I’d spend a couple hundred bucks on a plek service and setup usually they come together as a package. Getting fret work done would significantly improve feel and playability.
The pickup looks great though I prefer split pickups for less noise.
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This^^^
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I’ll have to check if plek is available here @Al1885 but it is something that I hadn’t considered.
Until now that is
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If your neck’s fret height is at all suspect, PLEK is the way to make sure it’s right.
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Is it just the third picture, or is that bridge mounted with a slight left-hand twist? It could just be the photo. Maybe I’m seeing things.
But it’s a great bass. If it feels good and plays good, that a big win.
Before committing a bass with unknown fret wear to a plek or fret job, I would first spend $10 on a Fret Rocker (I like MusicNomad’s) and see if you have a fret problem to begin with.
Easy, takes like 10 mins. Just make sure to adjust your neck relief flat first. You don’t have to remove the neck, don’t worry.
If you have one or a few high frets this is easy to fix yourself too, with the proper fret file. I have done it.
Personally I would only PLEK or pay for a levelling if I needed a full fret job. YMMV.
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Its my sh*t photography skills @autumnsdad1990 
I’ll keep that in mind @howard . I’ve already hit issues with getting it plekked here .
The easiest way is a 3 1/2 hr drive and $400 !
Can’t courier it as no reliable service is available under $300 plus insurance.
And………everything is on hold life-wise as we’ve been put on a higher risk fire alert for the for the foreseeable future and I have to be available 
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I have this tool and I really like it. The shape is cut so the edges work perfectly as fret rockers.
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A little thread restoration is in order (for me).
@Mac that bass looks fantastic, and if as others have intimated, it’s got some serious value, I’d leave well alone. Given that you say it plays so well, that adds to the likelihood that its a good’un, and worth 1,000s, but you enjoy playing it so why change it?
I was eyeing up a similar Fender locally for about the same sort of money, but it’s not go the age of yours and seems to be bang-on the money (for now). I was tempted to buy it as an investment, but for now I’d better sort the Hofner.
I’m so jealous that you got a mid '70s Fender in original patina (with legit upgrades), and myself, I’d be more inclined to restore the originality. That’s another discussion though.
Talking of which…
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… ORIGINALITY vs FUNCTIONALITY?
My own project vintage bass is, as far as I can tell, totally orginal in its '63 form - I swear the strings are the originals too so I’m well pissed off that I snapped the E.
I have just had the pickups rewound & potted but kept in otherwise original condition, and my thinking is that it needed to be repaired anyway and it’s a totally legitimate repair that could’ve been done before anyway.
The pots are original too, but they’re in a bad way and although they do work, they’re stiff and uneven. I’m currently considering replacing them with modern pots for the functional aspect, and keeping the '63s with the bass for a future owner or project.
What do people consider the main driver in a resto; original or functional?
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On Tom Bukovac’s fabulous YouTube channel (which I’ve watched from the early days) he refers to any heavily modified guitar as a ‘chopper’. He’s not disparaging about it, he just sees guitars as tools to make music.
He’s a long time Nashville session musician and he freely admits that if the frets are too worn on vintage guitars he gets them re-fretted.
His attitude is first and foremost it has to play. He swapped out the bridge on that 1959 LP Junior.
I’m of the same mind. It’s a tool for making music.
Swap out those crappy pots and let that bass join the 21st century.
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Oh, it has to be playable, above all else, otherwise it’s a wall ornament. But should it play better than it did when designed/made, or just the same?
Luckily my bass isn’t a high price item - maybe £1,000 on a good day in fully vintage condition with only essential interventions - so I can go a little further than I would if it were a '75 Fender Jazz, but I also like the notion of a fully original item. I’m torn between the desire to tinker and the compulsion to keep intact.
If I stripped it for parts it’s worth more right now.
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I know ‘normal’ acoustic stringed instruments are generally reckoned to improve with age (at least half decent ones!) but is the same true of electric instruments? My suspicion is that they aren’t as I understand the improvement in acoustic ones is largely down to the ageing of the soundbox wood and finish coating.
Just curious.
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There are probably changes happening in the structure of the wooden parts, but to what point do they affect the sound? Ready to discuss tone wood? 
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Here’s the thread 
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My take is there’s no value in maintaining old and obsolete when you can improve it, unless it’s basically just a collector’s piece or a valuable rare item, in which case I would still upgrade it but keep all the old parts just in case. That’s what I did with my SBV-800MF.
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There is often a tendency to idolise old over new for little justifiable reason. I love old motorbikes and cars for the feel of them, but, when it comes to riding/driving them, there is simply no comparison over the modern equivalent. I used to own an old Matchless but if you forgot to pull in the manual advance/retard or simply didn’t kick it over with sufficient conviction it could easily send you over the handlebars, possibly with a broken leg as a bonus.
I love the aesthetics of old but I love the functionality of new!
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I used to own an old Matchless but if you forgot to pull in the manual advance/retard or simply didn’t kick it over with sufficient conviction it could easily send you over the handlebars, possibly with a broken leg as a bonus.
It’s just as well vintage whammy bars aren’t like that or there would be far fewer guitarists in the world…
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