balls. ill buy it from you asap lol
Ahaha sorry man, I think it's a keeper for now although there's a lot a stuff that is weird/wrong about it. Still, I plugged it in and it sounded as a beast and the neck is pretty comfy. Still, lots of question marks on this one...
I took it apart yesterday and snagged some pics in the process.
Here's what I found.
First off, the body. Both horns have been shortened a bit for a less spiky look. I dig it, only thing that bothers me a little bit is that since the top horn is shorter, neck dive is even worse that my Ripper. The body is definitely Alder since is really really light. The guy I bought it from said that the previous owner replaced the bridge because there were missing some parts on the original one. He patched up the ferule holes in the back and put a newer generic bridge as a replacement. I took the bridge off and you can definitely see the previous holes patched up. Also, if you flip the bass the other way around you can still see in the light where the ferule where. Overall, the new finish job is pretty decent, the guy put a clear coat so it doesn't look too bad. The nice thing is that I still got the original bridge/ferules hardware so I can probably revert it back to the original state without too much hassle. The pickguard is a replacement made by Chandler, pickup slider seems to be a replacement too but the pickup itself is original and fully working. Pots seem to have been replaced, I could find any date or maybe they were soldered over. Seems too new to be original. Knobs are original speed knobs.
The weirdest part is the pocket. There were 4 extra holes. When I took the pickguard off, I noticed that there was a small gap between where the neck was and where the pocket ends. I thought, that maybe because the pickguard is a replacement, it was bigger and the neck couldn't fit tight in the pocket, he had to move it about 1/4 inch forward. Weird. I think I would have just cut the pickguard instead. Other weird thing is that when the neck is not placed deep in the pocket, the scale is 34 1/2, which it should be...
Which brings me to the neck. All maple, truss rod is plugged into the back so no fretboard. It is straight and not warped. Headstock is NOT angled which is really, really weird/rare. I've only seen one other grabber neck that had the straight headstock and the truss rod in the back;
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f129/fs-gibson-grabber-maple-neck-defretted-547300/
Headstock tip has been cut off and reglued. Don't ask why, dunno. It doesn't affect the structure and the job is fairly clean. It has been refinished black, new logo and clear coated. The finish is the thing cracking there. There is no serial on the headstock, since the tip was replaced. Maybe it was stolen at some time and the guy was too stupid to sand it off? Anyways, the bass came with a small piece of paper with a serial writen on it. It dates it back to 76' but I wouldn't count too much on it. There was no date stamped or written on the pocket, or none that I could find. Still, I think it is original.
Tuning keys are Schaller replacement. The guy gave me the original ones, but they need to be restored/cleaned cause they don't turn that well. Nut seems to have been replaced. Back plate is original.
The bass itself is playable as is, but I'm definitely taking it to a luthier to fix the bridge and neck. The bridge is a little crooked so you can see that the G string is really too close to the side.
I'll have it put the original bridge and ferules and fix the pickguard/neck pocket problem.
The guy was asking 200$, got it for 140$. It comes with an hardshell case but not the original one, a generic case but it fits perfectly. Overall I think for the price it is still a good deal. It needs a lot of work but as is, it sounds like a beast so it's definitely a player.
Here's the pics. Sorry for the long post/hijack but I know some of you guys wanted to know more about it.
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