johnDeereJack

It's Jerry Jemmott's bass - a custom instrument by Abe Riviera. Here's an excerpt from an interview regarding the Modern Electric Bass video Jaco did with Jerry: The Abe Rivera Bass: "Neither one of these instruments is really my bass," reminded Jaco Pastorius. "I'm using Jerry Jemmott's bass. Both of my main basses have fallen apart, which is a bad time since I'm doing the video. But it's cool, because I'm not really burnin' out. I'm showing more technique and stuff." Holding the beautifully scrolled instrument he added, "This Rivera bass sounds good, doesn't it?" The instrument's designer Jerry Jemmott actually played acoustic bass before he moved on to the electric bass. "When I designed that bass, I wanted a natural sound in the instrument," Jemmott recalled, "yet when I'm playing electric bass I also want that electric sound. So I wanted an instrument that could do both. I also wanted it to be lightweight and easy to play. It originally had frets on it, but I pulled the frets out. It sounded so good, and so warm with the frets. I felt it would sound even more fantastic without the frets. Jaco loves it! Abe Rivera did all the design, all the beautiful work. That's his forte. It's semi-hollow in design. The wood is maple, ebony, and some type of red wood."

Just bought Dave's Mooer Sweeper. Pristine pedal, excellently packaged, great comms, all made for a hassle-free transaction. Cheers Dave, JDJ

Thanks for all the replies, folks. When I contacted GuitarGuitar they offered to take the bass back, but it's now part of the (ever-growing!) family so it's staying with me. If I had the choice I'd rather have a maple board, but I bought it with the rosewood board, and if I hadn't done that wee bit digging regarding the serial number / date of manufacture, I'd be none the wiser regarding the neck not being original to the body, so I guess it's all a bit of a moot point? I spoke to Guitar Guitar on Friday to see if they had any info regarding the neck swap - they had contacted the fella that traded in the bass, and it turns out he's the second owner; he bought it from his bass tutor in 2011, and had no idea the neck had been swapped. He's offered to contact the original owner and get the story behind the swap, and it would be interesting to get the story behind it, but it's not high on my list of priorities right now. I'm just enjoying the bass for what it it - a really nice EB MM StingRay that looks cool, sounds killer, and plays exceptionally well! Merry Xmas, folks.

Hi folks, I'm hoping to trace the previous owner of a 2005 EB StingRay 4-string I recently picked up in GuitarGuitar, Edinburgh. The bass was part of a trade-in and was listed for sale at £969 and came with a MM hard shell case. It's a 2-band / natural finish, with a maple neck, and rosewood board - serial is E45793. There was a bit of ambiguity regarding the date of manufacture (the ad said 2005, the sales guy said different) so out of curiosity I emailed Ernie Ball Customer Support with the serial number of the bass, along with the configuration (i.e. 2-band / natural finish / maple + rosewood) to get a definitive date. EB responded saying the bass left the factory in Feb 2005, but was fitted with a maple board, not a rosewood board, and said the neck had obviously been replaced. I've taken the neck off, and yes, the neck is dated after the bass left EB factory, so it appears that EB customer support are correct in the assumption that the neck has been swapped from the original maple / maple neck to a maple / rosewood replacement. Basically, I'm looking to hopefully contact the previous owner (have also asked the store to reach out to them) and find out why the neck was swapped - you can't simply contact EB and say 'Hi, can you send me a replacement neck for my bass, please?' so there has to be a reason..? I know it's most likely a long shot, but hey - gotta try! Anyhoo, here's the bass. Anyone recognise it..?

I found out today via Syra Larkin's (Chris's wife) Facebook page that Chris passed away today. Am truly shocked and saddened at her news and my thoughts are with Syra and her family at this time. https://www.facebook.com/syra.larkin/posts/10156532809403908 I was lucky enough to meet Chris in 87/88 at a music fair in London. Such a warm and genuinely friendly guy, was a pleasure to meet him. I'm also lucky enough to own one of his amazing and truly magnificent instruments - a fretless Reacter 4B built for me in 1986/87. Rest easy, Chris. You'll be sadly missed.

Just bought Steve's Diago Showman pedalboard. Great comms from Steve, board was well packaged, and a great price to boot! Cheers Steve *thumbs up*