Love Ozzy Man!
That’s ElectroBOOM at 1:15. He is the greatest electronics youtuber. Highly educational and extremely entertaining.
Haha, that guy lives precariously indeed - now I know why electronics is not for me ![]()
A friend gave me this lovely Ferandes J-Bass. It hadn’t been played for a long time but he said if I wanted to fix it up I could keep it. I’m curious if anyone has any experience with these? My understanding is they were made in Japan in the 70’s - 90’s. We don’t know the origins of this one and there is no serial number. It’s a heavy mother, could double as personal protection, and seems to be well made IMO.
I didn’t find anything majorly wrong with it, just needed some tlc: truss rod adjustment, fretboard oil, pots were noisy, strings, intonation, etc. I still have to change out the tuners and get a knob for the tone control but I’m really starting to dig this thing. I was planning to get pickups but I actually like the tone as is, has a pretty mean growl. I attached a minute of bastardized flea / geddy licks to give a flavor of what its like.
Before you change the pots, turn them back and forth stop to stop a few dozen times. They’re probably dusty AF.
As for the tuners, before you change them (unless you really want/need to) take them apart, clean them and give them a wee drop of some light machine oil, some original 3-in-1 or sewing machine oil. The screw on the gear may need a little tension adjustment.
To add to @MC-Canadastan comment. Try squirting a small amount of contact cleaner (Deoxit or an equivalent) in the pots. Then turn them back and forth quickly, it’s probably just dust/dirt/grime.
What?! A free Fernandes? That is awesome!
+1 to the above advice. Noisy pots are usually just dirty and are very easy to fix, often on their own, and if not then with some contact cleaner.
Thanks guys! I should’ve mentioned i did spray the pots with the @Barney magic deoxit, they are silent now. I’ll try digging a little more into the tuners, thanks @MC-Canadastan
That is a real score, I need better friends 
Awesome!
Fernandes makes good instruments- and they are still being made, didn’t end in the ‘90s. very sweet snag
The oil is important in the tuners… like in any geared mechanism. If you adjust the tension right, the oil not only protects against corrosion but also helps with the precision of the mechanism.
I just need friends ![]()
@Mac, if you give me a lightly used Fernandes, I will be your friend 



Hell, if you CALL me Fernandes, I’ll be your friend.
I’m easy.
And I like friends.
changing the bridge, because it really needed to …
and re-aligning the bridge with the neck. I had to move it about 3mm from the original placement, to obtain a nice string alignment. I used 2 elastic wires, in place of the external strings, to be able to see the alignment with a very low tension.
now the pickups are not aligned any more with the strings, and I will have to move a little bit the pickguard to follow the new bridge placement. first step, glueing toothpicks into all the screw holes !
That bridge can probably be salvaged. Would be a nice restoration project!
Yeah but the two saddle bridges are a pain to intonate
What happened to that bridge anyway
Was it left at the bottom of the ocean for a couple of years or something?





