I am having second doubts about selling this, but I'm going to try one more time.
For a long time I wanted a 70s Jazz, and I wanted root beer brown. I got my wish, but lately I've been playing my American Deluxe Jazz and my Wilkins custom P/J more, and I have a Stambaugh on order...so this beauty has not been receiving the playtime she deserves.
This bass is not completely original, but all the upgrades were done in the interest of making her the best looking and best sounding Jazz bass possible.
The body is likely Northern Ash as it is rather heavy (the whole bass weighs around 11 lbs on my crummy bathroom scale.) When I got her it was stripped to natural with some sort of clear coating ("fullerplast") over it. I had Pat Wilkins do a total refinish in Root Beer Brown (which has a slight reddish cast in certain light.) I then added an Audere Jazz-plate style preamp. She was routed for a battery box and had a Badass bridge when I got her. Pickups are original as far as I know, as is the pickguard I believe. Neck is all original - BUT - I had Wilkins convert it from a 3 bolt neck to a 4-bolt neck.
The neck has a natural flamed maple to the back, very cool looking, nice aged headstock, and pearl block inlays. Like I said, I had it converted to a 4-bolt, so it should fit a standard Fender neck pocket. The neck is in very good shape, with only a few dings here and there. Comes with original chrome tuners which are
amazingly shiny given their age.
I do not have the original neck plate or control plate/pots - both sold a long time ago. I don't have the ashtray covers - I put little screws in the holes where they were supposed to go. I added a rosewood thumbrest which I never use but looks kind of cool.
A couple things:
1. At some point, it will be due a refret (depends on how hard you play). The frets do have some life left, and I have TI Jazz flatwounds on it now. It plays very well, but it's also 32 years old, and the frets have clearly been leveled in the past. The creme binding shows a little wear but looks in pretty good shape, especially for its age.
2. I sanded down the back of the neck to make it smoother. I applied a little liquid wax to give it a sheen but that could be taken off. It originally had a thick gloss. If you want the thick gloss back, you'd have to refinish it. I like the way it feels now but everybody has different neck preferences.
3. Some of the preamp knobs "dip" slightly when turned. I wasn't able to figure out how to fix this, so I left it alone. Does not affect anything about the tone or functionality of the bass.
Bass will come with with Schaller strap locks installed and I can throw in a Planet Waves strap if you want it. It also comes with the case pictured (a Fender vintage case reissue.)
These generally go for $2000-$2500 even without all the original parts. I've even seen Japanese re-issues going for as much as $2000. For this beauty, I'll take
$1825 shipped or best offer - lower 48 - with the hard case. Paypal is fine as is a money order. I would CONSIDER overseas but you'll have to pay actual shipping and get the bass in two pieces.
I reserve the right to come to my senses and pull this thread at any time!
Trade bait to consider:
-Custom basses, esp. neck-through 5ers - will consider set-neck or neck-through 4 or 5-string basses
-I like exotic woods (macassar ebony, bubinga, purpleheart, bloodwood, pau ferro, kingwood, ziricote, birdseye maple, padouk, bocote, ipe, etc etc) especially fretboards
-MAYBE an 80s or 90s reissue (Japanese or American) of this same bass - pearl blocks only, please...I'm just not a fan of black block inlays
-Run
anything by me - the worst I can say is "no thanks."
And the pics...
Case is a reissue but looks awesome. Couple of scuffs that could be buffed out and I think one minor tear.
You can see the ash grain through the transparent brown finish:
Nice fretboard with binding, pearl block inlays, and natural figuring in the maple:
Nice aged headstock, tuners are STILL shiny, and you can see some of the flame pattern:
Four bolt conversion. Small dark spot right below neck plate is a little flaw in the wood that resulted from the conversion. Feels perfectly smoothy and not very noticeable but just want to give full disclosure. That thing that looks like a scratch on the right side is just a trick of the light. The finish is basically flawless.
Nice grain here. That's another trick of the light on the right cutaway - not a scratch. You can see the dark spot below the neckplate better here. A couple tiny finish scratches in the clear coat here and there. The refinish is only a year old so it's pretty close to perfect.
Tried to get the flame in the maple neck, didn't turn out that well in pics:
More neck:
