Hohner The Jack Headless Bass licensed by Steinberger originally Active / Passive now converted to Passive only using a KiOgen Loom with Old Status Hot Wire Strings + Gig Bag £350 North Staffordshire

[dodgnofski]

In excellent overall condition & possibly from the early to mid 90’s? - sounds great and plays really well. Maple skinny through neck, with Maple wings in a gorgeous matte possibly Walnut? finish plus a beautiful Indian Rosewood fingerboard & this is the only Jack Bass I’ve seen in this finish? apart from the odd B2? Steinberger cricket bat versions.

 

I bought this expecting the pre amp not to be working with a view to converting it to passive (being quite old & not a massive fan of active basses) but when I popped a battery in it just to check it worked fine. However I still converted it to passive for a smoother, less harsh tone using one of John’s excellent KiOgen Looms, which includes new pots, capacitor and Switchcraft barrel Jack & so it is now passive Volume / Volume / Tone as opposed to active V/V/ stacked Bass / Treble, but there was no tone control when switched to passive and to my old cloth ears it now sounds much better, plus there is no battery to worry about. 

 

However, if active is your thing then the active Loom and everything you would need to convert it back is included - I have inserted a couple of rubber grommets in the holes that used to house the LED & toggle switch which can just be pulled out if you wish to reinstate them - I did consider using the toggle switch as a kill switch, with the LED lighting up when switched on, but the wiring of such a set up would be beyond my poor electrical circuity skills, but I’m guessing it would be an easy job for someone who knew what they were doing.

 

Preferring a nice wide fingerboard now l’m in my early dotage with plenty of room for my old sausage fingers to occasionally hit the right note, I have to finally admit that although I’ve always been a fan of headless Basses, the necks on these are way too skinny for me these days.

 

I have also recently acquired a nifty P Bass with a nice wide neck, so sticking to Mrs Dodgnofski’s strict ‘one in one out’ rule it’s time to unfortunately let the Jack Bass go to pastures new.

 

Nut width is 38mm or 1.5” in ‘old money’ - ish.

 

I can’t see any dings etc, albeit with my old eyes apart from a ‘line’ of unevenness on the rear of the body - which I thought at first glance looked like a split, but on closer examination the body seems rock solid, so I’m thinking it’s maybe a manufacturing fault?

 

Licensed by Steinberger Bridge which seems to hold tune forever & the Truss Rod is holding the correct amount of relief. I did try to adjust the pickup height, but the screws felt very tight, so I didn’t want to force them.

 

Although this is a 34” long full scale Bass with a 24 fret double octave neck, it feels to me more like a 32” medium scale Bass when playing - so great for noodling & playing live in limited spaces. It also has zero neck dive & a nice easy playing low action, plus it fits out of sight into the boot of most cars for security.

 

Weight is a shoulder friendly 3.7Kg, or 8.15lbs in ‘old money’ & having zero neck dive, it just ‘hangs there’.

 

Currently sporting a very old set of Status Hot Wire round wound strings, which sound great.

 

Comes with a rather tasty faux fur lined, thickly padded Gig Bag.

 

Pics are a mixture of the Bass in both active and passive guises and will be supplied as the passive version, but all the necesarry active parts will be included.

 

If you are too far away to collect in person, l can  post to the U.K. Mainland only - sorry, via Parcelforce Express24 for £20.00 which includes the cost of insurance provided via Secursus.

 

Any questions, please get in touch.

 

Edited Sunday at 21:34 by dodgnofski

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Nice bass, nice price nice gigbag ! Times are hard, but it shouldn't sit around too long . 
BTW , where did you get that gigbag ? 
Glwts 

[dodgnofski]

Thanks👍👍 The Gig bag came with the Jack when I bought it & I’ve not come across them before? No idea how old it is, but it’s really good quality.