Short version:
Lovely Ibanez Roadster RS940 that's been fretted. Pickups are now Dimarzios. 4.4kg
£400 now £350 ONO plus postage
Longer Explaination after a few pics....
Long version, probably worth a read if you are interested:
I have a real love of quality Japanese basses, not one that's matched with my having owned loads of them, but geeking out in early 80's catalogues... yeah that's me. And previously owned a Fujigen JV precision that I had really enjoyed... had a bit of GAS for a Blazer for a bit and then ended up buying this, and then trying to fix it... I'm going to tell you what it is, what I've done to it and then also point out the negatives...
So what is it.
It's a piece of magic from Japan from 1981 if I can read the serial number correctly. It weighs 4.4kg according to my kitchen scales.
It has an ash or sen body, and a stiff 3 piece maple neck with maple fretboard. It's brown, but in a nice way.
It's got all the original parts except the pickups, the knobs, the jack socket, a plastic ring that would have gone around the the pickup selector switch, battery snap, strap buttons, the screw on the battery cavity and one on the jack plate.
The tuners are for some reason excellent and probably the best tuners I've tried on a bass, I have no idea why, but they are stable and easy to use and work really well.
The neck is really stiff, much more than a Fender style, and doesn't have any dead spots I've noticed.
Original preamp works lovely and does what it says it will and all the electronics work as they should.
Typical super well built over designed early 80's Ibanez.
It plays nice with a decent medium low action, it can go lower but my fingers hit the strings too hard for that to be a good idea.
(1981 catalog image)
So what's the story?
It was on eBay, I bid more than I meant, I went and got it, previous owner passed away and his sister was selling. She said He had played it lots around London. So first thing to note - this has been played.
When I got it it was filthy, with added stickers and EMG pickups.
I tired to tell myself I should try EMG pickups and quickly realised again I hated EMG pickups... it had also been wired up by an idiot which meant It all worked until you switched the preamp off, and then any rolling off the volume would give a nice electrical buzz through your amp.... 😱
So out came the pickups and a new set of Dimarzio PJ was bought. The bridge is split coil so no buzz when soloed (unlike the original), a fairly pricy new DPDT jack was sourced that matched the original in a wiring diagram I found and I fixed the wiring back to the original wiring diagram. As I said the whole thing is over engineered, with the pots having their own silicone sleeves.
Cleaning the crap off I noticed the bass had originally been fretless, and the old markers had been filled and new ones, and frets added. This has been done to a professional standard with only the old markers and what looks like a shim of card under the nut giving it away.
The bass also had seemingly had every single screw loose. The neck, bridge and pickup adjustment screws were all removed, the holes plugged with the cocktail sticks and woodglue trick and rescrewed - they are now all tight and secure (and the bass sounds better because of it). The strap buttons had also been moved but I I left them.
Knobs are not original. The big ones are the Ibanez knobs Thomann sell, the small ones are the closest I could find to the original, they look right but are a fraction too small.
It currently wears some old sadowsky blue label strings, truss works, is easy to set up and play and plays well.
The bad points?
It's been played.
The frets are good, they seem to have been levelled recently, which means they play pretty good, but are slightly lower at the nut end - If I were being picky they could have done with a better crowning. Feel free to tell me how low you have your action and I can check if I can match your setup but if you are one of those who has super super low action at 0.3mm a 41 year old bass may not be for you!
Theres a fair bit of dinks and knocks to the body, and some on the headstock. The back of the neck is good but there is a gouge under the G string on the 12th fret. It's small enough that it doesn't effect anything but better to mention it. The worst scratch is the one between neck and upper bout at rear- I've no idea how you'll do that, it's not pretty, it goes through the finish but no further. The wood underneath is fine.
So I'll have missed something so ask questions....
Price and getting it to you...
Sale price is £400 ONO plus delivery.
Trade value £450-500
I can package it up in a bass shaped box I have and post at cost, (or if you would prefer I've a brand new Gator GPE-Bass-TSA case that could be sold)
A nice thing about selling on Basschat is sometimes you get offered interesting basses in exchange. I'm not really looking for anything but feel free to offer but don't be offended if I'm not interested. I can do trade and ££ either way but, and while your Fodera is nice I will get castrated If I added more than a few hundred to any trade!
Lets have some more pictures....
Note the small bit of card under nut.
Note the hole where the strap button has been moved, Also can you see where the marker was originally a dot either side of the 12th fret .
EQ knobs are a bit small.
Controls are Vol, Tone, Preamp on/off, 3 way pickup switch , Active Bass +- Active treble +-
And look a nice solid bridge and brand new lovely Dimazio pickups!!
PS there's no shim in the neck, it fits really nicely to give a good setup really easily. For me I found it really odd how much more space there is between the body and the strings than a fender. but it's how it was designed!
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the odd scratch, not structural
Well worn battery cover
Another strap button moved, and a screw missing on the jack plate.
Body end of the neck - you can see the filled in marker on the 24th fret. Actually its' how you can tell it's not a factory fret job as the RS924 have two dots at 24fret
12th fret with the little gouge under the G string. Not noticeable to touch when playing. How on earth do you do that though?
Fret condition at this end of the neck. Lower than the other but good.
I’m really surprised this one is still here
Lovely 🥰
From the basses on the sofa thread... It's for sale mainly as I seem to have too many basses... and it's at the bottom of the pile in terms of me picking it up... It does do something a bit different, and if it doesn't sell I'm not going to be stressing too much
on hold pending...
