1981 Ibanez Musician AJ10 Alphonso Johnson signature model (1/2 fretless)

[four2oh]

no, your not trippin'
it's fretted the first 12 steps, fretless for the 2nd octave!




just added this to my family today, by way of that internet adoption agency by the bay, but lucky for me the seller was local and willing to cut a deal for a fellow GAS-sufferer



Someone on another forum did some research a few years ago when one of these popped up on ebay in 2006, so i'll just repost they found:

The first of those was made for Alphonso Johnson in 1979. According to Jim Donahue there were made 3 more in 1980 and 1983. The one on Ebay and another AJ10 I once owned were made in 1981, although JD had no info about any of those being made that year. So there seem to be only 6 of them reported to be existing so far.
...
I couldn't find any pictures of Alphonso playing his AJ10 and I'm afraid he didn't use that bass very often. After JD told me the facts, I did some research and found AJ's website. He seemed very accessible and answered people's questions on his forum personally so I decided to contact him to ask for some infos about his Ibanez Signature model. He kindly replied that he unfortunately doesn't own that bass anymore and also said that it was difficult to play with good intonation and that he wasn't too happy with the overall sound.

well i figure if i can get decent intonation outta that crazy 2-string washtub bass of mine, this should be problem.. and it isn't! plays like butter, so smooth! it's just kinda weird... so it fits well with the rest of my family of instruments.



Mmmm Lots of Knobs... 3-Band Active EQ on-board

[a_ribbon]

whoa... that looks awesome.

how does it play?

methinks someone should post sound clips.

[Marcury]

Very cool.

[four2oh]

i'll try and get some clips up tomorrow

[four2oh]

anyone have a recommendation on flats that sound good on fretted as well as fretless? (been playing rounds for so long, that i haven't a clue whats good these days in the flats world)

[Marcury]

Originally Posted by four2oh

anyone have a recommendation on flats that sound good on fretted as well as fretless? (been playing rounds for so long, that i haven't a clue whats good these days in the flats world)

One word: Tapewounds. I'm partial to LaBella and Rotosounds.

[MAGUS®]

You might think about trying the Dean Markley Fretmasters - weird strings that are flats over the fretboard, but roundwound where you finger/pick

http://www.stringitup.com/deanmarfretl.html

[Chef]

Wow! That is very, very cool
"Unique Bass of the Week!"

I saw AJ back then in Lucern Switzerland, playing with the George Duke/Billy Cobham band. I have no idea what bass he was playing, but he was really damn good with it

[3toes]

Man, thats awesome. Impatiently awaiting soundclips

[Buskman]

Originally Posted by MAGUS®

You might think about trying the Dean Markley Fretmasters - weird strings that are flats over the fretboard, but roundwound where you finger/pick

http://www.stringitup.com/deanmarfretl.html

+1 to these...

Very cool/unique bass. Nice score!

[four2oh]

Looks like it's pretty much the MC 924 specs but with the crazy fretboard:

MC924 Specs
Body
Length 1130mm (44.5")
Width 340mm (13 1/3")
Depth 45mm (1.75")
ASH

Neck
Scale 34"
Nut 40mm Bone
22nd 62mm
Radius 300R
24 Frets
Fingerboard Ebony
Inlay Abalone Dot
Neck Thru

Hardware
Accu Cast B Bass Bridge
Velve Tune BII Machine Heads

Electronics
Pickups P5 neck J5 Bridge (Very Large pickups)
3 band EQ
1 Volume 1Tone 1 Ballancer

[Seifert Gage]

Bought it in a Pawn Shop in Berkeley Cali a few maybe 6 years ago..Couldnt believe my eyes and when I got it home the pickups sounded amazing..However within a year one of my Velve tuneBII went weird and I could never get it to work..So its been a 3 string since then..
I am avoiding replacing all the tuners with something else..any ideas
I also have a Pawn shop MC-550 guitar..the 2 make a great pairing, and I am always wanting to sell them as a set...
do you still play your AJ10

[ialma]

Buy a battered old musician, take the tuners and sell the rest of the instrument as parts.
My 2cents

[Hoover]

I think it's hysterical that Ibanez made an "Alphonso Johnson Signature Model" that 'Zo didn't play, or like, or even keep! I remember seeing a few photos of 'Zo with a bunch of different 1979-era Ibanez basses (including an ST-980 eight-string, which prompted me to buy one of my own) as part of Ibanez' sales/promo materials, and it just reeked of "staged endorsement"...y'know, where someone says "Hey Alphonso, whaddya think of these basses?" And he plays them for 15 seconds -- during which a dozen pics are snapped -- before saying "Uh, I think they suck."

Not that I'm saying Ibanez basses suck, just that I think they were a bit too desperate for some heavy hitting artist endorsements in their early years.

Originally Posted by Chef

I saw AJ back then in Lucern Switzerland, playing with the George Duke/Billy Cobham band. I have no idea what bass he was playing, but he was really damn good with it

fwiw, 'Zo played a fretted Fender Jazz Bass, a fretless Charles LoBue, and a Chapmen Stick on the Cobham/Duke tour.

[yogi65]

Hi there,

I'm the original poster of the message on the 'Ibanez Collectors World' (ICW) forum that 'four2oh' quoted. Since I got new info in the meantime and saw Ebay sellers referring to this thread, I thought it was a good idea to post here as well.

Anyway, that model is no AJ10 but in fact a MC924H. As I already found out, the model AJ10 was only made in 1979, 1980 and 1983. This means that the "Half & Half" basses made in different years are the model MC924H which was introduced in 1981.

Here is a link to the original message, which was accordingly updated in the meantime:

http://www.ibanezcollectors.com/foru...n-ebay-german/


Best Regards
Juergen