I recently traded for a 77 Jazz here on TB. Here's a photo of the bass.
The neck feels and plays great, despite the frets being pretty low. It's not particularly heavy, and the only glaring quality issue related to being a CBS era instrument is the pickup routes are sloppy by today's standards.
The natural look is cool, but it looks a lot more like poly sealer in person, and I just don't love the look and feel of sealer as a finish. I dissembled the bass and sent the body off to Ritchie at Strings Refinishing in Ontario. I gave a lot of thought to color, but knowing that the bass was already stripped, and that the spray in the routes showed 70's mocha brown, I decided to go with faded oly white, just because I like it. I know '70s Fenders are known more for wood tones and that white is more of a '60s color, but it was offered in the '70s, too, and it's just what I want. I cleaned the fret board and stored the hardware safely for reinstallation in a few weeks.
I figured that was pretty much all there was to the story, then I ran across the same bass in a previous online ad, at [This invalid link has been removed], with it's original finish and pickups (and maybe case).
I have to say that I wouldn't have refinished it if it hadn't been stripped since that sale. I don't love mocha, but this version of the bass is pretty cool. It's also sortof a shame that someone parted out the pickups and replaced them with sadowski pups (or at least pups with sadowski covers). They sound good, but I'm not positive what they are.
So that's the good and bad of the bass. In a month or so I'll reassemble it with fresh aged white paint, the original black pickguard, and leave the cover and thumb rest on a shelf (just my playing preference). I'll check the impedance of the pups and make a decision on whether to reuse them. The pots work fine, but one of the volumes has a loose shaft, so I'll make a decision whether to leave it or rewire with new pots and caps. The pots look old, but the soldering jobs looks like a bunch of cold joints, so hard to say whether it's original. I'll post more as it comes together.
The neck feels and plays great, despite the frets being pretty low. It's not particularly heavy, and the only glaring quality issue related to being a CBS era instrument is the pickup routes are sloppy by today's standards.
The natural look is cool, but it looks a lot more like poly sealer in person, and I just don't love the look and feel of sealer as a finish. I dissembled the bass and sent the body off to Ritchie at Strings Refinishing in Ontario. I gave a lot of thought to color, but knowing that the bass was already stripped, and that the spray in the routes showed 70's mocha brown, I decided to go with faded oly white, just because I like it. I know '70s Fenders are known more for wood tones and that white is more of a '60s color, but it was offered in the '70s, too, and it's just what I want. I cleaned the fret board and stored the hardware safely for reinstallation in a few weeks.
I figured that was pretty much all there was to the story, then I ran across the same bass in a previous online ad, at [This invalid link has been removed], with it's original finish and pickups (and maybe case).
I have to say that I wouldn't have refinished it if it hadn't been stripped since that sale. I don't love mocha, but this version of the bass is pretty cool. It's also sortof a shame that someone parted out the pickups and replaced them with sadowski pups (or at least pups with sadowski covers). They sound good, but I'm not positive what they are.
So that's the good and bad of the bass. In a month or so I'll reassemble it with fresh aged white paint, the original black pickguard, and leave the cover and thumb rest on a shelf (just my playing preference). I'll check the impedance of the pups and make a decision on whether to reuse them. The pots work fine, but one of the volumes has a loose shaft, so I'll make a decision whether to leave it or rewire with new pots and caps. The pots look old, but the soldering jobs looks like a bunch of cold joints, so hard to say whether it's original. I'll post more as it comes together.
My older brother bought it in the 80’s and did the brass nut and Bartolini mods everyone was doing than. It’s had a fret job and plays and sounds great…however it’s back issues and fingers numb heavy so,I can’t really take it to gigs. 
