Bassassin

[quote name='bass_ferret' post='238094' date='Jul 12 2008, 05:53 PM']Good bass. Good presentation. Good price. Must sell?[/quote] Oh yes. J.

I'm instituting a "use it or lose it" policy with my herd - and this one is far too good for Ebay. So - this 'ere's an Ibanez SR800FL, which I've had from new, bought in 1990, list price was, if I remember, £599 back then. I basically fancied a fretless for mucking about with & recording - and that's all I've ever done with it, in fact it's sat in a case for most of the last 10 years. Time to go, then! Right - the serial number tells us this was built in 1989, at Fujigen Gakki - JapCrap spotters will know this factory built the classic 70s & 80s Ibanez copies & originals, and was the main production source for Japanese Fenders until recently. The body is Alder, according to the original 80s catalogues, the neck is 3-piece maple, rosewood board. It has Gotoh tuners & a Gotoh 206 bridge, which is capable of adjusting in directions as yet unnamed by science. Low-impedance P/J pickups, and an active preamp with master volume, pan, bass boost/cut, treble boost/cut. The photos don't do the colour justice - it's a very deep, lustrous red, much more metallic in real life than the pics. When I bought the bass, it was fitted with rounds, so there is a little marking on the board from being played with the original strings - although no actual wear or grooves. The current strings are, I think LaBella. The only other play wear - if you can call it that - is a slight finger-polishing of the pup covers! The bass has really seen ridiculously little use - no gigs, and only one trip to the rehearsal room - never to be repeated, after demonstrating what a profoundly rubbish fretless player I was... If you've looked at the pics, you'll appreciate that it's not [i]exactly[/i] unmarked, though. [i]Picture the scene - it's late 1992, I'm standing in the living room, my head is suddenly filled with a strange, shrill, screeching sound. What's this? have I suddenly been struck with tinnitus? My brief reverie is interrupted by the sensation of a light breeze on my cheek - I watch helplessly as a small, hard object - a jar of baby food - describes a glittering arc past my shoulder & collides with the front of my fretless bass. The grating, screeching noise behind me rises to a fever pitch, drowning out the dissonant sound of the reverberating strings with vitriol & threats...[/i] A simple, everyday act of domestic violence, triggered, I'm assuming, by my continued existence, my head saved by inept throwing skills, my bass scarred forever. My head would have got better. I've covered the dent (which is above the lower edge of the body, adjacent to the neck pup) with superglue to prevent the paint from flaking, at one point I thought about filling it with successive coats to level it, I started but I sort of lost interest... Anyway, it's filled so it can't get worse & polished over so it blends with the lacquer. Other than this, there are no other blemishes or marks on the bass, anywhere. This is an 80s Japanese Ibanez - these things have a tendency to become sought-after, and fretless SRs are pretty scarce to start with. It's pretty unlikely there are many around anymore that are in as good nick as this. I am looking for [b]£260[/b], I'll post to anywhere in the UK for £15, the bass will be very, very securely packed, with its neck removed. I'm not really looking for trades (the idea's to get the numbers down!) but if anyone has anything interesting, I [i]might[/i] consider it! Jon.