Cleaning and Sticker Bombing a "Used" Bass Guitar
At a band jam, I ran into a guy who offered to sell me a "used" bass. He explained that he'd bought it for his son right before he joined the military and left. Since then it had just been sitting unused. He even threw in a really nice 25-watt Fender amp, all for only $100! The bass was practically untouched, showing very little sign of use. It even had most of the protective plastic coverings still on it—the kind you usually only get to peel off a brand new instrument. Even the tuning pegs still had their protective plastic on them! (I later discovered the little round string retainer was broken, but more on that later.) This is a shot before I started working on it. I set up a folding table and began a careful inspection. While the bass was clearly barely used, it had definitely been in storage for quite a while. Based on the serial number, I'd guess it was manufactured around 2018 (6 years old?). It was probably tucked away in a garage or closet all this time, bec...