Moon Owners Club

[MIJ Enjoyer]

I was not aware!

Danny had it on his channel a few times

 

[600 Ohms]

So you loosen the back screws and have the neck tilted to reach the trussrod screw? I also have the neck hangover at the last fret.

I don't have to loosen any screws because the shaft of the drive is quite thin. But, I had a (2.5 mm) shim made for this bass when I bought it because the neck sat too low to be able to lower the action sufficiently (I don't understand why it came this way, maybe because I believe the neck was made later as a custom order for the bass, or something. My bass has no serial number and is a bit of mystery). Unlike the modern Moons, where there is a long routed channel leading up to the truss screw, the one on our era of bass is small, and should be adequate, but appears not to be in some cases.

Again, the thinner the screwdriver, the better chance you have of not needing to loosen neck screws.

 

[Les Fret]

I don't have to loosen any screws because the shaft of the drive is quite thin. But, I had a (2.5 mm) shim made for this bass when I bought it because the neck sat too low to be able to lower the action sufficiently (I don't understand why it came this way, maybe because I believe the neck was made later as a custom order for the bass, or something. My bass has no serial number and is a bit of mystery). Unlike the modern Moons, where there is a long routed channel leading up to the truss screw, the one on our era of bass is small, and should be adequate, but appears not to be in some cases.

Again, the thinner the screwdriver, the better chance you have of not needing to loosen neck screws.

There is no way I can get a screwdriver in without tilting the neck or completely detach the neck.

 

[600 Ohms]

There is no way I can get a screwdriver in without tilting the neck or completely detach the neck.

Does your neck joint to the body look similar?

 

[600 Ohms]

Just spotted Mark King's JJ-4 (technically a J-J198), which he ripped the frets out of.

 

[Sbasstik]

Hi.. Snagged this Moon off an auction for ca. 550 USD a little while back. It's still in transit (surface shipping) and I'm getting impatient haha, so I thought I'd check in here and see if I could tease out some info of you experts based on some images:

No model/type or year of build was offered by seller. No info about what wiring/electronics is onboard, but it has four knobs rather than three and a switch. Weight is a solid 4,5 kilos. Some of the pots are noisy. Bartolinis. Neck looks straight, action low, not much fret wear, and the bass appears to be pretty well handled - not abused.

I'm guessing it is a JJ-4, and I've tried to figure out approximately year of build, but that's not easy.. There's a serial number15xxx (I think). Based on a few Moon guitars (strats) I own, I'm guessing 80s, Danny on 'Bass Japan Direct' guessed late 80's ...

What do you guys think? Anyone here that recognizes the model/year? What pre-amp should I expect? Any facts or guesswork is appreciated

 

[Sbasstik]

My Moon is from 1984 so I wonder if ESP was using that design throughout that time, even after he’d started the PGM venture?

I’m not sure to what extent Moon/PGM had their own factory in the early phases or if they assembled OEM’ed parts or if it was a mix of both. Both ESP and - two years later - Moon started off as a boutique operations assembling parts, having Gotoh brand their hardware etc.

I know that Harayama’s factory made guitars/basses for both ESP and Moon e.g., ESP acquired the Kiso Suzuki factory at some point and had their early Navigator guitars made there and at Harayama’s.

Harayama was at the time highly regarded for his expertise, with many years of experience working for both FujiGen and Matsumoku before opening his own operation. Harayama was making necks for Fujigen, ESP, Kramer, Schecter Japan, Moon and others.. I think several hundred necks per month at peak.

I’ve never really found out if Moon ever had a larger factory, but I know for a fact they at least on occasion sourced parts well into the 90s. I’ve seen Moon guitars with Warmoth necks. I even think Deviser would stuff OEM for them.

Of course they had their own workshop - several pictures exist - but it is a rather small operation, and considering they’ve had a large catalog for decades, it would surprise me a lot if they didn’t subcontract a significant part of their production.

Quite early on both ESP and Moon nurtured close contact with the largest distributors in Japan, and both established overseas contacts and operations ESP had the 48th street customshop and Moon operated in California and were friends with Schecter and Tom Anderson.. for a while at least.

When e.g. Van Zandt established an OEM contract with Moon for making Fender-style guitars (that has existed for decades), I not really convinced Moon’s own small factory made all of these guitars bottom up - though I could of course be completely wrong.

The whole luthier factory scene in Japan has always been somewhat ‘incestous’ and had a very pragmatic outlook. Even competitors like Fujigen and Matsumoku would take on orders from each other depending on their capacity, and they would frequently hire the same smaller factories as subcontractors.

I think for example Momose’s Headway/Deviser company is guilty of much more than what is public knowledge about the origin of boutique guitars in Japan. I think the larger factories have dedicated teams of expert makers who do batches with particularly high quality attention-to-detail orders.

I’m pretty sure quite a few of the boutique brands in Japan use the same factories. Perhaps they assemble and do setups in their own shops. It’s often very hard to find out who makes what and you very rarely see pictures from the inside of factories.

I own Moon guitars, Schecters, early ESP, Greco and Ibanez and spent stupid much time trying to get a picture of the situation in the late 70s/early 80s, sifting through Japanese blogposts with Google Translate and it is surprisingly hard to find solid information

 

[600 Ohms]

Hi.. Snagged this Moon off an auction for ca. 550 USD a little while back. It's still in transit (surface shipping) and I'm getting impatient haha, so I thought I'd check in here and see if I could tease out some info of you experts based on some images:

No model/type or year of build was offered by seller. No info about what wiring/electronics is onboard, but it has four knobs rather than three and a switch. Weight is a solid 4,5 kilos. Some of the pots are noisy. Bartolinis. Neck looks straight, action low, not much fret wear, and the bass appears to be pretty well handled - not abused.

I'm guessing it is a JJ-4, and I've tried to figure out approximately year of build, but that's not easy.. There's a serial number15xxx (I think). Based on a few Moon guitars (strats) I own, I'm guessing 80s, Danny on 'Bass Japan Direct' guessed late 80's ...

What do you guys think? Anyone here that recognizes the model/year? What pre-amp should I expect? Any facts or guesswork is appreciated

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I'll guess late 80s as well. You have what I *believe* is the later Moon bridge, before they started using straight Gotoh parts. From what I can tell, the pickup switch probably transitioned to knobs for active preamp EQ in the late 80s sometime. You got a killer deal.

 

[Sbasstik]

I'll guess late 80s as well. You have what I *believe* is the later Moon bridge, before they started using straight Gotoh parts. From what I can tell, the pickup switch probably transitioned to knobs for active preamp EQ in the late 80s sometime. You got a killer deal.

Thanks a lot!! I know very little about the bass line-up of Moon, but I own (and have flipped) quite a few Moon guitars and they have all been fantastic builds, great necks and superb fretwork. I’m primarily a guitarist, but own a few basses and actually play more bass than guitar these days (a late bloomer, haha).

I scored a similar feature/looking Blade bass recently (lucky summer: 290 USD), so I’m guessing one of them have to go.. eventually… or not .. haha

 

[600 Ohms]

I'm thinking of swapping the NTBT-918 preamp for an XTCT on the Larry. I think I would prefer the built-in tone curve of the XTCT. Anybody do this swap?

 

[tieftonservices]

Bought a Moon JJ today. Great instrument, Barts, old preamp, lightweight and only 800.- bucks. The playability is fantastic!

 

[600 Ohms]

I made my J-J175 (EMG) a J-J165 (Bartolini 9S) and I’m definitely happier with it. I was always trying to mellow it out and this change did exactly what I hoped. The only difference is the pickups are the 9SU “Deep Tone” model but I can see why they made Barts stock back then. Now the bass is completely passive and has much improved string balance with the Bartolinis. The G used to really poke out before.

 

[Tong Cherd]

Hi!!
Nice to meet everyone and hopefully can be a part of moon owners this year! I can write and speak Japanese relatively well but have written to Moon directly in English. I was wondering if anyone has ordered directly from them and wanted to know how it went? Thank you so much!

 

[600 Ohms]

Hi!!
Nice to meet everyone and hopefully can be a part of moon owners this year! I can write and speak Japanese relatively well but have written to Moon directly in English. I was wondering if anyone has ordered directly from them and wanted to know how it went? Thank you so much!

Even if you write to them in Japanese, they will reply in English! They also take sometimes up to a month to reply, FYI. I think you'd be better off buying through Danny at Bass Japan Direct. I recommend his services, and there will be no question you're getting what you asked for.

 

[Tong Cherd]

Even if you write to them in Japanese, they will reply in English! They also take sometimes up to a month to reply, FYI. I think you'd be better off buying through Danny at Bass Japan Direct. I recommend his services, and there will be no question you're getting what you asked for.

Thank you so so much for the quick reply!!
I've actually gone and made an order with them! I got an artist deal and was able to get it to a really good price. They have been pretty quick replying the longest one of the emails took was about a week. I'm just worried since I sent the payment about 4 days ago and they disappeared. I'm just worried abit but I'm glad someone have had contact with them before! I've actually have sent an inquiry to Danny before a while ago but never got a reply sadly...

 

[Btbp]

Any ideas where I can get 2 Moon headstock decals?

In the 90s I had Moon install lawsuit headstock J necks on 2 of my non-Moon basses, there's no logo on the headstocks.

Year later and after I left Japan I never asked Moon for these.

I think the work they did for me back then was when they were still getting to where they are now and it's not something they would do now.

But they're legit Moon parts and the headstocks look naked.

 

[John Machine]

I have a Moon jj4. I don't know how to date it, but the pots date to 1980. The mid adjustment usually accessed from an internal trim pot appears to have been moved to the top of the bass, hence the extra knob. I just picked this up late last night so I haven't had a chance to hear what all the knobs do except through a crappy homemade guitar amp. It plays like a dream. The brass nut and frets have been polished since these pics were taken (they're from the sale listing), and it's very clean and shiny. Not a mark on the frets. The only downside is that this bass is HEAVY. I couldn't believe the weight. I love it so far, though.

 

[600 Ohms]

I have a Moon jj4. I don't know how to date it, but the pots date to 1980. The mid adjustment usually accessed from an internal trim pot appears to have been moved to the top of the bass, hence the extra knob. I just picked this up late last night so I haven't had a chance to hear what all the knobs do except through a crappy homemade guitar amp. It plays like a dream. The brass nut and frets have been polished since these pics were taken (they're from the sale listing), and it's very clean and shiny. Not a mark on the frets. The only downside is that this bass is HEAVY. I couldn't believe the weight. I love it so far, though.

Let me tell you something my friend. A heavy ash JJ4 is a treasure and it's not a disadvantage, it's thunder clapping as Odin parts the clouds to rain down summary judgment on the foes of funk. Do a few more goblet squats and Romanian deadlifts if you have to. That bass needs you to be strong! Congratulations.

Moon's dating system is impossible to figure out (at best) and they're not consistent with their serial numbers. Pots are probably the best way. A friend and I have the same model Moon bass that were ordered over two years apart from each other, but have sequential serial numbers! There's no winning, especially as the company has been under various control throughout the years. If you email them your serial number (assuming your bass has one), they might get back to you in a month, but they too may plead ignorance as they are concerned with sales of new Moons. Don't forget, too, Moon's original guy came up making similar basses under different names, including Fernandes and ESP; a handful of them had the similar raked neck pickup design.

As for the mid pot, if it was once a trimmer, I wonder if it has a Bartolini TCT-family preamp inside.

 

[steakfinger]

Let me tell you something my friend. A heavy ash JJ4 is a treasure and it's not a disadvantage, it's thunder clapping as Odin parts the clouds to rain down summary judgment on the foes of funk. Do a few more goblet squats and Romanian deadlifts if you have to. That bass needs you to be strong! Congratulations.

Moon's dating system is impossible to figure out (at best) and they're not consistent with their serial numbers. Pots are probably the best way. A friend and I have the same model Moon bass that were ordered over two years apart from each other, but have sequential serial numbers! There's no winning, especially as the company has been under various control throughout the years. If you email them your serial number (assuming your bass has one), they might get back to you in a month, but they too may plead ignorance as they are concerned with sales of new Moons. Don't forget, too, Moon's original guy came up making similar basses under different names, including Fernandes and ESP; a handful of them had the similar raked neck pickup design.

As for the mid pot, if it was once a trimmer, I wonder if it has a Bartolini TCT-family preamp inside.

I wish I knew more about the electronics and I’m excited to try it in an actual bass amp.

 

[600 Ohms]

I wish I knew more about the electronics and I’m excited to try it in an actual bass amp.

What is in yours?