Club Moollon

[uwrossl]

Hypothetical:

P-Classic 4
Maple fingerboard
White pickguard
Seafoam Green or Surf Green?

More interested in this contrast with the white of the PG:
View attachment 3829080

than of this, which is too low:
View attachment 3829081

But I've seen photos of @uwrossl 's Surf Green that look like the sea foam photo in #1:

even though I'm confident YJ's Surf Green is the 2nd photo. But I know it's not right, because the headstock is not that Moollon-standard golden-honey yellow, leading me to think this photo is overexposed and the white balanced wasn't nailed. Surf/Seafoam green is the hardest to photograph.

Correct... mine is surf green and also correct that it's very hard to photograph for it to look the same in the photo as what your eyes are seeing when you look at the bass. Looks white in a lot of photographs unless you adjust exposure etc. I found the right spot with the sunlight coming in from our bedroom balcony to get that photo and took it in portrait mode. If I look at that photo and look at my bass they look exactly the same so I'd say that photo is a good representation of the surf green. Sea foam as you can see from the pic that @Bassic Needs posted has a lot more of the blue or aqua blue to it. I'd say in person the Surf Green is a little darker/richer than Andi's photo but that's a really great A/B of Seafoam vs. Surf. I went through this dilemma when choosing my color and really glad I went with Surf Green. Several of the photos I saw of the Surf Green made it look like it had little to no coloring at all but can with confidence say those photos are not what you will see when you're looking at one in person. It's spectacular.

That first pic to me looks like it has a little more aqua to it and would guess that it's Sea Foam but with all the filters readily available these days it's hard to say.

I will say one thing you can notice in color/exposure corrected photos with the tort guard is it will start to look kind of wonky and very different. (at least when done with a phone or something simple that's not photoshop) Can be a good tell to look for but again not always.

 

[uwrossl]

Hey gang! I’m a full time gigging musician supporting a family of three...we are feeling the financial strain due to COVID 19 and the loss of months of work.

Unfortunately, I need to sell my Moollon P Classic IV.

I figured I would let the club know first, before posting in the classifieds.

PM me if you’re interested.

Thanks,
Ian

View attachment 3828647

Ahhh...what a bummer. Did you ever get around to trying a set of the Dunlop flats on it like we were chatting about? Best of luck. Somebody will be snatching up a great bass.

 

[dhagopian]

I'm pretty sure that second picture is actually sonic blue.

 

[uwrossl]

I'm pretty sure that second picture is actually sonic blue.

I thought that too. I think they took Sonic Blue off the options(at least it's not listed any longer) but pretty sure that is still the pick that comes up default on their site when you click on basses?

 

[Ian Trusheim]

Ahhh...what a bummer. Did you ever get around to trying a set of the Dunlop flats on it like we were chatting about? Best of luck. Somebody will be snatching up a great bass.

Thanks @uwrossl. I never did try the Dunlops...just stuck with the DR Legends.

 

[Bassic Needs]

I haven't heard of any colours being discontinued other than silver sparkle, orange sparkle and blue sparkle.

Of course there are a few colours available that aren't listed here. Like Faded Burgundy Mist, Ice Blue Metallic, a regular and a dark Lake Placid Blue (if I am not mistaken), the Scott Devine Silver and Charcoal Frost.

Inca Silver, Charcoal Pearl? and Charcoal Frost.

 

[80jazz]

Blue sparkle would be my color choice. Thank you for answering if it was still available.

 

[uwrossl]

I haven't heard of any colours being discontinued other than silver sparkle, orange sparkle and blue sparkle.

You're right...I missed it on there when I was looking the other day. Great color so I'm glad it's still available.

I'm looking into a Gold J IV for my next bass.

 

[barneybass]

It's quite hard to pic a colour when they look quite different under lights. I'm a fan of Olympic White basses but ended up with a Desert Sand JV and its much lighter in real life than the colour swatches above. I nearly ordered surf green too. Here's my shop shot pre delivery.

 

[uwrossl]

It's quite hard to pic a colour when they look quite different under lights. I'm a fan of Olympic White basses but ended up with a Desert Sand JV and its much lighter in real life than the colour swatches above. I nearly ordered surf green too. Here's my shop shot pre delivery.

That looks sweet. Looks more like the aged Olympic white. Just LOVE everything Moollon does. Had a couple of bent tuners (my fault) and Moollon is replacing them for the cost of shipping because they want to make sure it stays to original spec. I'll just send them back the bad ones after I replace them and viola! Done. 9 months later and I still can't put my P Classic IV down. It gets 95% of the action and my other basses are really nice too. But something about the combination of the look/vibe/sound/playability of the the Moollon that always has me reaching for it.

 

[Bassic Needs]

I never really thought about it before but does anyone know what the fret size is on a Moollon bass?

 

[Stan_da_man]

Did anyone on here purchase this Moollon? Trying to get some more background info on it.

Moollon J-Classic IV 2016 3 Tone Sunburst | Larry's Boutique | Reverb

 

[davidak]

beautiful and very well priced J in Europe area:
Moollon J Classic

 

[Twice19]

I never really thought about it before but does anyone know what the fret size is on a Moollon bass?

Vintage. I think medium/medium similar to Lakland

 

[Ultradust]

Did anyone on here purchase this Moollon? Trying to get some more background info on it.

I don't have time to mention everything now, but there's a somewhat of a colorful/unfortunate story to it.

The dealer will likely know nothing of it, since I believe he is at least the 4th owner, and I'm pretty sure it's one of two of made with that wood/color configuration in 2011 or 2012, not 2016. Will see if I can get my facts straight and write at length tomorrow. Price is high, but it all appears to be in much better condition than most of that age.

 

[Stan_da_man]

Did anyone on here purchase this Moollon? Trying to get some more background info on it.

Moollon J-Classic IV 2016 3 Tone Sunburst | Larry's Boutique | Reverb

beautiful and very well priced J in Europe area:
Moollon J Classic

I don't have time to mention everything now, but there's a somewhat of a colorful/unfortunate story to it.

The dealer will likely know nothing of it, since I believe he is at least the 4th owner, and I'm pretty sure it's one of two of made with that wood/color configuration in 2011 or 2012, not 2016. Will see if I can get my facts straight and write at length tomorrow. Price is high, but it all appears to be in much better condition than most of that age.

This is the bass I was trying to gather info on! Thanks

 

[600 Ohms]

Thought I'd ask, though ideally the info could come down from on high via @Ultradust !

What are YJ's setup specs?

I made a sizable truss rod adjustment (it was .015, and I got it down to .008) but I had a lot of trouble getting the first frets on the E and A strings of my 2018 J-5 not to buzz like a mother. I can usually manage to get all basses to between .006-.008 inches of relief and perform well, but in order to make the buzz go away, I had to bring the truss rod back to .013, and redid the action for 1.5mm on the high side, and 2.25mm on the low side, with a 12" radius gauge. Almost back to where I started.

Need for a fret dress? Sliding the straight edge towards the nut found it bumping all the frets but the first.

Knowing how YJ measures would also be helpful to know. I know everyone uses a different method, but I use a StewMac metal straight edge, which spans the 1st and 14th frets, and I use the 6th or 7th fret to slide the feeler gauges under. For action, I measure at the 12th fret, and hold the first fret down.

Particularly for you J-Fivers, are you able to get better performance than I am?

 

[Ultradust]

This is the bass I was trying to gather info on! Thanks

Aye! And while we're at it, it's time for some interesting history and Moollon geek lore that surrounds 0576.

0576 was gifted to someone I will not name here, at Winter NAMM 2012. It's seen here with a 1952 T-Classic (now in the hands of the amazing Kirk Fletcher), a deep LPB P-IV that I'm pretty sure is Chris Tarry's, and aged S-Classic. Being pre-2014, the older brown tort is seen on all of that sort with guards.

Just another little hint about older Moollon basses in general, since this occasionally comes up: Roughly around 2015 YJ started (1) tinting the clearcoat nitro on necks, and (2) using vintage small frets instead of medium small. Hence the J-IV in question having a neck that's lighter in hue and notably larger frets than what's used these days. The thing in, YJ isn't quite certain of the dividing line, although he's since hinted that these two components had become standard by about the time that Rufus Philpot's red-orange J-IV with racing stripes was made. As such, specific future inquires about "what about mine then?" will likely be met with uncertainty, since we admittedly have no proper record of the switch.

Back to 0576: This pickguard-free J-IV on 2TS swamp ash + maple was a fun "historically incorrect custom combo" made specifically for NAMM, and suffice to say, every year until our last attendance there were somewhat hidden "themes" that were a part of each collection (albeit not the entirety of it all) brought to be displayed at the booth, the most notable being the mid-to-late 1950s concept that was a part of more than half of the builds shown at the 2017 show. To our memory 0576 eventually made its way to a pawn shop in NoHo, and then we assume to its third(?) owner in O.C. and finally abroad.

Another interesting fact about 0576 is that it was followed by 0577 in our books (which also was at Winter NAMM 2017), the obvious sequential numbering aside being that 0577 is the original J-Classic V prototype. Surf Green (appeared almost Sonic Blue under bright lighting) with no pickguard, an odd "J-5" penned in by YJ on the headstock, 47mm nut, and most significantly, an Indian Rosewood fingerboard, which YJ felt deadened the dynamics and was never implemented on the production version. Other than 45mm being the present nut size, all other specs are identical to current J-Vs.

My buddy Rev. Christopher Walls in action on the mildly-misunderstood 0577:

On the last day of the show, we offered 0577 to the fine folks at Truetone Music, who did not seem to be interested, so our friend Jenn Oberle took care of it for a few years, and then it went to two different parties, the 2nd of which emailed us in 2016 and asked if a pickguard could be fitted for it (and a deal of a guard was worked out at the 2017 show). To the best of our knowledge, this SoCal owner still has 0577.

Also, this lined fretless J-IV that Rufus is seen here playing at the same show was one of the first production J-IVs of the sort. My memory tells me that either Rufus, Joel Whitley, or Sekou Bunch has it.

 

[Stan_da_man]

Wow, amazing background info.

The bass now resides in England so it must have made its way over from the US at some point.

 

[unresolved]

Thought I'd ask, though ideally the info could come down from on high via @Ultradust !

What are YJ's setup specs?

I made a sizable truss rod adjustment (it was .015, and I got it down to .008) but I had a lot of trouble getting the first frets on the E and A strings of my 2018 J-5 not to buzz like a mother. I can usually manage to get all basses to between .006-.008 inches of relief and perform well, but in order to make the buzz go away, I had to bring the truss rod back to .013, and redid the action for 1.5mm on the high side, and 2.25mm on the low side, with a 12" radius gauge. Almost back to where I started.

Need for a fret dress? Sliding the straight edge towards the nut found it bumping all the frets but the first.

Knowing how YJ measures would also be helpful to know. I know everyone uses a different method, but I use a StewMac metal straight edge, which spans the 1st and 14th frets, and I use the 6th or 7th fret to slide the feeler gauges under. For action, I measure at the 12th fret, and hold the first fret down.

Particularly for you J-Fivers, are you able to get better performance than I am?

Most likely you'll need to get a fret dress—I certainly did with my brand new P4. I had buzzing on the A and D strings around the 5th fret, and my tech said (and I could see, when using a fret rocker/straight edge) there was a fret that was a bit high.