Fender Jazz Bass Special - Circa 1984-87

[bassgod76]

I would love to play an all original one some day, but I've literally never had a bass for me like these. I've had Mexican and American Ps, Mexi Js, Squiers, Sterling Rays, Ibanez, etc. so the physical is well worth it for me.

If anyone has a sample of the original pickup sounds I'd be very interested to hear it.

I have owned four of them. While they felt a bit different, from bass to bass, all of them had that real distinct almost artificially chorus type tone.

 

[LostJohnny]

If anyone has a sample of the original pickup sounds I'd be very interested to hear it.

I was going to make a quip about there being an album called "Appetite For Destruction" that had some decent samples of an original JBS, but apparently even at least one of Duff's was modified to have different pickups, so who knows...

Seriously, though, I would like that too. There seems to have been a huge trend of ripping them out and replacing them with EMGs, which has rendered original pickups rather rare.

 

[gtlover]

I have owned four of them. While they felt a bit different, from bass to bass, all of them had that real distinct almost artificially chorus type tone.

I wonder how much of that comes from the bridge pickup in the 70's position?

 

[bassgod76]

I wonder how much of that comes from the bridge pickup in the 70's position?

It's possible, all my JBS's past and present have stock pickups.

 

[hbabels]

I was going to make a quip about there being an album called "Appetite For Destruction" that had some decent samples of an original JBS, but apparently even at least one of Duff's was modified to have different pickups, so who knows...

Seriously, though, I would like that too. There seems to have been a huge trend of ripping them out and replacing them with EMGs, which has rendered original pickups rather rare.

I'd still say Appetite is a pretty good example of the JBS tone even if there's was a pickup a swapped plus added studio magic. Swapping the bridge pickup for tue Seymour Hot Jazz Stack isn't a radical change in tone as I'd say the heavy lifting on the tone is done by the P pickup.

 

[bassgod76]

I was going to make a quip about there being an album called "Appetite For Destruction" that had some decent samples of an original JBS, but apparently even at least one of Duff's was modified to have different pickups, so who knows...

Seriously, though, I would like that too. There seems to have been a huge trend of ripping them out and replacing them with EMGs, which has rendered original pickups rather rare.

I will say that when you plug it in, you can instantly hear that Duff

 

[r_bnks]

I was going to make a quip about there being an album called "Appetite For Destruction" that had some decent samples of an original JBS, but apparently even at least one of Duff's was modified to have different pickups, so who knows...

Seriously, though, I would like that too. There seems to have been a huge trend of ripping them out and replacing them with EMGs, which has rendered original pickups rather rare.

Appetite is a little boxy IMO but Use Your Illusion is a pretty good example. In the Duff always used his 'Skull' JBS what is unmodified. Still has the original large pole pickups.

I used one with the original pickups for this video.

 

[bassgod76]

Appetite is a little boxy IMO but Use Your Illusion is a pretty good example. In the Duff always used his 'Skull' JBS what is unmodified. Still has the original large pole pickups.

I used one with the original pickups for this video.

Coma is a great example too

 

[r_bnks]

Coma is a great example too

Yea, that's one of my favorite. His tone is king with the 800RB and chorus.

 

[bassgod76]

Yea, that's one of my favorite. His tone is king with the 800RB and chorus.

I used to have that with a Boss CE-5? It was fantastic

 

[hbabels]

Yea, that's one of my favorite. His tone is king with the 800RB and chorus.

Agreed it's a fantastic Rock Bass tone that sits beautifully in the mix with all those guitars !

 

[bassgod76]

I would love to play an all original one some day, but I've literally never had a bass for me like these. I've had Mexican and American Ps, Mexi Js, Squiers, Sterling Rays, Ibanez, etc. so the physical is well worth it for me.

If anyone has a sample of the original pickup sounds I'd be very interested to hear it.

This is a super long shot, but there is this guy, Joe Dredd. He's in the Pacific Northwest. The dude bought a beautiful fretted black JBS, and completely gutted and refinished it. He replaced the pickups and went with all chrome hardware.
If you look him up on Twitter or FB, you may be able to talk him into selling you his original JBS pickups. Just a thought…
Link Removed

 

[bassgod76]

Cases question:
All 4 of the JBS's I've own/owned, arrived with varying "case". One had no case or bag, another one arrived in a gig bag, the third one arrived in an old school Fender HSC (the rectangle type), and my new one came in one of those form fitting-shaped Fender HSC's.

I'm trying to get a consensus if JBS's came with a case, or was it one of those things where you had to buy it extra?

My newest JBS is an 87, and the seller, who was the original owner, said this case is what came with the bass. Given the age of the bass, is this case period correct?

OR
Is this case the period correct case for this vintage bass?

 

[gtlover]

Cases question:
All 4 of the JBS's I've own/owned, arrived with varying "case". One had no case or bag, another one arrived in a gig bag, the third one arrived in an old school Fender HSC (the rectangle type), and my new one came in one of those form fitting-shaped Fender HSC's.

I'm trying to get a consensus if JBS's came with a case, or was it one of those things where you had to buy it extra?

My newest JBS is an 87, and the seller, who was the original owner, said this case is what came with the bass. Given the age of the bass, is this case period correct?
View attachment 4412444

OR
Is this case the period correct case for this vintage bass?
View attachment 4412448

My high school's JBS had the rectangle HSC, that's what I would presume to be period correct. If you find one that's 100% intact, put it in secure climate controlled storage for posterity and get a new case to actually use.

 

[Jfp]

Mine came in the rectangular case pictured above. Of course I'm not the original owner so I don't know if that's how it came from Fender.

 

[r_bnks]

Cases question:
All 4 of the JBS's I've own/owned, arrived with varying "case". One had no case or bag, another one arrived in a gig bag, the third one arrived in an old school Fender HSC (the rectangle type), and my new one came in one of those form fitting-shaped Fender HSC's.

I'm trying to get a consensus if JBS's came with a case, or was it one of those things where you had to buy it extra?

My newest JBS is an 87, and the seller, who was the original owner, said this case is what came with the bass. Given the age of the bass, is this case period correct?
View attachment 4412444

OR
Is this case the period correct case for this vintage bass?
View attachment 4412448

I bought one of mine from the original owner and it came in the same shape hard case like yours. Another one I've got came in a case like the second one without the USA stamp. That's an 80s Fender case so it should be period correct.

 

[JIO]

Cases question:
All 4 of the JBS's I've own/owned, arrived with varying "case". One had no case or bag, another one arrived in a gig bag, the third one arrived in an old school Fender HSC (the rectangle type), and my new one came in one of those form fitting-shaped Fender HSC's.

I'm trying to get a consensus if JBS's came with a case, or was it one of those things where you had to buy it extra?

My newest JBS is an 87, and the seller, who was the original owner, said this case is what came with the bass. Given the age of the bass, is this case period correct?
View attachment 4412444

OR
Is this case the period correct case for this vintage bass?
View attachment 4412448

original

 

[LostJohnny]

Cases question:
All 4 of the JBS's I've own/owned, arrived with varying "case". One had no case or bag, another one arrived in a gig bag, the third one arrived in an old school Fender HSC (the rectangle type), and my new one came in one of those form fitting-shaped Fender HSC's.

I'm trying to get a consensus if JBS's came with a case, or was it one of those things where you had to buy it extra?

My newest JBS is an 87, and the seller, who was the original owner, said this case is what came with the bass. Given the age of the bass, is this case period correct?
View attachment 4412444

OR
Is this case the period correct case for this vintage bass?
View attachment 4412448

Mine came with a form-fitting case, and like yours, my seller said it was original, but he was not the original owner, so I don't know how much you can trust that.

 

[bassgod76]

Mine came with a form-fitting case, and like yours, my seller said it was original, but he was not the original owner, so I don't know how much you can trust that.

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out when Fender switched from the rectangle cases, to the form-fitting ones.

 

[Lownote38]

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out when Fender switched from the rectangle cases, to the form-fitting ones.

Early 1990s. I have a 1988 Precision that came with the the rectangle case, but by 1991, it was the form fitting case.