For sale RARE Westone "The Rail" Bass - Serial 506010

I am the original owner of this rare Westone "The Rail" bass that I purchased in St. Louis, Mo. A product of Matsumoku in Japan. I played it for several years. It still sounds amazing and weighs less than 7 lbs!

I have upgraded the tuning mechanism to larger screws since the original screws thin and prone to breaking. The newer screws are black like the originals except for one which is silver. Other than that it is completely original. "The Rail" text is above the clear coat as in 1984 models, however it has rubber end stops at each end of the rails as in 1985 models. I believe it is early 1985 which puts this bass at around 38 years old. I've provided detailed pictures of the bass and original (rare) gig bag below (click thumbnails) and I have pasted the specs from the Westone.net website below.

The Rail
Production
Matsumoku, late 1984 to 1986

Description
Reviewed in Guitarist magazine, November 1984. RRP then was £240

Appears in the Jan 1985 US pricelist at $499.50 including gig bag. The Sept 1985 pricelist shows it as available in 3 colours (Black, red or white), the August 1986 pricelist shows an increase to $529.50 for the black version or $565 for red or white. The Rail does not appear in the April 1987 pricelist

The rails are uncoated steel on black models, red and white ones had black rails.

The Rail used the same custom gigbag as the Quantum.

Specs
Info from the 1985/86 misc catalogue:

• Hard Maple neck and body (If you can call it a body)
• tuned steel rails join the two body sections
• Rosewood fingerboard
• graphite nut32.25 inch scale
• 24 frets
• Magnaflux RB pickup
• single volume control
• no tone control: changes in tone are achieved by sliding the pickup along the rails

Thanks to Kevin Bailey for additional information on the differences between his ’84 black and ’85 red Rail basses, and pictures of his red Rail bass

• The ’85 Rail has rubber end stops at each end of the rails, the 84 one only has them at the bridge end
• The neck pocket is shallower
• The ’85 bridge heel has two fewer carves than the ’84; the two corner carves are gone
• “The Rail” text is under the clearcoat on the ’85, whereas it is on top of the clearcoat on the ’84
• The dot inlays on the fretboard are still red, but the ones on the side are now white
• The heel at the top of the neck (where the serial number is) is smaller on the 85 model