‘78 Or Not?

[Ace Of Bass]

There seems to be a lot of guys coming along onto this thread, taking a look at the bass and saying something along the lines of “late ‘70s era with little to no wear? Pass...that’s gotta be a dog with a dull body that doesn’t resonate.”....well here’s a link to a very comparable bass in ever cleaner condition being demoed (at the end of the picture stream there’s a video)....now Bobby Vega just might have magic in his hands, but this bass sure as hell sounds lively to me...for a bass some would take a glance at and assume it was a dog...
Fender Jazz Bass 1980 Capri Orange w/ Maple Fretboard | KRLabs | Reverb

 

[vid1900]

It might not be visually pretty, but the "OMG undesirable Fender QC neck joint" comment needs to die. Maybe it starts with this thread?

It will never die, because us luthiers have been gluing in shims & even converting them into 4-bolt mounts for 4 decades.

Still to this day, people find their dad's old 70s Fender and bring them in "This neck is like a stick-shift......"

I've got a '72 from when I was a teenager. It's only special because It was my first, lol

 

[Sparuto]

How can you be so sure..? I’ve had a ‘65 P that was hands down the worst bass I’ve EVER played (supposedly right at the end of the golden era of Fender basses, right..?, and I started off on a half dead Hamburglar Bass..!! The era when it was made has very little to do with it, IME...every late ‘70s Jazz I’ve personally played has been a killer instrument...I’ve played clones that felt better maybe, sounded great even, but were no match overall...there are dog basses from every era out there...the fact that it’s a late ‘70s era doesn’t scare me at all...it intrigues me..


+1000

New Fenders are cool no doubt l, and they’re definitely built better than ever, but I have learned to appreciate the feel of an old, well broken in bass...and I’m not a fan of Fender’s active circuit at all..

Wow! you took the words right out of my mouth.

 

[Anthony Fury]

It will never die, because us luthiers have been gluing in shims & even converting them into 4-bolt mounts for 4 decades.

Still to this day, people find their dad's old 70s Fender and bring them in "This neck is like a stick-shift......"

I've got a '72 from when I was a teenager. It's only special because It was my first, lol

I'm not saying the shift is desirable. But the comment should totally die.

1. In the same way an upright player learns the "bridge karate chop," a bolt-on player learns to circumvent this flaw regardless of bass manufacturer OR date of manufacture

2. If you read the internet for 20 minutes, you may come to the conclusion that every note ever played or recorded with a bolt-on Fender bass was technically impossible

3. The internet implies some years are "bad" and others aren't. THEY ARE ALL BAD. All of them. Every year. See link to thread posted earlier

4. Actual Pro Luthier Tip: without shimming or gluing anything, use 6X 1/4"-20 brass inserts in the neck, in conjunction with flat head SHCS torqued to 110 in-lbs, then tell the customer to shut up, loudly. After they've paid you.

 

[Alex J]

My 79 Jazz has a gigantic neck pocket gap, and the 3 bolt neck, and yet I can get the best setup on it of all my basses. And it sounds killer

 

[BobKos]

I think the color is cool. The thing that made me say 'WOW' is the gap along the neck pocket. IMO it looks like the wrong neck is installed - as in from a different brand! I know that's probably not the case, but I would never personally buy a 3 bolt ( or ANY bolt ) neck that fit so loosely. There is a video of Roger Sadowsky showing how his basses are built and what neck pocket fit means. This bass DEFINITELY doesn't have it. If you could play and you know you like before buying, that's one thing. I suspect this bass will be less than optimal for this reason and I would personally not consider buying it. If it is your thing, it is an uncommon piece and maybe it is worth it to you.

 

[LoTone]

For that money, I would go Fender Custom Shop, Mike Lull, Sadowsky or any boutique builder that tickles your fancy.

 

[Mark Ambler]

Not sure if this is the one you’re looking at..

1978 Fender Jazz Bass Maui Blue International Series Vintage Bass Guitar w/OHSC | Imperial Vintage Guitars | Reverb

this is the first I’ve heard of the International Series. Looks cool and seems pretty rare.
I’m not sure I’d spend that much money on a 78-81 jazz...might be better to go CS at that point...

Looks nice, but looking a bit closer, the screws on the tuners, control plate and neck plate look rusted, maybe the bass bass been stored in a damp place? The neck pocket isn't that tight and its a 3 screw neck plate. The last two don't worry me that much, but the rusty looking screws, I really don't like. Also, it's way heavy, so unless it was considerably cheaper, hard pass.

 

[Ace Of Bass]

Looks nice, but looking a bit closer, the screws on the tuners, control plate and neck plate look rusted, maybe the bass bass been stored in a damp place? The neck pocket isn't that tight and its a 3 screw neck plate. The last two don't worry me that much, but the rusty looking screws, I really don't like. Also, it's way heavy, so unless it was considerably cheaper, hard pass.

I don’t like rusty screws either, but they’re not a dealbreaker...I do LOVE heavy ash jazz basses, but that’s just me and a small subset of crazies out there...I can easily replace them...and unless he came down on the price another grand or so, I can definitely get what I want elsewhere for far less...no biggie...

 

[Brad Johnson]

It’s been a trendy thing to really generalize late ‘70s Fenders and bash them...again, I’ve never played a bad one...not one...

Most people who bash them that I've talked to have had limited at best experience. They liked to repeat what they heard. Made them feel more in the know, I guess.

I remember a guy who was always going on and on about the cheap, flimsy bent metal bridges. One time I happened to have my 78 Jazz with me and told him to take my bass and bend the bridge. He couldn't. That finally put an end to that crap.

Starting in the late Sixties people started complaining about the CBS era basses being deficient compared to pre-CBS basses. That grew legs and continues to this day. Folks still say it like they actually know something. Who doesn't want to appear knowledgeable?


What many failed to realize was that the later basses took the sound in a different direct... a direction that many younger players preferred. So you had guys playing the later, whoa is me, dark days of Fenders because:

1. They really liked them and

2. They ignored folks who clearly weren't after the same thing.

So they played their 10+ lbs. basses using those thin brocade and vinyl Fender straps and didn't bitch about any of the trees the guys who couldn't see the forest for railed against. And they were happy.


Throw a set of newly developed roundwound strings on and it was a different world.

 

[Brad Johnson]

1. Very true...the knobs don’t bother me at all...

2. I would not offer anything relatively close to what he’s asking for it....there’s already over a $1k difference between this bass and two others with comparable specs, just different colors...the color isn’t worth an extra grand to me, so he’d have to come down quite a bit for me to dance with him...

3. All my bass get put to use often....I see this one being no different..

The listing says they're open to offers.

 

[Ace Of Bass]

The listing says they're open to offers.

Yeah I see....I almost think he’ll hang up the phone on me if I ask him to drop his price to where I want, but you never know...

 

[2manynotes]

Can't judge a bass without it being setup to your specs and playing it, unless you're only a collector. I have to agree that Fender's QC was very hit or miss in the late 70s. I tried quite a few new ones in the local store. Other than the cool logo, none of them blew me away. I was playing a Univox Hi-Flyer at the time, LOL.

 

[gmarcus]

A little off topic but I looked at this thread this morning and an add for this exact bass came up in my facebook feed just now......

 

[vid1900]

4. Actual Pro Luthier Tip: without shimming or gluing anything, use 6X 1/4"-20 brass inserts in the neck, in conjunction with flat head SHCS torqued to 110 in-lbs, then tell the customer to shut up, loudly. After they've paid you.

In the 70s-90s I did hundreds of Fender 70s conversions, both bass and guitar.

But I could not do it nowadays because they are currently considered **vintage**

I still do those Iban, Glarry and Burningfire, no guilt about them, lol

 

[Ace Of Bass]

A little off topic but I looked at this thread this morning and an add for this exact bass came up in my facebook feed just now......

I asked my girlfriend for a massage OVER THE PHONE and now rando massage ads all over my YouTube feed...

 

[Rip Van Dan]

The pot codes are 137 80 17
137 = CTS manufacturer (if it had a 304 in this spot, then the manufacturer would be Stackpole)
80 = year
17 = week

Thanks Mike!

 

[Rip Van Dan]

Your pot code reading is wrong. 1378017 is the 17th week (May) of 1980, so the bass is definitely from later '81 at the earliest. Dot necks were '82-83. Neck binding was on every single Jazz from very late '65 right until the Standard Jazz ended in '83.

Thanks for that. You know, I bought my 1965 Jazz in 1966 and it was one of the later ones with MOP dots instead of the white dots. Bought from the fellow who I was replacing as the bass player (he was switching to keys). I remember when the '66 Jazz first arrived in our local store. It was well after I had purchased my 1966 blackface Fender Bassman amp. I would go into this shop on a regular basis and never saw a '65 that had the binding. The 1966 had the binding and the bar markers and looked great. Got it in my hands and was never so glad I had the '65 and not the '66. The neck was an atrocity. It was a Deep "U" shape. I figured that CBS decided to use cheaper wood on the neck and had to make it thicker to keep it from warping. It was absolutely terrible.

I never saw another Jazz with white binding on the neck until the 80's, and after 1976 I looked long and hard trying to find another US made Jazz bass with the same neck as my '65 (60's shallow-C shape with 7.25" radius). My '65 Jazz was stolen along with all my music gear in 1976 when our house was burglarized. Never saw one with binding again until 1982, but I wasn't really looking for neck binding. I bought mine in '85. I have seen a '69 and some '70+ for sale since though that did have the neck binding.

Anyhow, here's a shot of the pot that I was told set this as the 40-something week of 1982 on my bass, meaning it could be used in an '82 or '83 bass. Can't see the last number on it. This is the tone pot. Please take a look at these and let me know what you think:

This is the front volume pot:

another look at the same front volume pot:

And this middle volume pot pretty well has the numbers completely covered up:

 

[DJ Bebop]

Like people, every bass should be judged as an individual and not associated with a group or a time period

 

[FranF]

Thanks for that. You know, I bought my 1965 Jazz in 1966 and it was one of the later ones with MOP dots instead of the white dots. Bought from the fellow who I was replacing as the bass player (he was switching to keys). I remember when the '66 Jazz first arrived in our local store. It was well after I had purchased my 1966 blackface Fender Bassman amp. I would go into this shop on a regular basis and never saw a '65 that had the binding. The 1966 had the binding and the bar markers and looked great. Got it in my hands and was never so glad I had the '65 and not the '66. The neck was an atrocity. It was a Deep "U" shape. I figured that CBS decided to use cheaper wood on the neck and had to make it thicker to keep it from warping. It was absolutely terrible.

I never saw another Jazz with white binding on the neck until the 80's, and after 1976 I looked long and hard trying to find another US made Jazz bass with the same neck as my '65 (60's shallow-C shape with 7.25" radius). My '65 Jazz was stolen along with all my music gear in 1976 when our house was burglarized. Never saw one with binding again until 1982, but I wasn't really looking for neck binding. I bought mine in '85. I have seen a '69 and some '70+ for sale since though that did have the neck binding.

Anyhow, here's a shot of the pot that I was told set this as the 40-something week of 1982 on my bass, meaning it could be used in an '82 or '83 bass. Can't see the last number on it. This is the tone pot. Please take a look at these and let me know what you think:
View attachment 3768012

This is the front volume pot:
View attachment 3768013

another look at the same front volume pot:
View attachment 3768014

And this middle volume pot pretty well has the numbers completely covered up:
View attachment 3768015

They look unmolested, and the 4th week of '82.