Cool GC score

Stopped in my local GC for their midnight madness sale yesterday and a pretty '06 Honey Blonde Highway 1 P-bass caught my eye tagged at only $399. A pretty good deal I thought. Picked her up and she played like a dream, and super light weight! Plugged her in and nothing, not a sound

Asked the sales guys what was wrong and they sound she was making the sound of an active bass battery dying the other day and that's the last they heard. The pickup looked stock to so I thought what's active in here? Took her over to the bench and we popped the pickguard off, and that's when I saw it... a Raven Labs PBR-1 preamp! I said I take her, praying the only thing wrong was dead watch batteries. I knew I could return her if anything more serious was wrong.

Stopped at Lowes on the way home and bought two new batteries. Put them in when I got home and fired her up - what a sound! The most kick'n butt p-bass tone I've ever heard!

I know it's not real until a pic, so here she is:

 

It's a really unique active pre designed by Steve Rabe (founder of SWR), sadly no longer manufactured. There's a volume pot (obviously) and a center-detented tone pot. In the middle, the bass just sounds like the hottest p-bass you've ever heard. Turn one way to boost highs (I personally don't really care for this sound) and turn the other way to roll off highs / boost lows. Hold on when start turning the knob this way!

Search the threads around here for more info on it or read more about it here:

http://www.raven-labs.com/pages/products/pbpre/pbpre.html

 

Yes, she was used but in fantastic shape. I'm thinking the tort pickguard may not be stock either. It looks to be a genuine Fender, but has a truss rod notch in it. The truss rod adjustment on this bass is on the headstock. Did Fender just put the notched guards on to save money or did this bass come originally with a different guard (she's a 2006 model based on the serial number)?

 

Hum, notice how everybody else's 2006's have the 70's logo and Badass bridge? Mine has the vintage script logo and vintage bridge. I'm only assuming mine's a 2006 because the serial number starts with Z6. Was 2006 the transition year for the Highway One models?