[quote name='BigRedX' post='958042' date='Sep 16 2010, 09:42 AM']That looks fantastic!
Out of interest was the neck always natural finish? Or is this something that you've decided to do? I always though Gibson made an effort to match the finish of their necks to the bodies they were attached to.[/quote]
Yes the neck was always natural finish, based upon the heel being clear and having visible date stamps etc. This bass was originally CAR and clear coat neck. It would have looked like Jules' Custom (but with different tuners)
To the best of my knowledge, only the ebony (black) Victory had a matching painted neck and for all other body colours the neck was clear coated. I don't know if that was the rule or some ebony ones slipped through with clear necks. It wouldn't surprise me, I've seen Standards with brass nuts (when they're not supposed to have), Artists with Standard branded truss rod covers, sometimes the headstock says "Gibson Victory" and sometimes it says "Gibson Victory Bass", there's been 3 different tuner types used over a 5 year production run, put simply: nothing would surprise me.
Gibson Victory bass information overload: [url="http://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/Victory.php"]http://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/Victory.php[/url]