Request for info! (Yamaha fretless)

[Kowad]

Good morning! This arrived today. A MYSTERY YAMAHA FRETLESS. 1988, LOOK AT THAT FRETBOARD oh my goodness, never seen one of those before! 

 

Very little further info, just unpacked, played briefly (plays beautifully!) and I'm into meetings all day, eurgh.

 

Curious - has anyone seen one of these? Any ideas of provenance / history / context? Others like this? Bought from reallygreatguitars, who thinks it may be a one-off / prototype. 

 

ANY THOUGHTS OR INFO WELCOME, what a stunner! 

 

[Machines]

I spotted this the other day and my curiosity was engaged. I am inclined to think it is a Yamaha neck (logo removed), on a custom body made specifically for that neck and those pickups (as they have a unique shape).

Some close ups of the wiring cavity might help determine if it is a factory produced version versus custom shop job. A Google reverse image search also does not yield any matches. It looks too modern to be 80s (other than the neck serial) so I would hazard a guess it was late 90s based on the styling.

 

What do those top 2 controls do ?

 

 

Edited May 1, 2024 by Machines

[Cairobill]

Well well. This is interesting!

My main bass in the late 80s was an RBX350 and it was a cool instrument. Judging by the neck join to the body this is the neck and original body from something from that RBX stable but obviously highly modified.

I would search for fretless RBX models from the late 80s with a JJ config to find out the original bass

 

[Man.about.Tyne]

Well that headstock doesn’t look a million miles away from my first ever bass in all its glorious 1980’s pointyness! 
 

I’m thinking rebodied onto an old neck… maybe

[TheGreek]

Is this the one on ebay/ gumtree??

 

Amazing looking Bass - first time I have seen one.

[Cairobill]

A cursory look at the late 80s RBX basses shows they're pretty much all PJ config. However, the body looks to be an RBX body with an added laminate and a generous amount of reshaping.

Whoever did the work obviously REALLY loved that neck. A very innovative cure for fret wear there

[EMG456]

Well whatever it is, if it plays and sounds nicely, that's an absolute beauty!

Nice one!

[Kowad]

1 hour ago, Machines said:

What do those top 2 controls do ?

Pickup selectors! (On / off).

[Kowad]

43 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Is this the one on ebay/ gumtree??

 

Amazing looking Bass - first time I have seen one.

HA it turns out it is! My reverb feed is set up for interesting fretlesses, this pinged through and I had a bit of a SHALL I SHAN'T I but tbf the indecision did NOT last long 😂

[Kowad]

50 minutes ago, Man.about.Tyne said:

Well that headstock doesn’t look a million miles away from my first ever bass in all its glorious 1980’s pointyness! 
 

I’m thinking rebodied onto an old neck… maybe

IDENTICAL!

[Machines]

32 minutes ago, Kowad said:

Pickup selectors! (On / off).

 

Definitely not something Yamaha ever did. 

[BassAgent]

That is in no way a Yamaha, except for the neck. New body, those black stripes on the fingerboard were added later... A cheap (but good) RBX neck from the 80s and a homemade body. Looks very cool, though.

 

EDIT: On second thought, the pickups are most definitely Yamahas too.

Edited May 1, 2024 by BassAgent

[Kowad]

5 hours ago, Machines said:

I am inclined to think it is a Yamaha neck (logo removed)

 

 

Perhaps worth adding that this definitely checks out. I could have done more due diligence but did at least check the serial number. 
 

I doubt this is going to add much / anything useful!

 

[Mykesbass]

@BigRedX has good knowledge of unusual designs. He may be able to shed some light on wether it is original or a custom job.

[Gwilym]

3 hours ago, Kowad said:

Perhaps worth adding that this definitely checks out. I could have done more due diligence but did at least check the serial number. 
 

I doubt this is going to add much / anything useful!

 

Kudos for matching rug and socks

[pete.young]

The pickups look like the bridge pickup on a TRB5P, or an RBX 550 . None of the RBXs seem to have that scoop at the end of the neck that extends past the end of the curved fingerboard. RBX fingerboards seem to be square with a truss rod at the end of the neck.

Edited May 2, 2024 by pete.young

[Cairobill]

RBX800AF?

Neck to body join is right...

But obvs loadsa tweaking on the body....

[Kowad]

4 hours ago, Cairobill said:

RBX800AF?

Neck to body join is right...

But obvs loadsa tweaking on the body....

Lower pickup cover there is bang on! As is the neck join. I'll add, the bolts on the back are f***IN MASSIVE! 😂 I'll get a picture of them sometimes, they are chunky! Perhaps that is a Yamaha thing (that was a part of the appeal tbf, I have a decent selection of basses but nothing from Yamaha).

The body gets very fruity compared to this - the knobs are way out of whack, and the foremost of them is *behind* the bridge. This is a LONG bass (though the scale is certainly not long / outlandish). I don't think the body could have been shaped from this - no signs of joins, smooth and continuous grain (from the looks of it) etc. I'm currently trapped under a very small Labrador, I'll have a closer look later!

[rmutt]

I built this bass as a gift for a friend when I worked at the Yamaha custom shop in LA around '94-'95. I used  a Yamaha neck but it had nothing to do with the company. The black lines in the fingerboard are graphite to increase the strength of the neck and to make the strings speak better. I wound the pickups as well. The body is basswood with a maple veneer on top. It's great to see it after all these years!

[BreadBin]

2 hours ago, rmutt said:

I built this bass as a gift for a friend when I worked at the Yamaha custom shop in LA around '94-'95. I used  a Yamaha neck but it had nothing to do with the company. The black lines in the fingerboard are graphite to increase the strength of the neck and to make the strings speak better. I wound the pickups as well. The body is basswood with a maple veneer on top. It's great to see it after all these years!

Amazing! 

[Cairobill]

3 hours ago, rmutt said:

I built this bass as a gift for a friend when I worked at the Yamaha custom shop in LA around '94-'95. I used  a Yamaha neck but it had nothing to do with the company. The black lines in the fingerboard are graphite to increase the strength of the neck and to make the strings speak better. I wound the pickups as well. The body is basswood with a maple veneer on top. It's great to see it after all these years!

That’s very interesting! How cool

[Kowad]

On 12/05/2024 at 04:48, rmutt said:

I built this bass as a gift for a friend when I worked at the Yamaha custom shop in LA around '94-'95. I used  a Yamaha neck but it had nothing to do with the company. The black lines in the fingerboard are graphite to increase the strength of the neck and to make the strings speak better. I wound the pickups as well. The body is basswood with a maple veneer on top. It's great to see it after all these years!

Wow! Fantastic provenance! So glad you found this. It plays beautifully!