I had this bass for sale a couple months back to raise some quick money to recover my broken hard drive, but couldn't bring myself to sell it then. In the meantime, I've been trying to start a project that is calling for a more modern/thin/snappy tone that neither of my basses really pulls off very well (kinda the opposite of my tonal goals for the last 10 years!). Unfortunately, I can't really afford to own more than two basses and my G&L L2000 has proven to be slightly less expendable than this one...
This is kinda a "feeler" since I'll never be able to replace this bass, but I think I may be ready to let it go for a certain bass in the classifieds (or the right trade). I am looking for $750 shipped, but I may still decide to keep it if the bass I'm looking at goes before mine!
As far as trades, I am mostly interested in the right Jazz bass with maple or ebony fretboard, G&L El Toro's or possibly SB-2s, Rickenbackers, or feel free to try me with other trades (it'll have to be pretty sweet to trade for this bass though!)
Anyway- this is one of my two remaining "keepers", both of which are the result of some years of experimentation and modification. It started life as a killer example of a '70s Ibanez Jazz Bass copy with some dead electronics.
More pictures:
http://s129.photobucket.com/albums/p...t/Jazz%20Bass/
Modifications that have been done-
-Darkstar pickups routed for, shielded, and installed by TB'er Rodent of Regenerate Guitar Works
-New custom black pickguard and bridge pickup trim ring made by Jeannie Pickguards
-New matching black truss rod cover made by Rodent
-Custom ebony thumbrest made by Rodent (never screw installed and not pictured)
-Badass II pre-slotted bridge installed
-Custom passive electronics/ new black control plate installed by me
Electronics setup now has:
-seperate volumes for each pickup
-master tone pot with "no load" modification that pulls it out of the circuit when fully up
-master passive bass cut pot (ala G&L L2000)- this and the tone are on a stacked pot
-series/ parallel switch (puts the two pickups in series)
-"single coil with bass boost switch"- with the pickups in "series", this switch cuts the highs from the neck pickup, giving a tone similar to the bridge pickup but with massive additional low end (this idea was also borrowed from G&L via the older era L2000 schematics)
-passive low cut switch for the bridge pickup (this also works on the entire signal when in "series" or "single coil with bass boost")
-It will come with the original tort pickguard and possibly the original bridge and pickups if I can track those down!
This bass has an amazingly comfortable and swift neck- it has the standard Jazz 1 1/2" nut width, but with a profile unlike any Fender I've tried- thinner than most, but not as thin as the Geddy Lee's I've tried (which seemed too thin for me). It is also capable of lower action than any of the other basses I've had to compare it with, including a handful of G&Ls. For some reason, it's been the only bass that I can play TI Flats on without sounding incredibly sloppy. All in all, it just plays like butter- even better than my L2000.
I have owned and played on a handful of vintage Ibanez's, and they have never ceased to amaze me in tone and playability, but they've usually made up for it in weight- my old Ibanez Studio bass must have been 12 pounds or more. This bass, on the other hand, is very manageable. I have never had it weighed, but I would guess around 9 pounds (it is definitely lighter than any of the other basses I have owned since I got it).
The sound on this thing has a pretty wide range- single the neck pickup and get a very full range and refined P-bass tone, single the bridge for a smooth Jazz tone with bark when you dig in. The series settings go from massive to massively aggressive (when you hit the "single coil with bass boost" switch), and probably have some of the hugest dubby low end you could dial in direct from a passive bass. The bass cut pot can help tame some of the boomier settings (which was sometimes an issue for me before installing it), and the bass cut switch for the bridge pickup can really help focus the tone to the highs and high mids to add some bite (though that smooth bottom is always there).
Darkstars really are some killer pickups- unlike other high output passive pickups that tend to sound muffled or overly low-midrange driven, these pickups retain an amazing depth and clear high end. I have always loved the old Jefferson Airplane bass tones, and these pickups really have that articulation.
The Darkstars can be EXTREMELY sensitive to dynamic changes, which was especially noticeable when I had an Audere preamp in this bass (a great hi-fi combo once I got acclimated, but I missed the sweet passive drive). Even with the passive electronics, they have forced me to play more evenly, and the reward is that the available range of dynamics is beyond anything else I've ever tried.
These are the only recordings I have with these pickups until I get my hard drive files back:
http://www.athomeonthestreet.com/Soundtrack.html
*Disclaimer- these were all thrown together a little too quickly and recorded "live" in the studio for a film soundtrack 3 years ago, and I am not particularly proud of how they came out (I believe the Audere pre may have still been in the bass- can't recall for sure, and I wasn't really accustomed to the touch sensitive nature of the pickups yet!), but they are the only recordings of this bass that I know of currently living on the internet- the 3rd movement came out the best in my opinion*
If there is any interest, I'll try to throw together some better recordings of all the different pickup settings when I can find some time.
Thanks and feel free to ask questions!
