NBD - A rare bargain?! - Mayones / ZAK BeJJ BO4

[spacecowboy]

So... this was a bass I was watching with a very keen eye on eBay last week. 

 

 

It's a ZAK bass, which, from some of Mayones history information, seems to be an export brand name used by Mayones in the mid nineties... check out this old catalog page for instance... vintage! The ZAK branding appearing in the upper right of the page.

 

 

And here's Mayones founder at a trade expo showcasing the basses in the early nineties...

 

 

So for the moderately small sum of £215 I got; 

 

• The Zak BeJJ BO4 bass £?
• A new Warwick Rockbag worth £70
• A brand new unused 5 Pot pre wired Bartolini preamp HR5.2AP/918 worth £145
• Ernie Ball replacement knobs worth £13

 

So already a bit of a good deal all things considered...BUT... this just isn't a cheap bass... it can't be, the quality for a start is superb, for a bass that must be 25 - 28 years old it's oozing quality parts and timbers. 

 

 

The body wood is Etimoe, which is highly curved and shaped, very much like the early Warwick Basses, note the matching control cavity cover and look at this cuuuurve! 

 

 

The timber also has lovely figuring and good matching, and is solid, very solid. 

 

 

Speaking of Warwick Basses... I was pleasantly surprised to see this... I thought, a ha! a fake Warwick Bridge... but no, a Schaller Bridge manufactured to Warwicks Design! Again really solid, nice and heavy, very classy. 

 

 

 

The neck is a 5 piece, if it's maple it's very dark, possibly cherry / mahogany but I can't see it being much else, stringers are either Wenge or Ebony, but again under the lacquer they're very dark, stamped number 54. Japanese Gotoh tuners. 

 

 

Matching headstock veener cap and truss rod cover. Plastic nut, Wenge fingerboard and mother of pearl inlays. 

 

 

I'm currently stripping the lacquer off the bass as it's very very thick and glossy which I can't stand and I'll be giving this a brief sand before oiling and waxing the finish, but from the parts shown above the bass has the following hardware; 

 

• Japanese Gotoh Tuners
• Schaller / Warwick Bridge & Tailpiece
• MEC active 2 band EQ
• MEC active jazz pickups 

 

it's a super looking and feeling bass, with a little TLC i'll get it looking a little fresher and hopefully for £215 have myself a bloody bargain at long last!

 

I'll be doing a refin build diary over in the build diaries forum for anyone who wants to track that. 

 

Cheers! 

 

 

 

 

 

[Doctor J]

Very nice. I used to have a Mayones BE4 Exotic, which was pretty much the same bass minus the gloss - Schaller hardware and MEC electronics too. A very nice bass and a genuine steal for a little over 200 quid.

[warwickhunt]

Ahhh... so you got it!    

 

I think a few of us were watching and it was worth the sale price for parts alone!  

[such]

These are proper good (if you like the format), bargain it is. I still want a 5 string version. 

[LukeFRC]

9 hours ago, spacecowboy said:

The neck is a 5 piece, if it's maple it's very dark, possibly cherry / mahogany but I can't see it being much else, stringers are either Wenge or Ebony, but again under the lacquer they're very dark, stamped number 54. Japanese Gotoh tuners. 

The catalogue above lists the neck wood as Bete- which I think is what we would call African Walnut

[BlueMoon]

Good score....well done!

 

[LeftyJ]

12 hours ago, spacecowboy said:

 

Speaking of Warwick Basses... I was pleasantly surprised to see this... I thought, a ha! a fake Warwick Bridge... but no, a Schaller Bridge manufactured to Warwicks Design! Again really solid, nice and heavy, very classy. 

 

That's lovely! Not even Warwick themselves use these Schaller bridges anymore. All Warwicks, with the exception of the custom shop models, now feature a "fake Warwick Bridge" made to their specifications somewhere in the far east with lower quality standards. These are used on both the Asian-made Rockbass line and the German Pro Series. The custom shop models feature machined brass bridges these days, with eye-watering prices.

 

 

Very cool find, and at an absolute steal! Lovely bass. 

[Hellzero]

Very good catch @spacecowboy, these early Zak-Mayones basses were, for sure, Warwick copies, but at the time, they were better than the original.

 

As @LukeFRC noticed, the structure of the neck wood looks like walnut (bete) indeed.

 

The stripes are certainly wenge just like the fretboard.

 

If you look here, it seems right except for the fingerboard mentioned as palisander which means rosewood, but is clearly not. And bodo, which other name is boire (another wood close to the afzelia) is maybe the headstock veneer...

 

 

For the record, loads of Jerzy Drozd basses have an etimoe, close to afzelia (Warwick filiation again) without being one, body.

Edited September 8, 2021 by Hellzero
Read twice before letting go

[such]

There was some variation, and most were made to order. I remember seeing a few with ebony fretboards, maple necks etc. My student had one and the fretboard was definitely rosewood. 

[TheGreek]

I was bidding on it too. Gutted that I didn't win, but if wasn't me who won I'm glad it was another BCer...

[Al Krow]

13 hours ago, spacecowboy said:

So... this was a bass I was watching with a very keen eye on eBay last week. 

 

 

It's a ZAK bass, which, from some of Mayones history information, seems to be an export brand name used by Mayones in the mid nineties... check out this old catalog page for instance... vintage! The ZAK branding appearing in the upper right of the page.

 

 

And here's Mayones founder at a trade expo showcasing the basses in the early nineties...

 

 

So for the moderately small sum of £215 I got; 

 

• The Zak BeJJ BO4 bass £?
• A new Warwick Rockbag worth £70
• A brand new unused 5 Pot pre wired Bartolini preamp HR5.2AP/918 worth £145
• Ernie Ball replacement knobs worth £13

 

So already a bit of a good deal all things considered...BUT... this just isn't a cheap bass... it can't be, the quality for a start is superb, for a bass that must be 25 - 28 years old it's oozing quality parts and timbers. 

 

 

The body wood is Etimoe, which is highly curved and shaped, very much like the early Warwick Basses, note the matching control cavity cover and look at this cuuuurve! 

 

 

The timber also has lovely figuring and good matching, and is solid, very solid. 

 

 

Speaking of Warwick Basses... I was pleasantly surprised to see this... I thought, a ha! a fake Warwick Bridge... but no, a Schaller Bridge manufactured to Warwicks Design! Again really solid, nice and heavy, very classy. 

 

 

 

The neck is a 5 piece, if it's maple it's very dark, possibly cherry / mahogany but I can't see it being much else, stringers are either Wenge or Ebony, but again under the lacquer they're very dark, stamped number 54. Japanese Gotoh tuners. 

 

 

Matching headstock veener cap and truss rod cover. Plastic nut, Wenge fingerboard and mother of pearl inlays. 

 

 

I'm currently stripping the lacquer off the bass as it's very very thick and glossy which I can't stand and I'll be giving this a brief sand before oiling and waxing the finish, but from the parts shown above the bass has the following hardware; 

 

• Japanese Gotoh Tuners
• Schaller / Warwick Bridge & Tailpiece
• MEC active 2 band EQ
• MEC active jazz pickups 

 

it's a super looking and feeling bass, with a little TLC i'll get it looking a little fresher and hopefully for £215 have myself a bloody bargain at long last!

 

I'll be doing a refin build diary over in the build diaries forum for anyone who wants to track that. 

 

Cheers! 

 

What's particularly cool about this story is that this bass has ended up in the hands of someone who both really appreciates it and can give it the TLC that it deserves. I bet it's going to be stunning when you have completed your refi!

[spacecowboy]

48 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

Very good catch @spacecowboy, these early Zak-Mayones basses were, for sure, Warwick copies, but at the time, they were better than the original.

 

As @LukeFRC noticed, the structure of the neck wood looks like walnut (bete) indeed.

 

The stripes are certainly wenge just like the fretboard.

 

If you look here, it seems right except for the fingerboard mentioned as palisander which means rosewood, but is clearly not. And bodo, which other name is boire (another wood close to the afzelia) is maybe the headstock veneer...

 

 

For the record, loads of Jerzy Drozd basses have an etimoe, close to afzelia (Warwick filiation again) without being one, bodies.

 

Yes, interestingly I was wondering if the body wood was Afzelia as it is incredibly similar to an old Streamer Stage 2 of mine, same figuring and density, the only difference is this looks slightly more dark red and my Stage 2 was for want of a better word Orange! 

[spacecowboy]

13 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

I was bidding on it too. Gutted that I didn't win, but if wasn't me who won I'm glad it was another BCer...

 

I'm sorry mate! I had a feeling there would be a few people from here looking at it, If things don't work out with it I'll be happy to give you first refusal!

[spacecowboy]

12 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

What's particularly cool about this story is that this bass has ended up in the hands of someone who both really appreciates it and can give it the TLC that it deserves. I bet it's going to be stunning when you have completed your refi!

 

Thank you Al, It'll certainly be getting some love and care, I have one of those electro cleaner things at work so I can chuck all the metal in that and it should come out all sparkly... hopefully, the wood just needs a lovely feed of oil and then a wax sealer, the poor timber has been well preserved in a sea of lacquer! good news there is that hopefully alot of these scratches are just lacquer deep and I don't need to sand too much. 

[Al Krow]

9 hours ago, such said:

These are proper good (if you like the format), bargain it is. I still want a 5 string version. 

 

You see, if this bargain hadn't been found and you hadn't then drawn my attention to that very lovely neck through 5er, I could have just got on contentedly with my life 😁

[spacecowboy]

Decided against a refin build diary, a good diary stripping lacquer does not make, so here's a couple of photos from the basses first reveal coat of oil, this is applied with sandpaper and should reveal any lumps and bumps I've missed, after 4 hours or so I can lightly sand it again and then start getting the oil on it properly, feels so much better than the heavy lacquer before it. Can't whack stroking a good bit of wood!  

 

 

 

 

The neck woods are also a lot clearer now, definitely Walnut sides, wenge stringers, but, the jury is still out on the center wood though... could be an Ash or Oak... the neck and body look alot more balanced tonally, should be a stunning looking bass when done. 

[TheGreek]

Body looks amazing - shame the join is so pronounced.

[spacecowboy]

Tan line! She's flashing her white bits!

[Pea Turgh]

58 minutes ago, spacecowboy said:

The neck woods are also a lot clearer now, definitely Walnut sides, wenge stringers, but, the jury is still out on the center wood though... could be an Ash or Oak... the neck and body look alot more balanced tonally, should be a stunning looking bass when done. 

 

Doesn’t look like oak to me.  Out of the two choices I’d say ash.  Looks familiar, anyway.

 

Great find, and great restoration, btw - looks lovely!

[JohnFitzgerald]

Many months later...

I have two of these, but mine are Fame badged.
Such high quality construction and I'd certainly have snagged that one too.

This is my six string with fretless four just poking its head in too.

[spacecowboy]

That's lovely! Forgot about this thread let me pop a couple of finished pics here! 

 

 

[Al Krow]

Great job! 

[JohnFitzgerald]

That's a beaut. 

Should you ever feel you no longer love it...

;-)