1971/2 Jazz Bass for sale £250 incl UK only delivery

[Cat Burrito]

I bought this Antoria Jazz bass on Basschat from Jamesf back in October 2009. It was interesting period of my life because at the time I had cancer and to put it bluntly I didn't want to go to my grave having never owned a vintage bass. At the time an early 70s Fender wasn't likely to be on the cards so this seemed like a cheap way of doing it. However as luck would have it, I had a life insurance policy payout so the 70s Fender became a reality and now I'm all better I've realised this is surplas to requirements.

It's all original, varitone circuitry has been added but I have the original control plate so it can be flipped back to stock & this is included in the sale. It came with missing thumb rest and ashtrays but I managed to source some ashtrays (easily removed if not to your tastes but I thought it added to the mojo). If I may quote James as I don't think I could put it any better;

[font="Comic Sans MS"]"It sounds very 70's jazz, there's no denying it, and the tones you can get are more variations on a theme (a good one though) than many distinct tones that you can get from modern active basses. The varitone circuitry helps with this, and the sounds from each pickup are quite distinct. The strings on it now are quite old, so it's got a very Jamerson/Noel Redding sound to it, and I haven't ever changed them so I've no idea what it will sound like with fresh ones on. It's definitely a 70s sounding bass though, so if that's what you're after, you'll be delighted with this bass. No warpage or anything, but could do with a good setup and clean; the action is set to be very low over the first 7 frets where I tend to stay with this bass (fits the genre/sounds I use it for) so action there is fast, low and buzz-free, but it seems quite versatile in setup despite the 2-saddle bridge."[/font]

I will most likely ship it with the neck detatched as I wouldn't want the Royal Mail putting an end to the good shape the bass has been in for the last coming up for 40yrs. [b]It's UK delivery only which is included in the £250 asking price [/b]which is what I paid for it. I'd like to get that back ideally. Collection is fine too.

Again & I hope he doesn't mind being quoted but I had some correspondence with Bassassasin as he seems to be our resident JapCrap expert (if only appointed by me but he knows more than me). I'll leave you with his words which seem to suggest it's a 1971 rather than 1972 which is what James thought. It's fair to assume you are buying into some early 70s mojo whatever the date;

[font="Comic Sans MS"]Hi Tim - as I'm sure is becoming obvious, dating these things ain't an exact science! Mostly all there is to go on for reference are the surviving catalogues, the earliest with a specific date being the '71 Ibanez linked earlier. This is interesting too:

[url="http://psyco.jp/greco/p/c001_02.jpg"]http://psyco.jp/greco/p/c001_02.jpg[/url]

That's a Greco catalogue on a Japanese site (Greco was technically a Japan-only brand) and as you can see the JB-380 is the same bass again.

This catalogue is the earliest in the archive. It's not dated but looking at the sequence it's probably fair to assume it's 1971:

[url="http://psyco.jp/greco/cata.html"]http://psyco.jp/greco/cata.html[/url]

All subsequent versions of the JB-380 are different, starting with the tuners.

There's an undated Antoria catalogue on the Vintaxe.com site:

[url="http://www.vintaxe.com/catalogs_japanese_antoria.htm"]http://www.vintaxe.com/catalogs_japanese_antoria.htm[/url]

I can't be 100% sure from the tiny image but I think the bass in the pic is the same as yours. Unfortunately Vintaxe is a pay site (proper guitar porn!) and I've not yet become depraved enough to sign up. Only a matter of time, though...

I mentioned the black-button tuners as an indication of its age - MIJ copies in general exhibit various features which can place them at different periods, fortunately there's a fair bit of accumulated knowledge about Fujigen guitars from the era because Ibanez has become a collectable brand.

Broadly speaking, Fujigen designs were regularly revised & updated to become more accurate as production went on. Your bass has black button tuners, large chrome truss rod cover, rounded corners on the position markers, markers terminate at 17th fret, square chrome covered pickups, designed to be hidden under ashtrays, and a 2-saddle bridge, also intended not to be seen. All of these details were phased out over probably about 5 years, until by the time Fujigen were building the Ibanez Silver Series copies & Greco Super Reals etc, they were replica-standard and indistinguishable from the real thing. Which of course was why Fujigen got the Fender Japan contract.

Anyway, that's leaping ahead a decade or so. The point is that yours has all the "vintage" bells & whistles and these only appear on the earliest Fujigen copies, and the only specific date we have is 1971 in that Ibby catalogue! It's possible they might have been in production earlier but the rule of thumb is that proper MIJ copies didn't really go back to the 60s - there were Fender & Gibson etc influences, but they weren't copies as such. A good example is the Ibby 2030 bass, again from the '71 catalogue:

[url="http://www.ibanez.ru/info/catalog/1971/01.jpg"]http://www.ibanez.ru/info/catalog/1971/01.jpg[/url]

These appear from the late 60s, earlier ones have a weird "jester's hat" 2-a-side headstock. Definitely Jazz-influenced but not exactly a copy.

Anyway - that probably is absolutely everything I know about these things - although if you have any more questions, try me[/font]

I have added new pics as well as including ones without the covers. Check my feedback thread. Paypal is fine & indeed prefered but cash on collection is ok too, cheques I'm a bit wary of but we can always sort out the finer details via PM.

Edited September 17, 2010 by BurritoBass

[Cat Burrito]

Oh & I live in West Berkshire so would be prepared to drive across Berkshire, into Wiltshire, Oxfordshire or Hampshire to meet somebody part way if it helps.

[Bassassin]

Bump for a bit of proper classy - not to mention realistically priced - vintage JapCrap.

Jon.

[Cat Burrito]

Thanks Jon - Absolutely zero interest at this stage so bumping it back up there

[Cat Burrito]

Bumping this as it's still around.

I've put it on the 'Bay [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130428839251"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=130428839251[/url] with 10% of the auction going to Cancer Research
NOW SOLD

Edited September 17, 2010 by BurritoBass