spend some more time later this week with some fresh strings!
Nice job! I like the exposed ply on the lower bout.

Can you not pot the pickup yourself if the cover can be removed?
    Very cool, always loved the look of those older mijs. You've done a great job on it.
      peterleroux wrote: Nice job! I like the exposed ply on the lower bout.

      Can you not pot the pickup yourself if the cover can be removed?
      Thanks! Wizard was to 'blame' for the finish, he inspired me with his awesome natural wood finishes and he gave me a bunch of nifty polishing pads (180-600gr) that makes life sooooo much easier.

      Great idea Peter - I hadn't thought of doing a DIY potting - for some reason I thought it was a rewind and a potting exercise But you are right, this is something I could DIY. You inspired me to get some reading done, seems these pups were marked 'mic' on the old schematics! Apparently the glue they used dries out, which accentuates the mic-i-ness.

      What I thought was a bit odd was that the cover was very microphonic, tapping on other places on the bass didn't yield as much noise as I expected (in comparison the SS Cort is horrific, it's basically one giant mic). So maybe I just need to attend to the cover. We'll see.

      Now to figure out how to get the cover off without destroying the pup - I did have a quick look when I took it apart, it looked fairly well attached. Sure there is a trick I need to figure out.
      studmissile wrote: Very cool, always loved the look of those older mijs. You've done a great job on it.
      Thanks - It does look legit with the ashtray cover on it 8) The three part scratch plate is a bit odd at first, but it's growing on me!
      2 months later
      Been a bit quiet - I parked this for a while, until I got motivated again. After carefully popping open the pickup, fixing the case grounding issue and the broken bar magnet (bizarre!), the pup still didn't sound all that great in the bass. I was VeRy nervous about potting the pickup - but Peter got me thinking and from what I read it was something to try. There were a few links, though not every encouraging for the old japanese style pups, apparently the bobbins (the red bit in the photo) can melt in the hot wax. When I had a good look at the pup, the tape around the bobbin was clearly keeping the windings together and so sticky, I'd wreck the pup trying to get it off - so the plan to pot only the bobbin was scraped - If I removed the tape, it was highly likely that I was going to break the windings. So, I put the pup back together and potted the whole thing in one go. I'd seen someone else do this for a Teisco guitar pup, so why not? After two days of swearing and another day of cleaning up the kitchen. I can honestly say...not my skill set. The mess was astounding - so much so that taking pics was impossible. Not a lot of wax seemed to get into the pup - but there is a distinct difference in the tone. It's still microphonic, but in a 'nice' way. The harsh clunk that you'd get when slapping is now gone. It's now a sweet single coil tone, really lovely and bright. Am I imagining it? Possibly. But I doubt it, this bass now sounds really good, and all the junkies agree too. Only the pup was potted, I'm using the same wiring and the same old strings, so somehow something went right...There are quite a few parts in the pup, so perhaps closing up the gaps between them and damping the vibrations as well did something magic. I'm guessing here! I also got around to re-tapping the bridge for metric grub screws and dialled in a second setup. It's playing well, but with one or two high frets. Sort that and one more setup with new strings will get us a sweeeeet playing slap-happy short scale bass. Looking like another keeper...*sigh*
        a month later
        I only saw this now, very very cool! Short scales are awesome!
          guidothepimmp wrote: Nice save

          Well done
          G-Man wrote: I only saw this now, very very cool! Short scales are awesome!
          Thanks guys - this one found a new home over Xmas, a young lady just beginning her bass journey. Hope she has as much fun as I did 8)

          Did have one last jam through a Fender Rumble 200 using it's onboard distortion, it sounded even better than the cleans! But my SS Cort was a better all round player (if 1/100th as sexy) and I'm funding a giggable bass amp - Needs <> Wants :'(
            3 years later

            Hey bud really cool old President bass. Iā€™m so glad to finally find another President instrument. It almost has a Burns look to it.

            LOL......not much to those pickups. I reckon my President guitar pickups must have looked just like that.

              10 months later

              A nostalgic bump, not because I miss this one - it wasn't my playing flavour. But I still really, really dig the way the ply looks 'reliced' with the sunburst and old parts. Easily the most restrained 'relicing' I've done šŸ˜›

              The bridge is a chuckle - just a flat piece that got bent, drill a few holes and hey presto - a bridge plate.

                That ply does look great, also had a giggle at the bridge. Got to love the simplicity of that. Makes you feel like you can just throw it together in the garage!

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