I'm 100% in favor of restoring an instrument to playing condition so it can be enjoyed and experienced as intended, and 100% against ever having one locked up in a trophy case. The finest Stradivari violins need to be played, and a racehorse has got to run.
I remember feeling the same way a couple years ago when RT had the Osage Orange "Mission Control" bass in for "restoration" and had similar plans for its electronics. It ended up at Gruhn's in Nashville with all the woodwork complete but nothing else (at least nothing apparent) done. Maybe we'll see the next chapter of that one unfold here someday.
First of all on #72-001, what exactly needs restoration? Most accounts I've read suggest that bass was a work-in-progress from day one. The installed electronics in the above picture are configured like more modern Series electronics, and they definitely are not the ones in older pictures of that bass, so the pickguards have already been swapped out at least once. The bridge also appears to be the more modern type. So that bass has already been altered several times, making originality to 1972 specs much less of an issue. It looks to be intact structurally, at least enough to hold strings, though hard to tell specifics without more detailed pictures. So what needs fixing here?
I wouldn't want to speak out of turn, since whoever has #001 can obviously do what they wish, but it seems to me the folks to restore the preamps and filters are a lot closer to RT than England. It's a shame circumstances are such they can't work together on this one, given the significance. That's about as diplomatic as I can put things, and not open any old wounds.
I remain an interested reader.
[moderator's edit: corrected dates by request]
