Shaggy

Made a couple of big purchases this year (the T-bird, & another old Gibbo incoming), so having to face that the time has come to “rationalise” the collection down to 4 or so and sell some basses I’d always regarded as keepers. Also - Mrs Shaggy says so! Posting this and the BCR Eagle for now, depending on what happens may also post the MM Sabre, Gordon Smith Galaxy, and the Guild B301-F too - so anyone interested in those now PM me for pics & details. Not looking to make a profit on any of them, likewise not really looking for trades. Anyway, had this beaut off Walbassist as couple of years back; best thing is to quote most of his original ad directly; “[i]If you like your vintage fretless basses to have "mwah" and "mojo", then this is the bass for you.. Bassbod owned it for 20 odd years; whoever had it before him had taken a maple-necked P bass from 1973 and made it into a fretless bass with ebony board and active electronics. Bassbod returned it to passive and played and loved it until I took it off his hands. It is by no means original in many respects, but it is a lovely bass. The neck is original, although it had an unlined ebony fingerboard pro fitted at some point, as well as being narrowed to a jazz-like width at the nut and oil finished on the back. The original finish is still on the front of the headstock, so it retains the vintage vibe. I assume the machine heads are original. I had the fingerboard levelled so it now features a standard Fender radius at the nut which flattens out further up the neck. The body features the original 1970s sunburst finish, but as you can see it has been well worn and housed an active circuit at some time, hence the black backplate to hide the routing. The pickups are modern Seymour Duncans (the P is an SPB1 Vintage series, the J is an Antiquity II series). I have just had the bass rewired with new Fender-correct CTS 250k solid shaft switch pots, a Switchcraft 1/4" jack, black/white cloth wire and a .047mfd Orange Drop tone capacitor in a volume/volume/tone configuration. To the best of my knowledge the scratchplate and most screws are original, however the thumb rest is not. At the same time as the rewire and fingerboard levelling were done I had the bass given a pro setup. The bass plays beautifully, full of wonderful smooth fretless tones. The P is plummy and rich, the J nasal and barking. Sustain is excellent and the bass is a lightweight.”[/i] I’ve made a couple of mods since acquiring it; I changed the SD J p/u (bridge) for a Lindy Fralin unit which gives a bit more hi-fi clarity, and mixes beautifully with the P p/u to add some “honk” and bite; also replaced Leo’s bent-metal bridge with a chrome Badass II but would include the original unit with the bass. Now strung with Fodera Diamond roundwounds, and in a plush-lined Fender moulded ABS case. In effect it’s a Tony Franklin model, but the real deal; a 73 Precision but with modern boutique pickups, and hard ebony board. Looks vintage, plays modern, sounds like either. The mods obviously decrease its value as a vintage bass (hence the price), but [b]vastly[/b] improve it as a players bass – head and shoulders in terms of tone, sustain, and playability above [b]any[/b] Fender I’ve played and pretty much any other top-end fretless too. The mod that worried me before seeing it was the rear cavity - which is in fact very small, merely a continuation of part of the existing cavity through to the rear with no sideways enlargement. Edit: Price drop to £900, less £50 if not wanting Badass, less £50 if not wanting case. plus postage if not collecting (I’m near Swansea, S Wales)

[quote name='wombatboter' post='537758' date='Jul 11 2009, 10:40 AM']Ik ben nog steeds aan het wachten tot je de Fodera eens te koop zet ... [/quote] +1 Wot he said!

PM comin' at ya

Lovely bass. The only guy I remember playing one was the bassist in the Boomtown rats circa 1979, and the only other one I've seen for sale within the last couple of years was on t'bay (France), modded with Alembic p/ups and active EQ, BIN of £400 - still kicking myself..... Bump for a cool lefty Edit: Lovin' the avatar, loweringthetone!