TRADED: Heavily modified 70s MIJ Maya Jazz 'Stealth Bass' , with John Birch pick-ups. £375 Potton, Central East Bedfordshire

[silverfoxnik]

*** Now Traded ***

 

Hi Folks,

 

Heavily modified 70s MIJ Maya Jazz 'Stealth Bass' , with John Birch pick-ups For Sale. 

 

Back in January, I was scouring the internet as you do, looking for an unusual bass to buy, and this one caught my eye on Gumtree. 

 

It's a heavily modified 70s Maya Jazz Bass (which in itself is a good thing IMHO) that has been turned into a 'Stealth Bass', complete with a body refinish in a kind of satin black (that's almost impossible to photograph), and kitted out with all black hardware, which I think looks great with the maple neck and black block inlays.

 

The most interesting of all those mods are the two John Birch pick ups, which are not only very unusual, but super-loud and sound great! The guy I bought it from who had all the work done, said he wanted the loudest, punchiest sounding pick-ups he could find, so he chose these... 

 

There seems to be a lot of mystique around John Birch pick-ups, and I have to confess, I don't know much of the background .. But these pick ups - set up in a simple V/V/T configuration - really are quite different sounding to me..

 

Too my ears, they're much more like a proper vintage Thunderbird than a Jazz Bass, but there's a fab, old-skool, Motown tone to be had too from the neck pick up and, when balanced so that the bridge pick is more prominent, the sound reminds me a little of my old Wal Pro IIE basses.. 

 

I'm not 100% sure, but I think these are John Birch Hyperflux pick-ups..

 

See here for more details.. 

https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/swd/years-ago-i-heard-of-a-company-out-of-birmingham-england-that-made-guitars-and-many-models-of-pickups-who-was-it-and-what-kind-of-pickups-did-they-make-lewis-harley-isle-of-sky-scotland

 

And there's more info on John Birch as a luthier, and his pick up designs, here:

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_(luthier)

 

(I've included a couple of photos of basses fitted with John Birch pick-ups for reference..) 

 

When I bought it, the bass played well and sounded really good to my ears, but I was convinced that the bridge was slightly out of alignment. 

So, I took it to our very own @gary mac, who did an excellent job of moving the bridge 2mm, and giving the bass a good set up with a set of D'Addario NYXL strings... 

The action is set now at what I would call medium height , and the neck plays really well..  However, the truss rod is working as it should, so a lower action could definitely be achieved on this bass if required. 

 

Weight is 4.6kg (10.14 lbs). 

 

As quirky and cool as this bass is, I find myself still defaulting to either my G&L SB1 or my BC Rich Eagle when playing, so this is just not getting used.. Hence why, as part of my gear clear out, I've decided to put it up for sale. 

 

Hard to put a value on this, but it owes me the best part of £400, so I'm offering it for sale at Now Traded.

 

Try out welcome and collection preferred from Potton, near Sandy in Bedfordshire, but postage is possible at buyers expense and risk.

 

Please note that I don't have a case for this, but I would ensure that it is very well packaged up for shipping. 

Having said that, I do have a nice tweed Thomann case that could be included at an additional cost.. 

 

Any questions, please ask here or send me a PM and I'll do my best to answer them. 

 

Thanks for looking.. 😊

 

Nik

Edited July 20, 2022 by silverfoxnik
Now Traded.

[Tandro]

That looks so cool...but bizarrely I don't know why my first thought (seriously) was that it should have a red light on it that travels left to right, it should be renamed KITT, and have a Turbo Boost button added somewhere.

[silverfoxnik]

7 hours ago, Tandro said:

That looks so cool...but bizarrely I don't know why my first thought (seriously) was that it should have a red light on it that travels left to right, it should be renamed KITT, and have a Turbo Boost button added somewhere.

 

Oh yeah, I forget to mention that particular mod... 😂

[Risk101]

That is a lot of bass for the money and looks awesome! GLWTS 👍🏻

[silverfoxnik]

Tuesday morning BUMP 😊

[howdenspur]

Looks awesome Nik!

[silverfoxnik]

2 hours ago, howdenspur said:

Looks awesome Nik!

Cheers Rod! 👍

 

Hope all's well with you btw? 

 

[silverfoxnik]

Thursday morning BUMP 😊

[Tandro]

Let's bump this lovely looking bass back to the top.

Edited June 19, 2022 by Tandro