Maya Jazz Japanese

[steve-soar]

Hi all, I'm thinking of buying this so as to give it a bit of TLC and because I've always wanted a Jazz. Does anyone know anything about these basses, how old, what they are made of and how much they are worth. I hope the pics can give you some idea of its general condition. The seller says that it plays well but I'd like to see it in the flesh to check for any neck, truss rod issues.
Cheers Steve.

Edited March 16, 2008 by steve-soar

[kevbass]

Generally they are ok, be warned that you cannot directly swap the tuners for fender style ones as they wont fit. The body is quite possibly some sort of ply, the pickups generally have a decent amount of output and being that its from the 70's the neck might be nicely played in. It would make a good modding project in my opinion and thatsb a lefty so if you want it I'd get it while you could. They generally go for around 100 - 150 if its a nice one. I'd sooner get one of these over a squire. hope this helps.

[silverfoxnik]

[quote name='kevbass' post='158714' date='Mar 17 2008, 12:00 AM']Generally they are ok, be warned that you cannot directly swap the tuners for fender style ones as they wont fit. The body is quite possibly some sort of ply, the pickups generally have a decent amount of output and being that its from the 70's the neck might be nicely played in. It would make a good modding project in my opinion and thatsb a lefty so if you want it I'd get it while you could. They generally go for around 100 - 150 if its a nice one. I'd sooner get one of these over a squire. hope this helps.[/quote]
+1

I've seen a few around over the years and they're not bad at all.. There's a few quite decent 70's jap basses around at the moment (here occasionally and on Ebay quite often) and it would seem like it's a good time to get one as the nostalgia for them seems to be growing. Maybe it's because prices for the real thing keep going up and up?

[Bassassin]

Agree again. £100 - £150 sounds about right - but have a close look: this one is, I think, ply - Mayas came in quite a few flavours & this one's the lower end of the scale - not crap, but a few budget features - ply body, 2-saddle bridge, cheap tuners etc. These are the same (same factory as far as I know) as the rather more common Columbus jazzes, and some of these aren't great. The bottom line is have a really good look & play before you hand over your cash, if you can.

If you're going to mod/upgrade (sacrilege! ), bear in mind that the pickups on these are not a standard J size or shape, and therefore neither are the routs. They have rounded ends & are both the same size - so you may need to do some woodwork to make different pups fit.

Jon.

[steve-soar]

Thanks lads. +1 to all of that. He's asking, wait for it, £180. I'm 99% certain from the photos that it's ply, so I've asked him to check in the control cavity, he says that it might be alder, mmmmm, the black of the burst covering all of the contour lines is a bit of a give away. I'd give him £100 for it , we'll see. To think that 10 years ago you could get this kind of thing for about £25-30 in junk shops up and down the land.
How times have changed.

[Bassassin]

[quote name='steve-soar' post='158731' date='Mar 17 2008, 12:50 AM']I'd give him £100 for it , we'll see. To think that 10 years ago you could get this kind of thing for about £25-30 in junk shops up and down the land.
How times have changed. [/quote]
£180's waaay too much for that - it probably wouldn't get that even on a particularly mental Ebay day. In fact, the fact it's a lefty would probably mean it would go for less than average price, from what I've seen.

It's still worth keeping your eyes peeled for a £30 bargain, particularly at car boot sales & charity shops, and even on Gumtree. The general public (bless 'em) are blissfully unaware of the current collectability of JapCrap, so there are still deals out there.

J.