Blue Sparkle Sterling: Labour Of Love

When I saw this on eBay, it looked extremely nasty...like biohazard kind of nasty. The fingerboard was gunked up badly, one tuner was broken off, there was rust around the pickup...but it was blue sparkle, so I put in a reasonably low bid and had no expectation of winning. Apparently, the hazardous gunk scared off the other bidders, though, and I got the bass.t e.

See? I'm not kidding. I don't think this fingerboard had ever been wiped down, much less cleaned. Given the condition, I tend to believe the prior owner was a sweaty, nasty punk rocker.

Underneath all the biohazardous gunk, there lurked a still beautiful rosewood board. It took me two hours just to get it clean, then I gave it a Dunlop Cleaning treatment followed by some conditioner.

I initially thought these were stains and I'd have to sand the neck a bit to get them off. I think it was barbecue sauce, but in any case, it came off with some cleaner.

Cleaned up and looking much better, although those are some sad tuners.

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You think he was a sweaty bastard? You think he owned a cleaning cloth? You think he took baths? You think this thing wasn't nasty?   Luckily, the electronics were in great shape except the output jack, which was a quick fix. By the way, the seller didn't mention the fact that the bass was more or less encased in shit. I knew from the photos that it was going to be a clean-up job, but he might have mentioned certain aspects, heh heh. Nonetheless, after a bit of work and some spare parts from Jon in Repairadise, the bass is working fine, playing great and looking pretty damned good, I think. Photos of the cleaned up bass below....

It's been a long time since I've had a Sterling and I had forgotten what great basses these are. The different magnets make then a little more mid-range heavy than the Stingray and maybe even have more growl. The neck is slim and fast, one of the best - if not THE best - production necks on the planet. Arrived at Camp Bovine in June of 2006.t HOME