Since I already have two fine Fender basses to play I should never check Craigslist for good deals on fine cheap instruments. But I do. Drove some miles out to Elverta, California, to buy this short scale, lightweight Ibanez GIO student bass for $65 USD.

It’s mighty pretty, even covered with decades of dust, dirt and dings. Love that sapphirey blue, if that is a word.

Might be the original strings from the 1990s for all I know. They look and sound bad enough.


I love too the simplicity and minimalism of one humbucking pickup, one volume control and one weird old tone switch. Not versatile but I’m such a baby bassman I’ve got to keep it simple. Plenty of time for controls after I learn the lines for Dazed and Confused, Under Pressure and Seven Nation Army. (Hint: not soon.)

Call it a ‘bolt-on’ neck but half the time it’s wood screws.

Normal wear and tear for an old student bass guitar. Bothers me not at all. You’d pay big bucks for that damage on a new ‘road worn’ Fender from the custom shop.


Naturally, just about everything needs repair, replacement or adjustment but, heh, 65 simoleons for a (sort of) working bass? Besides, to me fixing it up and making it mine is part of the fun. Don’t you love a painted headstock?

Machine heads are pretty inexpensive to replace but I may go mondo cheap and try disassembly, cleaning and lubrication on them. They still grudgingly operate.
Typical maple neck with rosewood fretboard (UK: fingerboard?), probably agathis wood solid body. Dots no doubt ‘mother of plastic’.

Horrible fret buzz on the A string because the neck is dead straight; strings are shot; all screws and nuts and fittings are loose; tuners walkin’ wid a limp; covered with soil and scruff, mung and drool. I love it.

Other than that it’s beautiful and sounds great (soon). Now it’s time to carefully crack my miser’s wallet for new strings and (maybe!) new machine heads for the lowest price I can find on the worldwide web of lies. My motto? ‘Nothing but the good enough for me and my family’.
Ciao!

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