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Fender Jazz Bass Special - Circa 1984-87

#81
bassgod76 said:
You guys ever have an issue with the switch? I assume once a switch goes bad, it can't be cleaned and repaired like a pot?
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The stock switch wasn't a very good bit of equipment. When mine got unreliable I replaced the guts with a Volume/Blend/Tone control and just left a big hole where the switch had been.

I'll see if I have any pictures of the original CAR finish mine came with.

John
 
#82
JTE said:
The stock switch wasn't a very good bit of equipment. When mine got unreliable I replaced the guts with a Volume/Blend/Tone control and just left a big hole where the switch had been.

I'll see if I have any pictures of the original CAR finish mine came with.

John
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I want mine to look stock, so I'll stick with the original layout. I ordered a switch, and new jack, this morning.

After thinking it over, I'm going to rip out all of the factory wiring. That stuff is so cheap, and cloth wire is so much easier to work with.
 
#84
Febs said:
My '87 has a jazz nut. I've never measured it, but it feels like a 1.5". It's definitely not a B width.
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My 85 JBS has an all black Jazz width neck.

There were some very similar looking P basses from the same era, and it makes me wonder if some necks were possibly interchanged at the factory prior to decal.

I only remember seeing one of the P versions at a music shop, and it had an all black precision width neck.
 
#92
Bullitt5135 said:
After searching the TB forums for a while, I didn't see any threads about my particular bass. It's a Fender Jazz Bass Special, MIJ circa 1984-87 -- purchased a couple years before Duff McKagan made them famous. I bought this when I was in high school in 1986 for around $350. I had originally ordered one in metallic silver, but impatience took over and I decided to grab it in black (in hindsight, a good decision). At the time, Geddy was playing the black Wal, and my bass had a similar look. It has a Precision body and a Jazz Neck. The back of the neck is matching black lacquer. P-J pickups with the cable jack in the edge instead of the top surface. It's in really good shape given it's age and ratty case, with only a few minor dings and scratches.

As a kid, I never got good enough to make it out of my buddy's basement, but I'm hoping to change that. I got away from playing over the past 20 years, but I've recently decided to pick it up again. I've only just "heard" my bass "for real" for the first time... having just purchased a GK 700RBII with an Avatar B212 cab. I'm looking forward to getting to know it better.

If you have one of these babies, I'd love to see some pics. I know they also came in metallic white, silver, and red.

DSCN0824.jpg


DSCN0822.jpg
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I have a black one too but it's fretless.
 
#94
AdamR said:
+ is treble boost
- is bass boost
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No, it's not a boost in any way. It's a passive control which works like a normal treble-bleed tone control with a 250K pot from 0-5. At the detent it's supposed to be like a regular tone control wide open. Just after that it rolls in the 1Meg pot and at 10 the 250 is completely out of the circuit. It was an attempt to avoid the loading one gets with a regular 250K pot. While it was installed on the Jazz Bass Special, it was really designed for the American Standard Stratocaster and it actually works pretty well there (it was also used on the original Eric Clapton Signature Strat), but I never found it much use on a bass.

John
 
#97
bassgod76 said:
Great price for a red one.

Fender Jazz Bass Special MIJ 84-87 vintage - eBay (item 180637675032 end time Mar-16-11 20:05:28 PDT)
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i am seriously considering buying that just because of the knobs and the neck. i picked up a fairly ****ed up jazz bass special some months ago. it was stripped down to only neck and body and it had a mighty mite neck.. i want the black painted neck :help:

i have put in a Seymour Duncan Quarter-pound p-bass pickup and a standard jazz bass pickup. sounds ****ing great, and it would probably be even better with a fender neck :bassist:
 
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#98
The stock pickups did indeed have large pole pieces, but they weren't Duncans. I replaced mine (within weeks of getting the bass BTW) with Duncan 1/4 Pounders for more something or other (I don't honestly recall, it was 23 years ago!!) but part of my quest to tame the nasal honking mids the instruments had.

John
 

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