My brother in law has had his Pilot since it was only two years old, he got it when he a 17 or 18.
His is typical black body and rosewood fretboard, but the neck back came painted black, so all black/black/rosewood.
It has the typical EMG P & J pickups, and he has always loved this bass.
I talked to him a few years ago and asked him what his favorite bass is and he told me his old Pilot.
This guy has two very, very expensive custom made Spector basses and he likes his Pilot better.
He also told me that he never uses the J pickup on his Pilot.
When he told me the Pilot is his favorite, over all the rest of his basses, I decided to go find a Pilot.
I was very happy to find a "P-Bass" version of the Pilot, they only made 50 of the P only Pilots, so it's rare as well as "bare bones" like you said.
I also like that it has a maple fretboard, I like maple fretboard basses best.
The more I look at it, the more I like it, gonna have to keep it.
His is typical black body and rosewood fretboard, but the neck back came painted black, so all black/black/rosewood.
It has the typical EMG P & J pickups, and he has always loved this bass.
I talked to him a few years ago and asked him what his favorite bass is and he told me his old Pilot.
This guy has two very, very expensive custom made Spector basses and he likes his Pilot better.
He also told me that he never uses the J pickup on his Pilot.
When he told me the Pilot is his favorite, over all the rest of his basses, I decided to go find a Pilot.
I was very happy to find a "P-Bass" version of the Pilot, they only made 50 of the P only Pilots, so it's rare as well as "bare bones" like you said.
I also like that it has a maple fretboard, I like maple fretboard basses best.
The more I look at it, the more I like it, gonna have to keep it.
You know, I bought this Pilot sight unseen - just told the dealer that I wanted another Pilot and to let me know the minute he had another one in the shop...He called me and told me he had gotten a "special" one (with a special sky-high price, too) and I was out on the road when I told him I'd own it...When I paid for it back in '93, it cost me 1350.USD (today's conversion rate)...When I first saw it, I wasn't quite sure how "heavy metal" it was as my other Pilots were solid colors but I got used to it pretty fast and it became my favorite of all my Pilots within weeks...I don't mind the rosewood fingerboard but if I could have chosen, I would rather have had a maple fingerboard on it as well...After reading around this forum, I am wondering if my bass isn't some kind of factory "hybrid" of an "advanced 902 body" + "regular 602" neck...Hmmm...It seems the Guild Pilots builders were pretty versatile and flexible when it came to materials used in any given Pilot series. And yes, it does sound different from the poplar-bodies - much crisper, packs a bigger punch. ;-)
