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'79 Music Man Sabre…

depalm

depalm

Apr 22, 2004
1,929
634
61
São Paulo
#1
…With Sting Ray Neck and ebony fingerboard.

A friend of mine is selling this bass and I'm thinking in pull the trigger.
According to him this bass was custom made to bassist Joel Di Bartolo (who was a MM consulting in that period).

That's a one of a kind bass for sure, my friend is asking U$5000, which is way expensive for me now.

If you have to put a price on it how much do you think it should cost?

Pics:
4473060385_661ba3382b_b.jpg


4473841708_1c83505e5c_b.jpg
 
#2
It's way too expensive. These are going for $2500ish when they are all original. I've never seen a vintage Music Man even come close to 5 grand.

I'm doubting it's a '79 either, because yours has covered pole pieces on the pickups, and a later-made pickup selector switch. The 70's Sabres had exposed pole pieces and 3 separate switches above each control.

Absolutely killer bass BTW!

(I don't know what an "ebony scale" is)
 
#4
That bass is not worth 5k. Used MM Sabre's go for about $1200-$3200(and that depends on year, condition, if original, rare color,etc).



Louis Johnson of the Brothers Johnson was one of the first MM consultants and artist. And he was a huge reason MM got of the ground and it doesn't help the sell of the Leo Fender era MM basses.
 
#14
Exploiter8 said:
Looks like electrical tape over them?

X8
Click to expand...

No, those are the newer covers. They match the 4-way single toggle, this bass is a mid-80's Ernie Ball Sabre with a mis-matched neck. If it is ebony, I suppose it's a Pre-EB neck; I'd like to see pics of the neckplate and the back of the headstock. In any event, no way in hell is this bass worth 5k. I'd say it's worth maybe 1k for the parts.
 
#15
I got a '78 White MM Sabre here last year. I traded a Hamer USA 12ver to a talkbass memeber plus I threw in a grand. I paid around 900 for the Hamer so all in all 1900. The bass is legit in that the S/N shows correct in the MM database. It sounds awesome, I figure it may be worth more someday, but if not, at least I have a cool bass which I dig.

Check the S/N of the one your friend is trying to sell here.

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#16
Jefenator said:
I got an '80 a few years back for $500. (Two zeros - not three!)
Click to expand...

superbassman2000 said:
jealous!!!!!
Click to expand...

Yeah, and I sold it a couple years later for $850. Really wish I hadn't done that. It still makes me ill to see that photo. :crying:

That franken-Sabre looks like it could be a nice fun player's axe. But $5K is a ridiculous price. I think it's time to find some different friends to buy from. :eyebrow:
 
#17
No this is NOT a '79 Sabre. The solid covered pickups and single pickup blade style selector switch came out circa '81. The odd thing about the neck is the string tree is holding down the A and D strings which was an Ernie Ball feature. The preEB positioned string trees held down the D and G strings. But this bass still has the heavy cast bridge, which was still preEB.

To me this looks like it's either a really early 1985-ish EB transition built bass using left over parts. Or it was a late preEB that had a neck replaced shortly after EB took over.
 
#19
I know this, and that are 2 things, 1. That's not a '79 Sabre and 2. That bass is def not worth even close to 5K. Your friend is on crack!!:rolleyes::eyebrow:

I own a 79' Sabre that I just got back after being stolen 26 yrs ago from my rehearsal place. I gave the guy who returned it a $200 reward, which in reality I should have gotten the bass back for free since it was taken from me in the first place.

5K? That's an insulting joke.:rollno:
 

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