T HELOWEN D
The Four R’s
Hello all and welcome back to The Low End. This month we’ll
begin exploring the four R’s of vintage-style basses: refins, relics,
replicas and reissues. But why are we going to look at the four R’s,
you ask? Well, let’s face it; vintage instrument prices have quite
frankly gotten out of hand for the average buyer. Thankfully, a non-
original vintage bass or vintage-style bass may satisfy what you are
looking for, without incurring the wrath of your spouse when the
from off-shore budget items to USA-built premium production line
items – when it comes to reissues, we’ll be covering the higher-end
instruments and skipping over the budget lines. When this series is
complete you will have enough knowledge to determine what item
is best for you and your wallet.
bill comes in. Over the course of this series, we will
explore some practical and viable alternatives that make
fiscal sense, as well as a tonal and/or visual statement.
To make our exploration as comprehensive as possible,
we’ll be focusing primarily on Fender-based instruments.
So while we all agree that $9000 is a lot of cash to plunk
down on a 1964 all-original Fender Jazz Bass, with some
alternatives, we might be able to save you up to 85 per-
cent of your money. But before we dig in, let’s discuss what each of
the four R’s represents.
A refin is the industry term for a refinished original item. A relic
can be one of two things: in the catalog sense, a relic is a factory-
built, higher-end copy of its original vintage item – these are sold
new with artificial wear. The term relic is also used for an artificial
aging process, but we won’t be discussing this in depth in this
series. A replica is a knock-off of the real thing but is assembled by
a professional luthier or firm – these basses are of a higher quality
than a “parts” bass and most often only use licensed pieces. The
last R is the reissue, which is nothing more than a bass made by
the original factory which emulates the real deal. These can range
Refins
Refinished basses fall into three categories:
1. Body-only refins,
2. Complete refins of the entire instrument or
3. Either 1 or 2 with changed parts.
As a player, I love refins. They are real deal vintage instruments, the
price point satisfies my wallet, they tonally satisfy my requirements
and if they get banged up on a gig, it’s not an original item that
just got devaluated. I personally play a couple of body-only refin
basses with all original parts, and a lot of pros do too. There’s a
major player and a terrific cat in NYC named Seth Glassman (seth-
glassman.com). His resume is to die for, including his current gig
