Despite playing Bass for some 30 years this has been the first time I had felt the need to really share anything. I am normally a Rickenbacker player and have a couple great looking ones but I had been looking for something more like an Alembic, Wal, Or Zon. I was a huge fan of Greg Lake and Keith Emerson, so I also play Moog and Mellotron aa well as being the producer, sound engineer for my
Project after retiring early from the business world.
This instrument I really couldn't get out of my head was on the zon webpage. Signature Model--- not much info, I recalled you used to be able to order one but I see that option was long gone, but the search led me
To
Several fraudulent ebay adds and eventually to a great guy, Tak at Guitar Planet in Tokyo, Japan. After discussing with him, he was in possession of this bass, which has been posted here before. It took a leap of faith here and 100% trust for both of us to get this done. Paypal wouldn't process the transaction so I had to complete his wire transfer. I think that would have scares many away at that point.
I don't think I'm going to share the serial number but it suggests that it was Between the 3rd and 5th instrument produced by Zon. This is the 1981 Zon The Signature Prototype that was exhibited at their first NAMM show. The Bass creation is the second timeline event on the companies history page and features prototype bartollini pickups and a ZP-1 preamp and was one of the very first composite neck basses built.
This might be a bit of speculation here but considering the composite neck trend seems to stem from some broken alembic necks, including greg lake breaking his 8 string alembic head clean off, and the fact that John Wetton became Zon's first endorser (mutually linked through Living drum God Carl Palmer) I cant help but think there was some kind of pitch
Made To that British prog rock crowd with this instrument, which was something that Greg
Lake would have definitely played. I don't know how else John wetton would have come upon such a new bass brand while touring in support of that years highest charting album. ELP had broken up by 1981 though, and the prog rock styling of this instrument resulted in it falling into obscurity where it sat in Tokyo, Japan for a long time before finally coming home to California just a couple hours south of where it was built in Redwood City, CA. Since I Don't know the true circumstances Ill choose to believe that until I get the real story. My first order of business will be to have the condition inspected at Zon hopefully. There is simply no price that I Could put on this instrument so it's something out of a dream when I see it each day in the rack. This Bass sound and plays amazing with flawless intonation to the 24 fret and I have never seen something so old in this type of condition. The wood choices are quite exotic as well.
I saw a post here that suggest there were actually 12 of these made. Every picture I have seen though has been of this particular bass and the serial number basically confirms it is the prototype, which I believe was the only one.
