I happened to stop into a local GC store while out running some Sunday errands. I typically stop in to check out what’s new and see if I can find any interesting secondhand trade-in gear. I wasn’t really impressed with the basses in stock, so I demoed a few used pedals and pretty quickly decided I wasn’t interested in any of them. I was about to leave, when I noticed down the hall towards the bathroom, there were 20 or so instruments on stands, and the first one was the new Jackson flying V bass that just came out.
I ventured down to check it out and quickly realized they were all scratch and dent items, set up in the hallway down to the restroom. The Jackson had a pretty noticeable scratch on the front and the discount was only like $50, so I moved on quickly. There were quite a few basses to look at, and it just so happens that I was looking at a red Squier jazz bass as the manager passed by. I commented to him that it was weird that they had these instruments in the hallway and he told me they were trying to “blow them out” before the Christmas stock came in, and the jazz bass was a great deal because they only wanted like $100 for it.
Looking it over the bass appeared to be in good condition. It was clearly used as it had an aftermarket pickguard and a metal cover over the bridge pickup. Two things jumped out at me. The obvious one was that the output jack was missing. The second was that the serial number on the back of the headstock was covered with a sticker serial number and the word “used” was stamped. As I was looking it over the manager confirmed the price was $109 as-is with a 45 day return window. That was good with me and I was out the door.
When I got home, I threw it on the bench to take a closer look. I could see the jack through the hole in the control plate. It turns out that everything worked fine, the jack was just missing the outside nut and washer. I pulled a set out of my junk drawer, gave the bass a good cleaning, oiled the fretboard, gave it a setup and now it plays great!
This was a total impulse buy. I’m not sure if I’m going to keep it or not, as I already have a Fender MIM player jazz. That bass currently has tapewounds on it, so it might be cool to string this up with something different for variety. To be honest, I was kind of hoping that the electronics would be shot so I could turn it into a little shop project over the winter. I guess I’ll just have to spend that time practicing now.
I ventured down to check it out and quickly realized they were all scratch and dent items, set up in the hallway down to the restroom. The Jackson had a pretty noticeable scratch on the front and the discount was only like $50, so I moved on quickly. There were quite a few basses to look at, and it just so happens that I was looking at a red Squier jazz bass as the manager passed by. I commented to him that it was weird that they had these instruments in the hallway and he told me they were trying to “blow them out” before the Christmas stock came in, and the jazz bass was a great deal because they only wanted like $100 for it.
Looking it over the bass appeared to be in good condition. It was clearly used as it had an aftermarket pickguard and a metal cover over the bridge pickup. Two things jumped out at me. The obvious one was that the output jack was missing. The second was that the serial number on the back of the headstock was covered with a sticker serial number and the word “used” was stamped. As I was looking it over the manager confirmed the price was $109 as-is with a 45 day return window. That was good with me and I was out the door.
When I got home, I threw it on the bench to take a closer look. I could see the jack through the hole in the control plate. It turns out that everything worked fine, the jack was just missing the outside nut and washer. I pulled a set out of my junk drawer, gave the bass a good cleaning, oiled the fretboard, gave it a setup and now it plays great!
This was a total impulse buy. I’m not sure if I’m going to keep it or not, as I already have a Fender MIM player jazz. That bass currently has tapewounds on it, so it might be cool to string this up with something different for variety. To be honest, I was kind of hoping that the electronics would be shot so I could turn it into a little shop project over the winter. I guess I’ll just have to spend that time practicing now.
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