GeeCee

Slipping out of the groove in the roller saddle on the Schaller bridge when slapping due to the low break angle, I believe. Mark King said something similar and that is part of the reason why he ditched his pair. The owner was and may still be a member. I don't recall his username, but if you do a search for Pangborn, you can read it in his own words. You will have to go back a ways but there is not that much Pangborn content. What you say is true, though the late John Diggins always maintained that the initial similarity was more of a happy accident and based in large part on a customer's design specifications, which was an attempt to copy an Alembic. He would also say that Ashley Pangborn spent a fair bit of time studying his instruments at trade shows over the years and you can see them evolve closer to a JD, for example, in terms of the control layout. That said, Pangborn's instruments were (mostly) neck throughs, while JD stuck with the set neck design.

Because that is a JD roller nut by the looks of it (helps with string bending). The bridge and tailpieces are also JD pieces, as is the brass PU selector surround. I think this bass had a Schaller 3D bridge originally and the owner had problems with the strings slipping due to the shallow break angle and took it to Jaydee to be "fixed". And, let's face it, Pangborn was always heavily influenced by JD (funk groove was another JD signature, not Pangborn).

Here is a fancy series IV Jaydee:

It's genuine, I know the guy who had it made (for his daughter, I believe). There are half-a dozen short scale JDs out there. This is one of the more plain ones. It's a Roadie II, passive and was originally cherry red. The short scale design is referred to as a series IV. PS. Roadies are part of the Supernatural range of basses too.

The latter I believe. I vaguely recall that is a MK model under the paint, which, if true, would be an odd choice really, better to have started with a Roadie.

Seconded, JD does use some nice hard-wearing ebony for their fingerboards; just curious do you know what body the neck was originally attached to?

Sounds right

You can but ask, though John is essentially retired, so it would be up to Mike and Andy as they would likely be the ones that would have to make it. Hard to say, they don't do as much non-Jaydee work now and the model choices have narrowed somewhat. Pretty easy to replicate though, 62 jazz copy, no scratch plate, plain ebony fingerboard, active EMG pick-ups (battery on back), and black hardware throughout (machine heads, control plate, bridge, etc.) Would look like this:

Not normally, no, Roadies do have a central strip of maple. In this case, the maple strip is painted over to look like ebony. Anorak fact, the first couple of Roadies made actually do have a central strip of ebony instead of maple.

Different basses I think, look at the figuring on the upper bout in the above to the fretless. There have been a number of Roadies redone in recent years.

Here is a pic of S4 Roadie next to a S1 MK. Look at the tail to see how much shorter it is.

Oh, here it is, I think. So I was close, it was originally sunburst.

It is a refurb. I thought there was some pictures on the FB page of the other bass during the refurb, but I can't find them.

Oh, maybe I misunderstood, but I was referring to the one you used as an example, not the one you're having built.

So, if I remember correctly, this particular bass started life as a Roadie IIA fretless in cherry-red. The faux stripes look has become quite popular recently, cheaper to refinish a worn Roadie IIA than order a new MK; reckon original style Roadies may become an endangered species soon. Bit like pearl-pink MKs, there was a time when these were being refinished because pink was seen as a bit naff or less manly.