PRE-EPAY 3-DAY SPECIAL: $2000 plus shipping PRICE DROP to $2150 Shipped CONUS
This is one of the coolest basses I've ever been around, and it pains me that we are not bonding but it is what it is, and so it's for sale. Stick around for the story, and for pictures and history, check out:
MobileMe Gallery F/S F/T Lakland 55 Deluxe from Bass Player Mag. 1997
This Lakland 55-94 sports serial number 5030, and is reportedly the 30th 55-94 ever built. The story is that the insane birdseye maple fingerboard comes from floorboards salvaged from demolition of an old house in the family of luthier Hugh McFarland (the "land" in "Lakland"). The bass is a bluish teal, with a great quilted maple top over a light ash body.
The next chapter is this bass having been reviewed in the famous Bass Player 5-string shootout of 1997. The bass garnered great reviews, and you can see a picture of it in the magazine (which will accompany your purchase).
From there, we hop to the San Francisco Bay, where a bassist used this axe to lay the bass parts for some number of video games, including Guitar Hero...so you KNOW this bass can cover a wide range of rock styles in a righteous manner!
Next, we have this bass floating around Southern California, and I believe it is at this time that the electronics are revised; Nordstrand pickups and an Aguilar OPB-3 preamp.
Not entirely certain of the chain after that, but then off to Ohio, and now back to southern California in my hands.
So what does it look and play like? It has genuine player wear - small dings and swirls in the body (the photos show the single worst ding), and some discoloration in the neck. But the way I see it, all of that mojo demonstrates that this is a great bass, played regularly, rather than something that looks cool but doesn't perform that well and therefore ends up in a closet.
The playability is unreal. Fast neck, low action, uniform tone across the board, very, very comfortable. The sound is killer. I've spent time with 4-94's with the old Bartolini and the new LH-3 electronics, but I'd take this Nordstrand/Aguilar package over those in a minute. More organic, and more open sounding when you dial in the treble. Wide open, this axe is a real beast. As for weight, I only have a crappy bathroom scale, but I'm confident it's between 8 and 8.5 pounds.
So if it is so cool, then why am I selling it? A few things - primarily, I'm not digging the 35" scale, I'm not digging the MM/J pickups, and when it comes to fingerboards, I'm a rosewood or ebony kind of guy. But thousands of you out there play MM/J or 35" scale or maple boards, so this is some subjective stuff.
Bass will come with a great
Body Glove gig bag in good condition, and will be well-packed.
So own a piece of bass history that has some collector cache, but is also a highly functional instrument that has seen high-end usage for a very good reason - it rocks!
Asking $2300 shipped CONUS. Price drop to $2150 Shipped CONUS. SPECIAL 3-day pricing: $2000 plus shipping. After that, it's ebay, baby!
Sorry, no trades; please don't feel dissed if I don't respond to trade offers.
