LeftyJ

As a vintage Ibanez fan, this hurts my feelings a little bit. This is a very rare bass that's hard to come by in original condition. The 24 fret models from 1981 and later are far more common, and especially the single-pickup models don't pop up often. An all-original MC800 from 1979 is pretty special.

Very pretty! That's exactly what the dots would have looked like, but only the MC940 came from the factory with a fretless ebony board like that. The RS840 and RS940 had maple boards. Unless this is some custom order by an Ibanez endorsee back in the day (Sting? He has famously played several Musicians, both fretted and fretless, 4-string and 8-string, and the bean bass Roadstar basses. Maybe Roadster too?).

If you're absolutely sure it's a Roadster, that fingerboard is definitely not original. All Roadsters had maple fingerboards and had PJ pickups from 1981 onwards. Prior to that there were some older models with the large Musician style brown soapbar pickups. The factory fretless RS940 had an unlined maple board with tiny off-center dots. If yours has an ebony board, it's likely a defretted RS824 (passive, 2V+2T) or RS924 (active/passive, VT + bass + treble, 3-way switch and active/passive-switch). Edit: Yep, modified RS924!

I've been using the Mono M80 flight bag for my Status basses instead of the original Hiscox cases, and I've been very happy with it so far. Build quality is impressive, it's comfortable to wear as a backpack, the padding is very thick and sturdy, the neck is held by a long flap with velcro, the front pocket is very useful with a velcro loop for your instrument cable, and when you don't need the shoulder straps you can just tuck them away in a back pocket. I love mine! It's wickedly expensive for a gig bag, but it feels like it won't let me down easily. I've been using the guitar version for my headless basses.

Could be any Jazz Bass pickup in a custom cover. The best way to tell would probably be to unscrew the pickup window and see what the pickup looks like from below. It looks very nicely and expertly made! I love the silverburst too.

I beg to differ, a good rail pickup works great ☺️

What are you to me? - UNKLE

I usually do. I recently made a small pedalboard with a few basics (tuner, compressor, OD, chorus) but before that I've always just plugged my bass into an Ampeg tube preamp, with a rack tuner on a parallel output, to an EBS head and 4x10. I've always been very happy with that tone, and still am ☺️

Cool idea, I will be watching this thread to see how this turns out. I'm not joining though, because money. And a lefty probably isn't going to happen anyway unless they get enough requests to be able to make a full batch of lefties.

No, these are qartolini's.

Imagine changing chords for the first time in years, and not changing the notes simultaneously! There must be some music nerd in that room thinking "This band sucks!"

Looks lovely, and I love that topwood! It reminds me of olive wood, with those wild grain patterns. Very nice!

I have never had a custom instrument made for me, but I did have some modifications done to factory instruments with mixed results. These were nearly all electronics mods, so easily reversible. The one that comes to mind that REALLY disappointed me was the addition of an Audere JZ3D preamp to my 1975 Jazz Bass reissue. It changed the character of the bass, even with the controls flat (less bottom end with the EQ flat, and slight compression), and added a huge amount of control options that I never used. Being a lefty, the one thing that annoyed me most, though, and which I hadn't taken into consideration when ordering the preamp from Audere, was the controls all worked in the opposite direction of what I was used to, including the pan pot! It worked so counter-intuitive that I absolutely hated the bass and stopped playing it entirely. It's a great bass though, so after sitting in a rack for months I decided to have it changed back to passive, with a regular VVT setup again, but I did have an active bass boost added - because I decided the only controls I ever use on an active bass are bass boost and high cut. It's absolutely perfect now.

I always hated the look of those paddle basses and other headless basses when I started playing bass. The headless (and more specifically, Status Graphite) virus hit me when I spotted a beautiful, pure white S2 Classic with Roman numeral inlays for sale. It looked so utterly beautiful, the modern and elegant bodyshape looks so good with the headless neck. And the white of the body with the all-black fingerboard with white numerals and black hardware just looks stunning. Sadly it had just been sold... It took me another 11 years (!) of waiting until that very bass popped up for sale again, but this time I snagged it. That was 3 years ago now, and I'm hooked.

I was going to say Roscoe Beck too. These originally came with a Gotoh 206 bridge, but that was discontinued at some point and Fender replaced it with the above bridge.

I guess I'll have to get a second uke for re-entrant tuning then 😆

It is not, it just has one saddle that all strings rest on. Asjustability is limited. But then intonation is never perfect all over the neck on any fretted instrument with straight, parallel frets.

I would only be comfortable with a neck without a truss rod if the manufacturer could guarantee ZERO movement, even when switching string gauges or tunings. 030-090, as many slappers prefer, is quite a difference in tension compared to a 050-110 set when both are tuned to E. And obviously changing the tuning does a lot too. My 5-string Status S2 Classic neck definitely straightened a little when I changed the tuning from low B to A for a doom metal gig.

I've been thinking about it before, but earlier this week I got a really strong urge to buy a ukulele. I went on the net to compare, quickly decided a tenor uke was the way to go (I'm 1,96 m tall and have fairly big hands, and I want to be able to play more than just open chords), and found a nice solid spruce top Kala KA-STG on gear4music for a fair price. I have yet to convert it for left handed use and have been playing it with the strings upside down for some time yesterday, and it's a lot of fun! I probably will, at one point, replace the re-entrant string with a proper low G, the examples I've heard on Youtube sounded a lot more natural to me with a bit more body and depth.

Nice! How would you describe the neck, compared to the slight V-necks on their acoustics? Does this have more of an "electric" feel?

Carvin LB75 5 Cort NTL-B fretless acoustic 4 Ellio Martina Forza 5 Esh Stinger 1 4 Fender Japan 1975 Jazz Bass reissue Ibanez MC924 1981 Ibanez MC924 1983 Ibanez RS924 1981 Ibanez ATK305 5 Longbow American Classic fretless 2-string Status Graphite S2 Classic bolt-on headless 5 Status Graphite S2 Classic bolt-on headless 4 Warwick Streamer LX5 And a couple of guitars (two MIJ Squier Strats, a Carvin DC727 7-string, a Tokai ES-60, a Crafter D7 dreadnought, a Taylor GS Mini and a Taylor Baby).

I don't know how serious the intentions were when this abomination was released, but it's AWFUL. This kept popping up on a metal forum I used to be a member of.

Fender Mustang Bass Fender early 1960s Jazz Bass Fender 1970s Jazz Bass Wal mk3 fretted 5-string Wal mk3 fretless 5-string F-bass AC6 fretless Ken Smith Black Tiger 5 Status Chris Wolstenholme 5 headless Zon Sonus 519 5-string Warwick Streamer Stage I 5-string Warwick Thumb NT 5 Dingwall 5-string (as a lefty, I'm limited to the Combustion and NG models - but if I would win big, I'm sure Sheldon could arrange something? 😛)

The lacquer line is present on most USA Ernie Ball instruments, but stands out more on the roasted maple necks. I don't know why it looks glossy in this picture, when the back of the headstock appears to look matte. I never liked the styling of the Bongo, and this one is no exception. I kinda like the look of the fingerboard, I don't see the point but I do like the visual effect.

VERY cool! I had a Legacy Special (g**t*r) in that finish. It had air bubbles under the finish in the cutaways (looked like a foil wrap with a clear coat over it) but otherwise looked great. Great guitar that I bought for only €250 (because someone had once mounted a Roland GK-2 and removed it again, leaving two small holes in the pickguard and body) and stupidly sold again.