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Moon Owners Club

#62
Hey guys, cool to see this group exists. I live in Japan for 8 years and always wanted a Moon but couldn’t afford one. Now in a position to get one (secondhand) and came across this JB-5A. A couple of them actually. Are they super heavy? The green one has had its preamp replaced with a sadowsky. Not sure if that takes the heart and soul out of the thing but it’s going for $1800. The other one is….. a little more on the pricey side
 

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#63
My JB5 was one of if not the best-made bass I’ve ever owned. It was nearly flawless construction and the neck was fast and stable. It was alder-bodied and fairly heavy as I recall (we didn’t used to weigh basses), but it balanced well. I recall the Moon preamp as one of its strengths, though it lacked a passive option, important to me. The mid control was one of the most powerful tools I’ve met in a pre-amp. I’ve never used a Sadowsky so can’t compare. If you can determine and tolerate the weight and are ok with 19mm bridge spacing, I don’t see how you can go wrong at that price. …cool finish!
 
#67
I can't stop playing it. Sonically, it's so close to a tone-chase I've been after for years, so I'm stoked with that. This one has EMGs. The bass is, truth in advertising, 11.4 pounds, but after 29 years playing an Alembic that was 12.5, it's not that big a deal, if it sounds like this.

This is the first Moon I've played and I'm impressed with the workmanship. People say it's as good as anything and they're right. There is no serial number on this bass but the CTS pots inside are all late 1984. The neck pocket is perfect and tight. The truss rod is accessible with a very—VERY—thin screwdriver but there is nearly zero margin, kind of an odd design that nearly nails it but falls short. Another oddity, which might be a Japanese or metric thing, the neck appears to be a compound radius that is 7.25" at the nut (a graphite one, maybe because of the Hipshot?) and at the 21st fret it's kind of... not quite 9.5 and I don't have a radius gauge in between those two. (Later: I turned my gauge around and it was basically 9.5". My gauges need gauging, apparently.)

But based on the tone that's coming out of this bass, Ash/Ebony is my new favorite combination by a mile.

The one thing I'm not sure about is the ability to set up the bass with low enough action for my taste, which I always assumed would be something a Moon does easily. Right now, it seems like the neck needs a shim because the E and G saddles have hit the deck and I cannot quite get the low action I want, about 1.5mm (G) and 2.0mm (E) and be able to radius the other two. It's so close, but not there yet. The neck relief is absurdly flat but giving it more bow will mean the saddles need to move even closer to the body than physically possible, so this is my only hurdle. I'll find a good tech and get an opinion.

Compared to my Moollon J 5 it's sonically night and day and they have very different goals. But I'm a fan.

Moon JJ4 Red B.jpeg
 

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#68
Bonding with this bass. The neck feels solid in my hands and the tone is inspiring. I keep playing it and thinking, “this bass is so out of style right now” but I don’t care. It sounds like everything I loved as a teenager.
 
#78
Trying to figure out why my bass has no serial number. The neck says (IIRC) "4-1" in pencil, but I can find no other marks or numbers anywhere. CTS pots all date to late 1984.
 
#79
Sorry, I'm hitting the thread with unanswerable questions, but here's another: This Moon has got me looking at other models, maybe a 5-string. What do the older JJ model numbers refer to? It looks like all the JJ-XXX became JJ-4 at some point. I'm seeing a lot of...

JJ-165
JJ-175
JJ-185

...that all look like my bass (3 knobs, toggle switch) from the early days.

Anybody know? I'm guessing it's to do with active or passive electronics, or wood types or something.

For example:

 

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