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Looking for fender A/E semi hollow precision bass

#21
Chef said:
Cafe Walter used to make a piezo buffer for these that helped a lot.
If I recall correctly.
Which I may not.

I gutted mine and gave it a large makeover.

View attachment 859355
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i bought this and used the body in a medium-scale project. it now has bartolini pickups. i also did a roundover on the top. it is number one bass at the moment. fender jaguar reverse mim neck. schaller bridge, hipshot tuners. pic when i get home tonight.

edit: best i have on short notice:

blanco_20160505.jpg

this must have been a country tune:

2016riverside1.jpg
 
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#22
GretschWretch said:
Swapping in a fretless neck would eliminate some problems and probably enhance the sound. I too recall Cafe Walter offering an electronics upgrade, and I believe Bill Bolton down in Sydney AU did some tweaks to his in the control cavity that also improved the sound.
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If I recall correctly the heel on that neck is contoured, not the standard design. They were available in a lovely unlined rosewood fretless tho.
 
#23
mrbacco said:
beautiful is beautiful... how is the sound? this is more an acoustic bass electrified rather than a electric semi or hollow bass isn't it? how much is also this baby and how heavy is it? thanks
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It has a very woody tone, almost upright at times depending on settings and how you play it, but you can get some bite from it. Plenty of sustain if you want it. It doesn't have the buzz or snap in the tone that a regular acoustic bass guitar has, which is something I don't like about ABGs. Part of the reason is the lack of frets and tapewound strings, but I suspect a fretted version with rounds would still have less buzz that a regular ABG. It weighs about six pounds. Neck is very thin and comfortable.

I bought this one on eBay for $750 with a hard case. I "built" one with the same features on Carvin's website to see what it would cost new, which came to $1,450.00. With standard features (i.e., no quilted maple top) they start at $999 new (they have a $100 off sale at the moment). Or check eBay. They appear there fairly regularly. There are none there as I write this, but just wait. I see them there all the time.
 
#24
blmeier7 said:
I had a fretless one in the natural color back in the late 90's. Got it in a trade deal. The tone was surprisingly "upright" sounding from what I remember. The bass didn't do much for me and I didn't keep it too long. I have seen them come up for sale on TB ever once in a while.
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@lz4005 , @blmeier7 are these basses one and the same?
 
#26
Been a while since someone posted on this but I can't help but give my two cents. I have the fret-less version of the one you are looking for and just can't stop playing it. I played it as my only bass for almost two decades. Switched to a couple different fretted basses for a while and am back to playing this one as my main bass again. The sound is great. It is light on the shoulder and the feel is so buttery in the hands. I have never had to have a setup done and it is almost always in tune out of the case. I bought it new and I can't help but keep coming back to it as my main bass. Two things I did to it to modify it were putting a D-Tuner on the E string and Bartolini pickups for the PBass. Yea the Lace Sensors were pretty good, but the Bartolini in conjunction with the Piezo is a killer combo for me.

It is not so much an acoustic bass as it is an electric with an f-hole. Don't show up to an acoustic jam thinking you can keep up. It is an electric bass but lighter than most basses I have played.

If you can find one, get it. I love mine. But with frets will be a little tougher as I have not seen very many without the hockey stick head stock.

Good Luck!
 
#27
ElGoodo said:
Been a while since someone posted on this but I can't help but give my two cents. I have the fret-less version of the one you are looking for and just can't stop playing it. I played it as my only bass for almost two decades. Switched to a couple different fretted basses for a while and am back to playing this one as my main bass again. The sound is great. It is light on the shoulder and the feel is so buttery in the hands. I have never had to have a setup done and it is almost always in tune out of the case. I bought it new and I can't help but keep coming back to it as my main bass. Two things I did to it to modify it were putting a D-Tuner on the E string and Bartolini pickups for the PBass. Yea the Lace Sensors were pretty good, but the Bartolini in conjunction with the Piezo is a killer combo for me.

It is not so much an acoustic bass as it is an electric with an f-hole. Don't show up to an acoustic jam thinking you can keep up. It is an electric bass but lighter than most basses I have played.

If you can find one, get it. I love mine. But with frets will be a little tougher as I have not seen very many without the hockey stick head stock.

Good Luck!
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Similarly @ElGoodo I have been the original owner of one of these beauties for about 23 years. Great player of a bass. Definitely feels like going home every time I pick it up. Rarely has required any setups or maintenance. I did have the bridge re-glued at one point about 10 years ago. Other than that 100% all original. I have been able to dial in a really sweet sound with the Lace Sensors but definitely not an acoustic bass. You can hear it better unplugged than many other electric basses, would be drowned out in an acoustic jam. Mine is fretted, and has a classic fender pbass headstock, no hockey stick over here. I have yet to see one otherwise except for dated pictures on the internet. Mine gets played only at home nowadays because I want to keep it as clean as possible. If anything changes on wanting to sell (which I don't), I'll get at you on this thread.

Good luck on finding one.
 
#30
lz4005 said:
Are you wanting one because of how it looks, or because you need that sound/feel?

Those were an early experiment in combining piezo and magnetic pickups and are rare because they were a bad design that was pulled from the market quickly.
They just didn't work very well.

By modern standards the electronics were pretty terrible. It had a master volume, piezo/mag blend and a single EQ knob with a center stop.

No separate battery door, at least 4 screws to remove to get to the battery.
Inside, the battery was just sort of flopping in the cavity, wrapped in foam. No clip to hold it in place.

And they're very difficult to intonate because of the acoustic-style saddle.
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Well, I have owned two. The last one am I still using as my primary tool. The first had its issues but I liked it rather good.
These basses are not a result of the best workmanship as pointed out, but the one I still got is really the best bass I have ever encountered. It is good looking and very well sounding. Mine is fretless and can sound anything from doublebass to the usual p-bass.
 
#31
Knaskeknas said:
Well, I have owned two. The last one am I still using as my primary tool. The first had its issues but I liked it rather good.
These basses are not a result of the best workmanship as pointed out, but the one I still got is really the best bass I have ever encountered. It is good looking and very well sounding. Mine is fretless and can sound anything from doublebass to the usual p-bass.
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Is there a reason you picked today to reply to something I posted 3 years ago?
 
#34
Fond memories of my fretless sunburst model, at least after some tweaks. As was noted earlier in this thread, the electronics were poorly designed. Somehow, the mag pickup was wired in parallel rather than the usual series. I replaced the Lace Sensor with a beefy Schaller, much like a Dimarzio Model P, and wired it in series. I also swapped out the electronics with a Bartolini model that buffered the piezo before blending with the mag and set up a conventional tone control. I mostly used Labella tapewounds, which gave a nice mwah. Eventually, though, I switched to a fretless Godin A4 and finally started playing an Azola Bugbass instead.
 
#35
mrbacco said:
Hello all. I'm a new guy here and quite new to the beautiful world of electric bass, I'm looking to find a fender A/E precision bass as in the picture below. It's a semi hollow body produced by Fender Japan in the early 90s, with fret-board and p pickups. looks like is quite rare thou, anyhow I'm looking for a second hand to buy and play it! thanks
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I love mine, fantastic craftsmanship on this Made In Japan A/E Bass. I wouldn’t use mine as my everyday gigging bass, but do love playing it.
C773F5A5-FD3D-4858-A0DF-B1E61A6D2A7C.jpeg
23CAF5E0-A9D1-4C62-9F5F-2CE673952C5F.jpeg
1268D53D-9686-47D6-874D-75B15705BD57.jpeg
1BE51FF6-EC2D-46D3-B151-1943BBF781ED.jpeg
 
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#38
VillageIdiott said:
I don't think I have ever noticed the "A/E" on the headstock before. Is that stock? I'll have to do some internet research.
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Yes, that's how they came.
I had the fretless version for a while. The intonation issue doesn't matter too much when there are no frets. I liked mine, but my brother-in-law owns it now...
 

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