Fender Jazz Bass Special - Circa 1984-87

[Yellow Bang66]

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.

View attachment 1699704

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Yes!!! I love'em! I've got 3!!! (1 black,1 CAred, 1 refin Green) sorry no Pics yet, but hopefully soon after all this madness is over.
My best Friend schooled me many years ago, to Buy MIJ fenders from the 80's He's a smart Guitar collector, so when I was scouring Ebay for deals, he told me "get Japanese fenders!" they're as good or much better than MIA! I soon found a black 1 on CL in very good cond.(very glossy!) It was so good I kept looking for others on EB (they were cheap {$200-300}& plentiful back then!).
Funny story, I bid on 2 on ebay, similar price, color & year. I think 1988. I couldn't decide which one to get, so in the heat of bidding,(Do you remember those evil sniper bidding bots?). I wound up getting both! the 1st to get delivered was a lil beat up (lot of dings & chips) it was an ugly Mauve color too! so I decided to refinish it to mettalic green. it was in rough shape! upon setting up, i found it to be filthy (I thought it was a "Katrina Flood bass"!) so A total Refinish was required! In the meantime, the other 1 showed up. Luckily it was in fantastic Condition,in Beautiful Candy Apple Red! so having 3 nearly Identical Basses and my love to Mod my basses I had a Unique ooportunity to upgrade the 3( triplets) b/c the parts are pretty interchangeable. so I was able to experiment & exchange many pup combos. At that time, I Also was very Fond of the aerodyne bassses as well! So decided to mod the Black one to all black details (hardware, strings & almost everyything). it looks Killer! I kept the CAR 1 stock untouched/prestine since the blk & green got heavily modded in the process. even experimented with "special wiring!(series/parrall&tone stylers) electronics,& tone Caps Too!! They 're my muched loved #1 & #2 basses.
I must Admit almost all the mods were done for Aesthetic reasons than functional b/c these basses were near perfect upon receipt(except "Katrina"). although I think the Pup upgrade is necessary YMMV. I am a self professed tinkerer/tonechaser though. I love to mod my basses. I'm always shopping for New products to try! Yeah, Its a sickness! I do get A Lot of Compliments on these basses! both for looks & Tone/Sound! and they play like butter! I consider myself Lucky to get 3 real Cheap, Now they've seemed to have gotten harder to find.
Sorry for the long post. I 'm bored & isolated!! GL! I must agree Black was a good call! mine looks super glossy, Piano black like $$$ lacquerware yours does too!

 

[Yellow Bang66]

I have a couple questions regarding the passive version of the Jazz Bass Special (Non-power jazz version).

First, How many colors did this bass's body come in? I've seen it in white, black, and a gold color.

Second, which is the rarest color?

I saw a regular Jazz bass special on Feebay recently that had the black headstock, but the back of the neck wasn't black, yet it was not a power jazz. Did the fretless versions of this bass come sans painted neck?

Are replacement knobs for this bass still around?

I don't know what the rarest color is.
but i think there were around 3 colors available I've seen Black, White, red & gunmetal Gray. also the white seems to oxidize/ yellow to kind of a mettalic yellowish gold. the rare ones have a painted Black back neck ( the first ones?) unpainted necks cane later on.

 

[Yellow Bang66]

I have forevermore wanted to put a pickguard on my black '87, but I figured it would be a sin. But, I swear it's hard to see that black thing. Everyting's black except the fingerboard and back of the neck.

There used to be guy on Ebay that made PG for JBS' in the traditional P bass look. he even cut drilled the hole bigger so they fit over & around the knobs, Idk why, butI bought a black 1 a while ago b/c I thought my CAR JBS looked very 80's looking w/o a PGpaid extra for him to make it w/o mounting holes, installed with double stick tape! looks cool but kinda stock, run of the mill.

 

[Yellow Bang66]

OK, so. Repair question. Well, two questions, really.
1) See photo below. I am a total neophyte when it comes to parts spec--is this bridge original to the bass or did the previous owner put this on? I've not seen a bridge like it on any other bass I've got my hands on.
2) Where does one find the saddle adjustment screws for said bridge? You'll notice if you look closely that one doesn't match...apparently I lost one along the way somewhat recently and discovered the issue when I recently restrung her. Went to 7 different shops (hardware and music stores) before coming up with A replacement, color match wasn't happening. A helpful gent at our local Ace Hardware figured out the specific type of screw it is--M2.5 x 30mm pan head machine screw, black oxide. Online searches have left me dry. Anyone know of a good source of these things, in case I ever lose another?

Don't ask what kind of wreck I was when I found out she was broken. My basses ARE my children and I'm particularly fond of this one... Happy she's fixed now but this non-matching screw is yet another "character mark"...

After buying my 3rd JBS I had 2 basses with that bridge, upon further research learned it a Schaller Bridge, replaced with one i found on Ebay, "arkansas music store". 1 with a4 screw mount. GL

 

[LostJohnny]

the white seems to oxidize/ yellow to kind of a mettalic yellowish gold.

I pulled the bridge on mine the other day, and underneath was mostly about as yellow as the rest of the instrument. There is some area where it's a little whiter, but I suspect these were always more of a "vintage white" anyway. (The paper towel in the shot is there for comparison with a known true white.)

 

[Yellow Bang66]

Duff never played the power jazz. I know I read an article where he alluded to being offered the Power model, but didn't care for it.

I think I remember, Him saying the battery died in it before a gig & it freaked him& his tech out, so he ditched it for the regular (passive) JBS.

 

[Yellow Bang66]

They had one on guitar center used

It seems like any JBS with the black back necks are the most rare( 1st ed.), while the black are the most common, then red, gray/pewter,CAR, and lastly white/other colors.

 

[Yellow Bang66]

This may sound like an odd request, but does anyone have the set up measurements [string height, both pickup heights, pot level(250k,500k?)] from either the original JBS or the Duff signature? I feel my sound is a little too bright. I bring my bass to a guy to professionally set up, but I'm not sure if its the pickups I have in there or if it's his style of setup. I feel I don't have that midrange and honky sound Duff gets. Been a problem for a long time now. :/

The pot values on mine were 250K, i changed them at one time to 500K & and it caused the bass to get very trebly! & noisy (fyi: my basses' wiring was a real noisy, ground issues). Switched back immediately to 250K and fixed the ground issues.Plus many other wiring mods! yeah, I can't help myself!

 

[Vic Firth]

The first Japan boxer series made thru 1984 and 1987 (with the neck totally finished in black) included five different models, some made mostly for the Japanese market: PJ-555 (the Jazz Bass Special we all know), PB-551, PB-555, JB-555 and PJ-535. The official finishes were: gloss black (on all models), gloss yellow (on all models), gloss torino red (on all modesl), white (on all models), metal pink (only on JP-535), pewter grey (only on PJ-555 and PB-551) and salmon-burgundy mist (only on PJ-555 and PB-551). The rarest was probably gloss yellow

 

[Thegrandwazoo]

All should be original: at some point after 1987, the 2nd run (with maple finish neck) of the the boxer JazzBasSpecial/PJ-555 was changed: small poles pickups, new "Schaller style" bridge and the tone control was not the TBX anymore

My 88 Jazz Bass Specials both had large poles, normal Fender bent plate bridges, and TBX tone controls, so it must've been the next bunch, with the different (beginning with H?) serial numbers.

 

[Thegrandwazoo]

Well, I finally got around to finishing my Jazz Bass Special-based project. I changed my mind on some stuff, decided to go with a Warmoth Dinky J body (flame maple over alder), EMG GZR-P pickup and electronics, and a Hipshot 'A' bridge. Not really a Jazz Bass Special anymore, but I mentioned it earlier in the thread so I thought I'd update. I'd originally intended to retain the excellent factory electronics, but then I heard a fretless P with the Geezer pickup, easily the best P-pickup tones I've ever heard.

I used one of the Wudtone 'dark onyx' oil finish kits, allegedly specifically intended for maple, but as you can see it stopped taking the dye after only a coat or two. I dunno what the hell's up with that, and when I build its fretted sister I'll use normal dye like I have before and make it come out how I assumed this was going to, but as it turned out it's kinda cool and unique and I think I'll leave it the way it is.

I gave the loaded '88 body to a fellow TalkBass user (playbyear), and it's supposed to be built out in the near future, so check for that if you're interested.

 

[Yellow Bang66]

Yes!!! I love'em! I've got 3!!! (1 black,1 CAred, 1 refin Green) sorry no Pics yet, but hopefully soon after all this madness is over.
My best Friend schooled me many years ago, to Buy MIJ fenders from the 80's He's a smart Guitar collector, so when I was scouring Ebay for deals, he told me "get Japanese fenders!" they're as good or much better than MIA! I soon found a black 1 on CL in very good cond.(very glossy!) It was so good I kept looking for others on EB (they were cheap {$200-300}& plentiful back then!).
Funny story, I bid on 2 on ebay, similar price, color & year. I think 1988. I couldn't decide which one to get, so in the heat of bidding,(Do you remember those evil sniper bidding bots?). I wound up getting both! the 1st to get delivered was a lil beat up (lot of dings & chips) it was an ugly Mauve color too! so I decided to refinish it to mettalic green. it was in rough shape! upon setting up, i found it to be filthy (I thought it was a "Katrina Flood bass"!) so A total Refinish was required! In the meantime, the other 1 showed up. Luckily it was in fantastic Condition,in Beautiful Candy Apple Red! so having 3 nearly Identical Basses and my love to Mod my basses I had a Unique ooportunity to upgrade the 3( triplets) b/c the parts are pretty interchangeable. so I was able to experiment & exchange many pup combos. At that time, I Also was very Fond of the aerodyne bassses as well! So decided to mod the Black one to all black details (hardware, strings & almost everyything). it looks Killer! I kept the CAR 1 stock untouched/prestine since the blk & green got heavily modded in the process. even experimented with "special wiring!(series/parrall&tone stylers) electronics,& tone Caps Too!! They 're my muched loved #1 & #2 basses.
I must Admit almost all the mods were done for Aesthetic reasons than functional b/c these basses were near perfect upon receipt(except "Katrina"). although I think the Pup upgrade is necessary YMMV. I am a self professed tinkerer/tonechaser though. I love to mod my basses. I'm always shopping for New products to try! Yeah, Its a sickness! I do get A Lot of Compliments on these basses! both for looks & Tone/Sound! and they play like butter! I consider myself Lucky to get 3 real Cheap, Now they've seemed to have gotten harder to find.
Sorry for the long post. I 'm bored & isolated!! GL! I must agree Black was a good call! mine looks super glossy, Piano black like $$$ lacquerware yours does too!

I know, I know. I keep rambling on & on about all the mods I've done.

So here the list of completed Mods, reason & the results, Ive kept all the original parts:
1. Changed Bridge;y,b/c:corroded & chiped, 1st with a gotoh 205,then HipshotA(brass),finallyBabicsFCH by far the best of the 3. brass hipshot was good but was a little trebly.FCH:balls, solid sustain!205k
2. PIcpups b/cwanted beefier tone, SD hot P& hot stack J & QPs,then nordstrand p/j set,finally Dimarzio model P/J set. all were/are good, still...experimenting.thinkin geezers.
3.Tuners & D tuner;b/c ogs were oxidized,1st grover titans(caused dive), next Gotohs(too trebly)finally Hipshot Ultralites(best, fixed dive). other then the errosion on the OGs, I just don't like the goofy looking elephant ear pegs on the OGs so if i was gonna replace them It would be wit something sleeker looking. The titans are just too bulky,& heavy: good tonebut caused neck dive!the ultralites are perfect. the gotoh just looked funny.
4.Knobs: b/c I liked the Aerodynes' looks, I decided to upgrade to Cosmo blackKnobs to cop that look. Fortunately I've accuired 2 additional JBS, so I have extras OG knobs. FYI:love the aerodynes "look".
5. electronics/wiring: b/c:My blk JBS bass always had terrible hum(very noisy). even after changing Pick ups.I talked to a good tech buddy. he sugested replacing everything!I was eagerto try anything it was so noisy. So I did. since I was changing just about everything anyway.He also said to sheild it. so i did! while researching pots & electronic guides, i found Tone styler tone pots!: 1st Stellartone Tone styler bass 6(real cool), then swapped 250 pots to 500 to 300k vol pots, then stacked 1000/500 VT pots witha treble bleed tone mod. finally the switch to an all black switch bc OG switch was malfunctioning The n I rewired with fresh wire from StewMac, and shielding paint from SM. now the bass is dead quiet! love the Tone styler! so many variations! I experimented with tone caps & resistors too. reading a lot of wiring mods online! the TS w/the treble mod cured that! at one point I wouldve been happy w/the 300K pots, brighter than250K, but better than 500K pots!
6. Other mods; after hurting my thumb digging in i wanted a thumbrest, but hated traditional ones, I found Bass buddies. online, custom formed rests. they look like little rock climbing hand holds. some think they look ugly, but they're very comfortable & install with no drilling! I love them! Finally I changed/upgraded the string tree, I know, but I'm sick..... I found gotoh Cosmo black trees on Ebay! I couldn't resist, as said I love, love, the aerodyne aesthetic/Looks, so I Have to Have anything Cosmo Black!
Thats it for the Blacked out JBS. Now to the Green "katrina" Bass; it usually gets the spare parts off the Black "betty" JBS, so this will be shorter. but katrina, has 4 screw mount not the std 5,like Betty.
KATRINA: ABM/zon bridge; Great bridge with super adjustability!;Gotoh Resolite tuners, Replaced b/c I modded OG neck & it sounded different, I'm afraid I ruined it, So I ordered a Wenge/Ebony replacement from Warmoth (reverse Tele bass HS). unfortunately, it was very heavy(steel enforcement Rods) so neede lighter tuners, Resolites are the lightest!( lighter than hip shots!). PUPs are probaly gonna change to Aguilar Geezers, but for now are the nordstrand P/J set.Nice 7 growlly! this bass has identical wiring to betty ( TS, stacked VT pots,)
Thats it! i think can't think of anything else, except strings both are strung w/Rotosound Nexus Black coated strings!
Just like add because I got into the convention of naming my basses( Betty & Katrina). I ve also christen then with pin up stickers, tastefully(mostly hidden,blatantly). So of course betty gets a beatie Page image onback ofthe HS, and Katrina is gonna get the bride of frankenstein on the back somewhere, possibly an engraved neck plate, because I don't know any girls named Katrina & she is a Parts Bass.

I recently bought a JBS but the input jack is completely missing. Do anybody know how to replace the outer ring/screw or where to find a similar one?
I'm looking for this piece:
View attachment 1174998

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Shouldnt be hard to find, I have 3 JBS' and replaced all 3, all of them were gol/brass in color.

 

[Yellow Bang66]

no, it looks a jbs head+neck (one piece)

View attachment 1148684

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Could be a MIM Cowpoke, they were made later on,maybe 1990 or so, look similar but had pickguards.or maybe a PJ lyte.

 

[gtlover]

Could be a MIM Cowpoke, they were made later on,maybe 1990 or so, look similar but had pickguards.or maybe a PJ lyte.

No on both counts - both the Cowpoke (and its MIA Precision Plus cousin) and the Lyte use undersized bodies, 22 fret necks, and 60's bridge pu location. What's pictured there is a 20 fret neck and looks more like 70's bridge pu location - kinda like somebody did a refin on a JBS or one of its Japanese relatives.

 

[Yellow Bang66]

Thick as hell paint lol mine is one of the most beat I've seen and no bare wood is shown. If you need any measurements let me know

Yes, I bought/rescued 1 years ago on ebay, severely abused,& neglected! it was filthy, had many chips & scratches on it. I can attest to the "thick as hell paint" of said bass had a bigass chip on it (quarter sized)to the barewood. I was surprised how thick the paint was, almost a 1/4"! No kidding! I wish I had pics ,but the bass was in such poor condition I was embarassed to admit I bought it(for 275+ship). I believe they applied the finish so thick to protect the "soft" Basswood underneath! the chip was on top by the upper horn close to the tummy contour. it was chipped diagonally so it would have been hard to measure, But it looked like if you sliced into a bowling ball & could see the layers underneath! I nicknamed this bass "Katrina " because I believe it survived that hurricane (purchased shortly after Hurricane Katrina). as I was taking it apart to Refinish it, there was a lot of crud & grime(like dried ketchup)caked in hidden places(PUp cavity,control cavity,& under the bridge) I even found a sesame seed in the jazz pup! and it had a stale scent too! it was a real mess! I think it took me a week & 2 packages of 320 grit sand paper to get hrough that finish by hand!! I remembered it destroyed my hands! but I did it right & and now its Beautiful! If I say so myself.(pics coming after this virus mess clears out!). after much deliberation, its dark metallic green(I have a blk & Car JBS+2 blue misc. basses), kind of sherwood green/teal.with 20 coats of clear over( for Protection). I recall, I couldnt get over how thick that paint was! like thick plastic sheet over the wood! I washed the barewood down with Napatha (lighterfluid), cause I was afraid of mold & mildew! It originally was ugly 80's Mauve(dirty Pink). I consider it/her Saved!
So I wouldn't be too concerned about the "soft" basswood from getting damaged.

 

[A-Step-Towards]

I think I remember, Him saying the battery died in it before a gig & it freaked him& his tech out, so he ditched it for the regular (passive) JBS.

Pretty sure that bass he was referring to was a Kramer that can be seen played by him in the Sweet Child music video

 

[wolfkeller]

Pretty sure that bass he was referring to was a Kramer that can be seen played by him in the Sweet Child music video

He was given a Spector ns2. He used it for it's so easy at the live at the Ritz show in 88. At the end of the song bass drops out. After that, the white JBS. He did use that Kramer Forum in sweet child, passive I believe.

 

[LostJohnny]

Finally got my JBS rewired! Ripped out the EMG pickups and electronics and put in some used SD Basslines pickups and a TBX control to return it to a more original state.

Lessons learned:
- Not all Precision pickups are exactly the same size. Tolerances between the rout and the pickup can be extremely tight, and a lot of P pickups seem to be just a hair too big. I had to sand down the covers to get them to fit the routs.
- There are imperial and metric pots, and the imperial pots have shafts slightly too large to fit the holes for metric pots. The difference is something like 8mm vs 10mm, but that's enough.
- TBX controls are now made ONLY in imperial sizing, AFAICT, so you must enlarge the hole to do a replacement. Fortunately a reamer worked just fine, despite my fears about the finish cracking.
- The control rout is still very small for a full-size TBX control.
- The "deep panel jack" is apparently almost impossible to remove without destroying it (so I didn't even try removing it)
- My soldering technique sucks and needs a lot more practice. Also I managed to damage the toggle switch, probably with excessive heat, which is a known issue with box switches. *sigh*

But, somewhat to my surprise, it all works! The pickups pick up, the volume controls volume, and the TBX control tones! Now I'm just waiting for that replacement toggle switch to come in...

 

[Barry Vestal]

Heres my pb551's

 

[AA63]

I don't know what the rarest color is.
but i think there were around 3 colors available I've seen Black, White, red & gunmetal Gray. also the white seems to oxidize/ yellow to kind of a mettalic yellowish gold. the rare ones have a painted Black back neck ( the first ones?) unpainted necks cane later on.

The rarest? CAR Fretless. Like the museum quality one I have for sale at the moment. Did I say that out loud?