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NBD and (hopefully) LBD

GretschWretch

GretschWretch

Supporting Member
Dec 27, 2013
12,449
25,119
East Central Alabama
#1
Last night I unboxed (which took me forty-five minutes and aged me at least five years) what I hope will be my last-purchased electric bass, as in Finis. Without going into lengthy details, let me just say it brings me a closure I desperately need. I got it from Southside Guitars in Brooklyn and, shipping and taxes included, paid almost double my previous high for purchasing a bass. But for me in my situation I felt the cost was worth it. The bass is a National N850. Southside has already taken down its listing, so I'm afraid the Reverb listing will have to do for pics. I don't have a suitable indoor backdrop to take my own pics, and I'm not taking a hollow-body bass outdoors into twenty-five degree temperatures for a photo-op. Reverb's pics are better anyway and can tell you all you need to know. Here is the link.

https://reverb.com/item/88584461-national-n-850-bass-guitar-1968-sunburst

The bass was listed as in used - very good condition. What an understatement that is! There is a 1mm by 2mm finish chip in the edge of the neck heel where it enters the pocket and a 1mm by 1mm chip on the other side. Other than that the bass is pristine: no weather-checking or loss of gloss or lustre on the finish, no faded coloring; no scratches or tarnishing of the chrome. Long-scale, complete, and original. The only flaws are those two finish chips on the neck.

Weight is 7 pounds eleven ounces. Neck width is 1 1/2 inches at the nut, 2 inches at the neck heel. String spacing at the bridge is 19 mm.

Talk about a unicorn. In essence, what Southside sent me is a fifty-eight year-old brand new bass! How is that possible??? I'm not just satisfied. I'm thrilled!
 
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#2
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Nice score, play it in good health.
 
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#9
TeaTime said:
Congrats! For those of us who don't follow these kind of basses could you tell us what all those knobs do?
Click to expand...
Thank you for asking! I wanted to include more info in my OP but did not want the post to run too long. To directly address your request first, this bass shows a Gretsch influence in the somewhat Gumbyfied "pizza shovel" headstock found on the vintage 6070 and 6072 Gretsches, the master volume control (treble-side cutaway horn), the dual tugbars, and the pickup positioning of neck/center as opposed to the more commonly found center/bridge positions. These aside, the rest of the controls are the neck/both/center toggle for the pickups and the vtvt knob arrangement.

This bass is my second N850 (my first gave me a good idea what to expect here, so I wasn't risking a whole lot by purchasing this one at the price I paid) and the 850 and the CustomKraft Bone-Buzzer bass (which both @JIO and I each have one of) along with some companion guitars are part of the Moderne series, a Kay/Valco collaboration. This series was produced only in the year 1968. One quirk which I knew about, although I only recently discovered was a commonplace in Valco guitars, is that one of the tone pots is wired in reverse; it behaves as if it were on a left-handed instrument.

So I now have two N850s and a Bone-Buzzer Bass as well as one of the guitars, and @JIO has a Bone-Buzzer. I really hope he contributes to this thread since about 98% of what is on the internet regarding the Bone-Buzzer is on TalkBass, and 98% of that is from @JIO. A Google search for Bone Buzzer Bass TalkBass ought to harvest most of it.
 
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