Why Must I Tinker?

 Eleven sobering days have passed, and we have made some progress! I don't mean to be nostalgic, but do you remember when you could adjust your little rabbit ear antennae, tap the side of the television, and scroll from channel 2 to 13 and see somewhere between two to five NFL games on any given weekend? Now, even if you have cable (we don't) you have to subscribe to this or that streaming service for every separate game. (Grumble grumble grumpy old Gen Xer!) So I am having my own wildcard game with the ol' Harmony H-805. Here are the finalists who have made the playoffs: Original bridge Vs. stock Fender bridge from my Mustang bass. Original string tee with no string slots Vs. Silly Stew-mac roller tee. The headstock and tuners cleaned up pretty nicely, I must say. I'll go ahead and tell you, the roller bolted right on and won by a safety. And in the toughest division, Original Pickup, if it works (which also has a new sparkle) Vs. Active EMG 35-DC pickup Vs. EMG passiv...

 Before diving into the details, I just want to stress how wonderfully dirty this bass was. It even carried a mildew-type odor reminiscent of my mother's annually flooded basement. I dove in with some Simple Green and a rag, wondering how many of my old buds have picked this thing up and fiddled with it over the years as they jammed or recorded in Josh's studio. How many beers have been spilled upon thee? How much cigarette smoke has encircled thee? Some of you may think that it is wrong to clean off years of "mojo." Well, that's because you've never smelled my friends' mojo! I'm not singling anyone out, Doug. Let's start at the body and work our way to the tuners. Strap button is loose. Haven't tested the threads yet.  The bridge. The bridge! It's rusty, but actually has some height and string length adjustment to it. The Harmony six-stringer was a bridge/ashtray in one. This used to have a proprietary bolt on ashtray, which is missing. Th...