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Bass Maniac by Tune?

#81
Did you buy it?

As far as I can tell from your photo, that's a walnut topped version, walnut over mahogany. I have a walnut and also an older padauk version of this bass. The padauk is redder than this appears.
Wait till you hear the percussive thump this bass will make. It's addicting.

-Kahuna
 
#82
Big Kahuna said:
Did you buy it?

As far as I can tell from your photo, that's a walnut topped version, walnut over mahogany. I have a walnut and also an older padauk version of this bass. The padauk is redder than this appears.
Wait till you hear the percussive thump this bass will make. It's addicting.

-Kahuna
Click to expand...
I didn't get to! I asked the seller what model it was, he found out, looked up the price, and ran away! His price was veryyyy low lol. I settled with getting an Ampeg SVT-3 Pro ;)
 
#83
Awesome, I have Japanese Tune that I picked up in 1993, had no idea what it was. I played it today after months playing my ibanez SR900 anda remembered how great it was. I also had a fretless model with jazz pickup configuration. Interesting though is that I was searching for a manual, seems after 23 years I finally remembered which knob is the pan between the P and J pickup. These are great basses.
 
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#84
ShallowBayXI said:
View attachment 870244 I was at Guitar Center (I know I know) with a band mate today looking to buy a Big Muff pedal for my bass, and ended up falling in love with a bass and putting it on layaway. $20 short!

The bass is a Bass Maniac by Tune. I've it's got a P J pickup setup, plays absolutely wonderfully, has very nice action, and just plays like butter.

I've been doing a lot of looking around, and apparently there are Korean (less valuable) and Japanese (from the 80's, more valuable) versions of these basses, but I have no idea how to distinguish them. Apparently everyone that owns one says they like these basses.

Can anyone tell me about this bass? Japanese or Korean? Good price at $500? Experiences? Thanks everyone! I've done some of my own research on the bass but was trying to find someone more knowledgeable on the subject.
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Its about time for one of these threads!! So not trying to show off but here is my 80s Japanese Maniac which I play EVERY NIGHT, and it will never appear in any classified ad:thumbsup:
 

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#85
Congrats on buying that Bass Maniac.
My main axe is a Zii-6 string with a koa top. It's Japanese, from the late 80's I think....I have one with the inset bridge, the "cut-out" angled bottom. I dropped a Bart 18 volt preamp and two bart soaps in it years ago, as the original electronics were very "sizzly" and 90's-ish. I will try to post a pic later. I need to install a couple new pots, as one of the tines on the treble pot broke and I can't mount the knob now. But she still sounds great and plays great.
 
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#88
I've just discovered this thread, and firstly would like to congratulate you on your bargain buy! It's definitely a Japanese TB-02PJ-A model, and they look like the original tuners to me. I had one of these in the mid-eighties when they first came out. I loved it but found the string spacing too narrow for me at the time, so swapped it for an incredible 3-octave 4-string fretless with phenolic resin neck and a howling piezo pickup (TB-043PSW) which played and recorded beautifully until the neck warped about three months down the track.

The distributor was very helpful and I swapped her for a 2-octave 4-string fretless with the same P-J magnetic pups as yours and that monstrous piezo pup in the bridge. A few years ago I replaced the electronics as the piezos were unstable and I was looking for a different sound from the magnetic pickups, so I threw in an Aguilar OBP-3 and Nordy P-J pups. This neck has remained incredibly stable and it's the best fretless I've ever played.

I've dug up the original Tune catalogue from when I purchased my first one: it lists all the models and permutations. I'm happy to scan it and supply as PDF if anybody would be interested, as it shows all the electronics and specs.

I'll post some pics of mine when I can get to my desktop computer...
 
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#90
kodiakblair said:
@Juan Lauda

3 octave piezo fretless !! In the 32 year I've been seeking one you're only the 3rd person I've heard who owned one.

Oh and hearing the neck warped on yours DOESN'T make me feel better :D
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Yep, she was a real beauty. Glossy black with that black fingerboard... looked gorgeous and played like nothing else. The upper registers were phenomenal and quite other-worldly! Unfortunately it was the length of the phenolic resin fretboard that caused the warping and it just couldn't be fixed. Mine was the only one in Australia: I would have cheerfully swapped it for another one but it couldn't be found and I needed another fretless immediately for the band I was touring with at the time. I wonder what happened to the necks on the other two?

In hindsight I'm glad I replaced it with the TB-02PJ/B-A that I still have. It's a great bass and just gets better with age.

TRL-4186.jpg
 

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#93
Juan Lauda said:
Here's a link to the 1985 (from memory) Tune Japan Bass Maniac catalogue. Dropbox - Tune Bass Maniac Catalogue.pdf

There's a pic of the 3-octave fretless on p6. It was surprisingly easy to play up in that third octave!
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Could you maybe link this pdf again, please? I have a Tune Bass Maniac and also on a constant lookout for the 3 octave fretless maniac.
 
#96
WOW. I forgot all about this thread. A fair bit happened since my last post, July 2016. All those years spent looking for the extended board fretless came to an end :) Woke up one Sunday morning and saw an alert on eBay, there it was. Even was in the pearly white colour I'd first saw all those years back,it might actually been closer to 34 years I'd had the GAS :D
Maniac (2).jpg
Maniac (6).jpg


Neck is perfect :thumbsup: Tune count now stands at 3. Tune Bass Maniac re-fin. Fretless Tune Bass Maniac and my Korean TWB -4Z.
Maniac (4).jpg


It was well worth the wait :thumbsup:
 
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#98
kodiakblair said:
WOW. I forgot all about this thread. A fair bit happened since my last post, July 2016. All those years spent looking for the extended board fretless came to an end :) Woke up one Sunday morning and saw an alert on eBay, there it was. Even was in the pearly white colour I'd first saw all those years back,it might actually been closer to 34 years I'd had the GAS :D
View attachment 2878957 View attachment 2878959

Neck is perfect :thumbsup: Tune count now stands at 3. Tune Bass Maniac re-fin. Fretless Tune Bass Maniac and my Korean TWB -4Z.
View attachment 2878958

It was well worth the wait :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Congrats! I have a fretted Pearl White JB version, my first actually playable bass, that I will never sell. Also I held and played that 3 octave fretless in a store way back in late '80s or early '90s. Still to this day regret NOT having bought it then and there. And get this, it was lightly used, just back to store (the player didn't dig fretless after all) and the price was greatly reduced... o_O
 
#99
kodiakblair said:
WOW. I forgot all about this thread. A fair bit happened since my last post, July 2016. All those years spent looking for the extended board fretless came to an end :) Woke up one Sunday morning and saw an alert on eBay, there it was. Even was in the pearly white colour I'd first saw all those years back,it might actually been closer to 34 years I'd had the GAS :D
View attachment 2878957 View attachment 2878959

Neck is perfect :thumbsup: Tune count now stands at 3. Tune Bass Maniac re-fin. Fretless Tune Bass Maniac and my Korean TWB -4Z.
View attachment 2878958

It was well worth the wait :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

I remember you were hunting for one of these and to a lesser extent the Washburn version that resembled this particular Tune Maniac bass. Glad you found it!
 
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