Well, I wanted to try a fretless bass, I like the slide sound you can get. But they are not easy to find (I've never seen one in person), and I heard that they are "difficult to play" so I didn't want to spend too much for too little return. I like the look of the American Professional Jazz bass in sonic grey, but it would cost an absolute fortune to get one here. I thought that grabbing a new neck online to stick on a body would be my best bet for something reliable and affordable.
Meanwhile, I had hold of an old lawsuit Ibanez Jazz copy, not in very good condition. Originally it would've looked like this:
But 40 years later it didn't. Every metal or chrome part was rusted (apart from a few screws and the neck plate), the neck had a crack on the side, the pots were broken or scratchy, the jack loose, the pickups noisy, the pickguard unevenly yellowed... and the body (which was at least 12 pieces of wood and exceptionally heavy) had dents and big scratches all over it. (Also the truss plate and those ashtray covers were missing, but who uses them anyway?)
I'm sure if it played nicely that there'd be those that thought it was wonderful. But it didn't, and didn't seem that it was worth attempting to restore it, so I pulled it apart to use the body to practice refinishing. Mostly though, I just thought the brown floorboard look was ugly, maybe that qualifies me for the "why did you do this to me" thread?
Oh well.After a few colour incarnations, I wanted to try a green version of 'candy apple red', where the sparkle is quite deep under a few translucent layers of colour. In Australia, we don't much use the word 'candy' (we call them lollies) or the term 'candy apple' (we call them toffee apples). So I call it 'toffee apple green'.
The products I used were Dulux Duramax primer & "Brunswick Green" spray cans. Then a few layers of their silver "Diamond Effect" glitter. After that I used several layers of Dupli-color "Metalcast Anodised Green". That one can be very hit-n-miss, but it worked this time. Sometimes the Metalcast doesn't mix properly and just sprays coloured dust (like printer toner) everywhere, and drop sheets the size of the sun aren't big enough to stop it.
It was looking really nice, and time for clear coats. I think 4 cans of Dulux Duramax 2k clear. That one can also be very hit-n-miss. Sometimes doesn't mix properly and spews out big globs that run and create sanding headaches. Probably why I can't find it anymore.
After that I hand wet-sanded from 400 to 2000, and then used a Turtle Wax "Ice Speed Compound" cream. Cheap and incredibly easy to apply, just hand rub on and off with a sponge and microfibre towel. Don't remember (18 months later) how many times I applied it, but I think I sanded and polished it all in one afternoon.
I liked the result so much I couldn't bring myself to let it go to waste. So I thought that when the funds and neck were concurrently available (and no other unfinished jobs on the go) I would make this my fretless bass! It sat idly by waiting for a neck for 18 months while higher priorities prevailed. Here it is recently:
During that time, Fender released the Player series, which included a fretless Jazz bass and an attractive Jaguar bass in 2 colours that interested me: sage green & tidepool. Coupled with the fact that I already had a Jazz bass (and a Precision) but no Jaguar (or Mustang) bass, I then thought that maybe I should grab one of those and put a fretless neck on that instead, and keep all my guitars as 'legit' Fender? But by the time a fretless Player neck showed up I'd already picked up something else in Tidepool and I didn't want to waste the dark green body I had sitting there.
I also didn't want to be waiting for all the other bits to show up so I pounced on the Player neck courtesy of You-know-who-sphere, Gen 4 noiseless Fender pickups, Obsidian Wire electronics, a nice black Gotoh bridge and a black Allparts control plate. I was still undecided on knobs. I had sprayed the original pickguard a white sparkle and already had a dark green Ernie Ball strap.
So imagine my
when the neck totally did not fit the pocket. A few mm off, wrong shape, and the holes in completely different places! There was no way I was going to get it in without messing it right up. What a debacle. So now I had all these parts with no body to put them on. If I'd just bought the neck and nothing else, once I knew it didn't fit I could've then picked up the sage Jag body, no harm done.Fretless Player Jaguar bass - Sage Green?
But no, now that would leave me with spare pickups, bridge, controls etc. What if I bought the body without everything loaded in it? My pickups were a Jazz set, and the Jaguar bass comes in PJ, I would have to get a custom made pickguard. Probably better to grab a Jazz body and put all these parts on it. I could grab something and recolour it? Or how about 'sonic grey'? It's a colour on my wanted list and it's not likely I'd get it on anything else.
So an American Professional body appeared with hardware included. Only the bridge would go to waste. I grabbed it. Story over? No.
ANOTHER PLOT TWIST. Turns out, Professional basses don't have vintage-compatible drop-in bridges. They are string-through and therefore have 7 holes instead of 5. So to install the Gotoh bridge I would need to drill some holes. I've never drilled holes in something that mattered so that was a scary prospect for me. But I bought a black bridge & control plate - there was no way I was keeping the original bridge on there. I drilled 2 new holes (the outer 2). The centre hole was already there, but holes 2 & 4 would be too close to existing holes to drill new ones yet not close enough to use the existing ones. So the black bridge was just installed with 3 screws.
Already had a Fender monogram strap in similar colour from when I 'decided' that I was getting a guitar in sonic grey, whenever and whatever it would be.
I wanted to do something different for the knobs, not that there is anything wrong with normal Jazz knobs. Black Tele? Something else? I went with Q-Parts cats-eye black Tele style. Very nice.
ANOTHER PLOT TWIST, but kinda saw this one coming. The pickguard didn't fit. Needed to order one, once I made up my mind which colour. Thought that black pearl might look over-the-top and white may not look the best with the black hardware and particular finish. Went with black. Guess what? Pickguard and control plate (both Allparts) had 2mm gap between, and the wires, cavity and blue/grey body really showed through.
Thought I would just drill new screw holes for the control plate and move it up a bit, but get this: the pot was already right up against the rout cavity. So I cut a bit of black paper card and put it under the gap. Works okay.So in the end, I ended up with something similar to what I looked at in the first place, but not really what I wanted for 99% of the journey.
Looks, feels, and sounds great. Never used flatwound strings before, wow. So smooth, and no unwanted 'scrape' noise when moving up or down. But the neck feels very comfortable, the body is typical for a modern Jazz bass: nice and comfortable, not too heavy. Everyone has complimented the colour - I know it has its detractors on this site, but I like it. I think black looks better with sonic grey than white does. Pickups are quiet and sound good. Knobs look really nice, but not really visible unless you have a close look. No case for it yet, costs have gone through the roof around here. Maybe I will swap the other Jazz bass out of its case.
As for being "difficult to play", well, I really don't know what people are on about. Unless they are trying to do lead break solos on it or something, I find little difficulty getting the notes right. And the slides sound and work nicely.
Very happy with this instrument, but I can't help but think I wish I'd been more patient and got the green Jag bass instead. So yeah, was at times a mod, a project, but also not. Began some time 2017, completed July 2019. Parts-bass in the end?
Fender: American Professional body in sonic grey with neck plate & strap buttons. Player fretless neck & tuners. Gen 4 Noiseless pickups. Blue/grey/black monogram strap. Flatwound strings. Gotoh: 201B bridge. Allparts: Black control plate. BWB pickguard. Obsidian Wire: control harness & pots. Q-Parts: Cats-eye black knobs.
edit: fixed incorrect info about knobs
