I'm on the fence about this one

[Mark_G]

Happy new year, all. In a couple of hours I'm going to take a look at a MIM Jazz Deluxe that's being sold locally. According to the seller, his son bought it new in 2008 or thereabouts, played it for about year and then stuck it in the case and never looked at it again. Judging from the dings, it had a couple of adventures during the time that it was in use.

It was surprisingly hard to find much concrete info about the MIM Deluxes, including prices - they seem to be all over the place. Is the asking price of $475 with case (and a box of mostly useless accessories, although I did see a DigiTech Envelope Filter hidden in there) sound like it's in the ballpark?

 

[jd56hawk]

That's probably a fair price for a clean one.
I've seen people asking as much as $800 for them, a ridiculous price considering the preamp, but it was the blue one with the maple fretboard so I guess the seller thought it was rare.

 

[Camaro69]

Not an awful price, and they may be willing to negotiate. I had one of the same approximate vintage and didn’t have issues with it

 

[Snakeman1066]

it's in the ballpark (though $450.00 would be a better number)

 

[CallMeAl]

They had one of those in my local shop not too long ago. IIRC they had asked ~$500 for it, that seems like fair market price. The neck was fantastic- I wasn’t looking for a Jazz bass that day, but if I was that would have been my pick

 

[Killing Floor]

Wow! Black with tort AND a shoe cameo! Seems like a good price. Seen for higher.

 

[Mark_G]

Thanks, everyone. Checked it out and didn't really click with it so decided to pass, but I appreciate all of the help!

 

[Camaro69]

Unfortunately that is why I sold the one I had. But it took my buying it to realize that

What didn't click, or what is it that was missing?

 

[Mark_G]

Unfortunately that is why I sold the one I had. But it took my buying it to realize that

What didn't click, or what is it that was missing?

It had a couple of niggling things that someone a little more seasoned than me could have dealt with pretty easily – the fret edges were like saw teeth, and the volume jumped all over the place from string to string. The volume thing in particular felt disorienting, because no matter how much I played around with the tones I'd keep getting distracted by the E going BOOM every time I hit it. With more experience I might have been able to see past that, but it turned me off. No doubt it'll be a great bass for whomever does buy it though, and it would certainly have been a solid upgrade on what I'm playing now. But there seems to be no shortage of good stuff in the $400-$600 range, especially used, so I figured I'd wait for something I'm really exciting about. Not going to lie, the tort-on-black nearly swung it the other way though!

 

[Camaro69]

That e string thing gets better with some set up work. But yes at that price range, plenty of good tools to be found