Help me identify this bass! Please!!

looks like a duff mckagan signature bass

 

You just wanna show off a beautiful bass, don't 'cha?!

 

A quick look at Fender.com shows E (letter is important!) is from the years '84 -'87.

As for your controls - I'm guessing at a vol, mix and and tone for each p-up?

 

wheres the pickup selector on yours?

 

^ Blend pot.

 

Turn everything counter-clockwise/anti-clockwise and then one at a time, with the bass plugged into to an amp, turn them clockwise while plucking a string. Start at the front (nearest the neck) and work backwards. If you hear the bass then you've got a volume pot!

Once you've found the volume pots, keep them turned on and then experiment with the other (probably two knobs) if they change the sounds from 'dull' to 'bright' when you turn counter-clockwise/anti-clockwise then you've got a tone pot.

 

That is from the Japanese made Fender "Contemporary Series" from the '80s. Nice basses!

 

Yes, I have a guitar from this same year. Cool guitar, awful color, same as your bass. The wife calls it dark pink, I call it bronze. I think the quality is great.

 

Basically, the way Fender quality works (from my understanding):

MIM < CIJ < MIA

Other than that, I couldn't tell you a darn thing about it.

 

It has some similarities to my '88-'89 MIJ Fender Precision Lyte:


On my bass, the four controls are Volume, Pickup Blender, Bass, and Treble.

 

About the quality thing between MIM CIJ and MIA.... The MIM and CIJ's are crap... ship them to me and I will dispose of them for you. Send any Squiers you have as well.

 

it looks like a PJ-555 and somebody replaced the toggle switch with a knob, routed the area around the truss rod and added basslines.

there are a few in this thread
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=288114

 

Great instrument. The neck is maple (not all of them were painted black, I believe the earlier ones were later ones weren't), rosewood board, basswood body. The nut width was 1.625 (B width on a P bass), but it felt thinner front to back. The body is "cheaper" wood, very light which kind of throws of the balance of the bass IMO, but it's not something I would consider an issue as it's not severe enough to cause neck dive.

As said above, you should have volume, volume, and a TBX tone control with a three way switch. The original switch acted as a kill switch if you had one pickup off and set it to middle position. I used to use just the P pup on mine because the J was so weak sounding in comparison that it didn't add much to the overall tone. The basslines are not original to the bass, but I do see a lot of these basses which have been upgraded with at least a basslines J if not both P and J.

The TBX tone control is something you'll have to look into because I can't remember the exact specs, but it should have a center position like an active boost/cut knob would have. Down from that spot it works like a normal fender tone control. Up from that spot it acts as a treble boost (I think). The order on that might be reversed as well. Like I said, you'll have to look it up.

Just for fun, here's a pic of the one that used to be mine:



I had a solo pic somewhere but I can't find it now. I sold mine about a year ago when I bought another fretless P since that's all I really used this one for. Mine was also an E5..., so that put it (and yours) round about 1985.

 

It looks like your jack may have been replaced as well, mine was flush with the body, although I had some scuffing along the bottom edge so mine may have been pushed in by an impact at one point.