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Craigslist Quality Find: Bassstar

silvertone

silvertone

Nov 6, 2007
1,393
2,482
SF, CA
#1
This past weekend I flew out from SFO to the East to see some friends in Philly.

I caught a Furthur show at the Mann Music Center which was great.

I saw the Phillies beat the White Sox in a 100 degree 11 inning battle and...

I managed to buy a great used Vintage Modulus Fretless Bassstar bass via the local Philly Craigslist!

This thing is in great shape and has EMG's, Schaller Keys and a Kahler Bridge with a Whammy Bar. I got this for $500 which I think is a decent deal.

Not sure about Modulus though - clearly there ain't gonna be much in the way of customer service related to this bass.

My next steps are to clean it up a bit and throw on some flat wounds - and then get to practicing my intonation.

TS
SF, CA
 

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#6
Lo-E that one looks earlier than mine. Nice.
This fretless has more of a Quantum style neck where the Carbon Fiber pieces were just placed in the Autoclave mold - there's not Fibre webbing on the outside surface.

I am pretty sure that the bass playing community of Philly either doesn't know about Modulus or that I scored on this because the guy who posted it spelled Modulus incorrectly - he spelled it Modullus. Regardless, I'm psyched and my plane was relatively empty so no issues taking it on board - but the flight was 3 hours late.
 
#8
silvertone said:
the Carbon Fiber pieces were just placed in the Autoclave mold - there's not Fibre webbing on the outside surface.
Click to expand...
Modulus enthusiasts (I guess that includes us now, right?) call that pattern "KLD", which stands for "Thousand Ladies Dancing". I'm not sure what the origin is. I've seen several different patterns on Modulus basses and I'm not sure what the timeline for them was - or if there was even any consistency to it.

silvertone said:
the flight was 3 hours late.
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Nothing's free! ;)
 
#15
lownote54 said:
thought the Basstar was their (80's) P-bass interpretation
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Modulus used the BaSSStar moniker for a number of different basses, starting in the late seventies and going until, I think, the late eighties. The were, indeed, available in both J-style and P-style bodies with several different pickup configurations. There were also some earlier ones that didn't fit any "standard" format at all. By the time the BaSSStar necks were Fender-compatible, the name seems to have applied to any body they stuck a BaSSStar neck onto!

Most of the BaSSStars from this era (early-mid eighties) that I'm familiar with were either P-style with P/J or J-style with J/J. It was a while before they really standardized their models. Bodies were often ESP by then, but I've read of others being in the mix.

This info was gleaned from hazy memories of the eighties, some first-hand experiences with BaSSStars other than mine and lots of reading here:http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/modulus-bassstar-fan-club-611772/

@Silvertone: does yours have a truss rod? I'm pretty sure mine doesn't. Most also had a serial # painted onto the heel of the neck. I haven't had the neck off mine yet.
 
#16
No truss rod as far as I can tell.

It seems to me that this thing is not fully up to the Alembic-like level of fit and finish that Modulus ultimately got to. I've played a few Quantum and Flea Basses and I owned a G1 Modulus Guitar (but sold it).

I think the previous owner didn't now anything about how to care for a fretless bass.
It came with typical Nickel wound strings instead of Flats and there are hazy markings on the fretless board that suggest wear and tear - but not much in the way of damage.

I plan to put the correct strings on and probably get this thing set up by either Gary Brawer or Rich Hoeg in SF.
 
#17
I owned one way back in the early eighties. It was a jazz bass body/pickup/ neck-through configuration,with either emgs or possibly hi-a (early bartolini's) pickups. Great thunderous clear sound,going through a gk300 rb head and 2 electrovoice 1-15" cabs. Warmth? Not so much...but a tube preamp would fix that up....congrats,that's a great score!
No truss rod on mine....
 
#18
silvertone said:
I think the previous owner didn't now anything about how to care for a fretless bass.
It came with typical Nickel wound strings instead of Flats and there are hazy markings on the fretless board that suggest wear and tear - but not much in the way of damage.
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Nothing wrong with nickel rounds on a fretless. These basses typically had ebony fingerboards with brass edge dots. Just clean up the marks with a little 600 or 800 wet/dry paper and rub in a few drops of oil. Rounds won't do an ebony board any harm, and you'll really be able to take advantage of all those piano-like harmonics the graphite lets through!
 
#19
Lo-E said:
Nothing wrong with nickel rounds on a fretless. These basses typically had ebony fingerboards with brass edge dots. Just clean up the marks with a little 600 or 800 wet/dry paper and rub in a few drops of oil. Rounds won't do an ebony board any harm, and you'll really be able to take advantage of all those piano-like harmonics the graphite lets through!
Click to expand...

I thought most of them had phenolic resin fingerboards.
 
#20
Pretty sure that this one, as pointed out by LO-E has an Ebony, not phenolic board and indeed there are brass dots.

Thanks for the clean-up advice - that makes sense.

As far as any intimidation about fretlessness goes, I have played upright bass for about a decade so it's not that big a deal for me.
 

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