It kills me to sell this, and makes me slightly ill thinking about how much money I've invested in it, but every now and then you just have to cut your losses in the name of G.A.S.
What we have here began her life as an early 90s (1991 I believe) Ibanez EX series bass. She was a beater, and the frets had been taken out without too much care. I decided to play Henry Higgins and turn her into a lady - in this case, a true black 'n gold beauty. First step, sent her to Pat Wilkins to have something done about the fretboard. He filled the gaps, sanded it down, I think may have even stained it a darker brown, and then coated it in a glorious crystal-clear hard polyester. By far the smoothest, most even, toughest clear-coat I've seen on a fretless board.
I sent the body to him later, it was badly beat up and had a whole section of wood loose by the jack. He took care of everything and refinished it in a perfect gloss black. The body now is probably better than it ever was as a new bass.
Last thing to do was take care of that pesky pointy headstock and ugly white Ibanez logo. Pat shaved off the tip of the headstock, put some finish over the bare part, and painted over the logo. It looks much better now, in my opinion.
The original pickups had to go, and what we have in there now are some of my favorite pickups in the world - a DiMarzio model P and a DiMarzio model J. I changed all the hardware, down to the pickup mounting screws, jack, and neckplate, with gold. The tuners are Wilkinson style (will also fit Gotoh GB7s). The bridge is Gotoh. The straplocks are Schaller. The knobs are Qparts - gold with black pearloid caps. I added a brass nut for extra sonic zing, but also to complete the "gold" look. She is currently strung with heavy gauge Ernie Ball flatwounds.
A few very minor issues:
Minor marking here and there in the fretboard (it happens to even the toughest fretboards) but I'm confident this board will last MANY years even with roundwounds (I just put flats on it because I feel like a fretless should have flats.) She hasn't been played very much since the polyester coating was put on, and the "new version" of the bass has NEVER been gigged (I'm too timid to play fretless at band practice let alone in front of an audience!
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The original fret grooves are very faintly visible in places. I actually found this to be helpful - it let me cheat "just enough" with my intonation without throwing me off or misleading me.
There is no truss rod cover but I'm sure one could easily be obtained-I just never got around to it.
She's all passive, great action, a great player as well as a looker. I've got near a grand invested in this bass (all the Wilkins work alone was $500 total) but I've got my eye on another fretless so this will need to go.
$475 shipped in a decent gig bag to the lower 48 continental USA. Money order and Paypal fine.
Some pics below.
More pics available here.
