Ritsugamesh

Ah that's good to hear, must have just been a duff string indeed! I'm honestly sad I gave it up haha. Glad you're happy with it either way pal. EDIT: And if you are thinking of selling, get in touch and I might nab it back! 😅

Purchased a bitsa bass from Ash to grab hold of a lovely example of a late 70s P bass neck. Great communication, prompt and direct, friendly to boot, and was flexible in arranging collection/meetup. Bass as advertised and he even showed me some other cool basses during the necessary basschat deal bass chat that ensued. Credit to the community, would absolutely do business with again (hoping to if he ever shifts that Tele bass!)

The G string will be accurate at the 12th and about 50c flat on frets below the 12th. The inverse occurs above the 12th. It's only the G string that is struggling to intonate, the other 3 are fine, which suggests scale length isn't the issue. It's seemingly impossible to have the lower frets tuned to pitch and still have it accurate to the 12th. Going to try and put another string on to see if that fixes the issue. Any additional troubleshooting tips welcome!

Thanks for posting those pics Valerian - very similar looking neck to mine for sure, ebony slab thickness withstanding! I've taken the time today to pull it apart for a brief look and review scale lengths, etc. Scale length appears to be absolutely bang on from the end of the nut to the bridge saddles. The G string being a pain to intonate must be either related to the nut at this point or the string itself being old and done in. I will look at changing at the very least the G to check whether this is the case. I've also taken the neck off and pickguard off to get a bit more information about the actual parts in use! Some very interesting insights for sure, at least I think so 😁 The neck has this code on the bottom - I have done a bit of googling to figure this one out and I believe it's 01 (precision) 02 (no clue) 36 (36th week) 9 (79) 3 (weds) - the 02 I have no clue, but I think the rest is correct. Anyone with better info let me know! The stuff on the back of the neck eludes me, although googling J Torres brings up a fair few results about him being a well-regarded neck builder of the era. The sticker I have absolutely no idea what that's about, but assuming original. Also not sure what the stamp codes mean, so any englightenment is appreciated! All the internals look well done, though I honestly have such poor knowledge of electrical work on my instruments it just looked like a mass of cables to me. Anyone with better knowledge please chime up! Not sure what dates these EMGs are either. The silver foil job appears to be as from the factory, suggesting this is also the original pickguard. I've never seen a silver foil on a bass before from Fender, but the serial number sticker on the underside suggests it is indeed how it was done in the factory. Last but not least is a sticker with F 1-23 written inside the pickup cavity - again, absolutely no idea. The buttons are removable, one I've got out and the other is providing difficult. Even with big holes in the body it looks a damn sight better than whatever those metal buttons were, so I'll take it. At this point I'm likely to buy a fretted replacement neck to avoid doing any major work to this one, the neck pocket is 2.5" by 3.8" or so, which I believe is relatively standard for a Precision neck? Hope the guts and glory photos are of interest guys, thank you for all the comments so far - very illuminating for both me and my father!

Thank you for the alternative perspective. I'm perhaps being too critical, simply from the shield job being visible and the fret marker situation, but otherwise it is a series of well-done modifications. I'm more in the mind to keep things as-is, though I'll be taking the neck off and electronics to see whether there is more information to be shared. What nut would you suggests as a replacement? I believe this must be a bone nut, but I've never actually replaced one before! Appreciate the feedback, leaning this way for sure, it's had a lot of work and a lot of character as a result. Might change the control knobs though, not a fan of the plastic ones!

Will check that out - it's never had a string change since we've owned it, so some very funked out flats as it is. I have heard of this happening before, but haven't experienced personally. They are indeed active, I believe the battery is housed beneath the pickguard cover but haven't had time to take it all apart and review. To be honest, given that getting it back to vintage is unlikely, tempted to just get some nicer looking control knobs and leave it at that. The plastic black ones don't really do it for me!

I can attest that intonating this bass has been an absolute p***take - hence the mangled looking saddle placement. I'm in agreement that the adjusted fret markers must be to account for the positioning of the larger bridge, I'll take some measurements tomorrow when I'm back to see whether it's properly set at a 34" scale length or not. It seems to be the G that is having the most trouble, i.e. if it's intonated at the 12th it's out elsewhere, none of the other strings seem to be having the same issue and the neck isn't warped, so not entirely sure what the crack is there! I think this is the long-term plan, I am not really a fretless player either and those chrome caps are just gaudy to my eyes. Not sure if I could git an ashtray over the badass bridge either, but we shall cross that road when we come to it.

+1 for Bass Japan Direct. I purchased an amazing Tokai Jazz Sound off him earlier this year and it was well-packaged, reasonably-priced and he calculated estimated additional costs for me for customs and the like. Really sound guy called Danny and well worth dealing with. It did get caught in Dutch customs too, funnily enough, maybe they have a thing for holding basses!

That is the assumption I have made - it's a really really thick slab of ebony that's been put over the top of the neck and the fret marker situation definitely irks me! Sounds cool and plays well as far as I can tell, though I'm not really a fretless player. Good to know r.e. the serial, he said previous owner told him 78 so that tracks. The fet marker situation is definitely giving me some conniptions, but it does seem like a real quality fretboard so inclined to accept the jank and refret, I also find it a little tricky to intonate and I wager that's down to a) me being a crap fretless player and b) because the scale length has potentially changed between the bridge swap. I'm tempted at the very least to return it back to a passive instrument befitting it's vintage more, and the nut needs repairing on the low E side, though it isn't affecting playability at the moment (possibly thanks to being fretless?) Thanks for the input so far guys!

Hi guys, Looking for a bit of help/guidance/advice here regarding a fretless P-bass my dad has had for donkeys years and by osmosis came to be in my collection. As far as we're both aware, it's a mid/late-70's P-Bass, original body and neck, and that's about as far as the knowledge goes. If anyone is good at dating serial numbers do chime up! The main point of contention is how many mods have actually been made to the bass itself. From what I can tell, it looks like it was not originally fretless. If you look carefully at the underside of what I think is an ebony fretboard -It's incredibly dark and doesn't feel like typical rosewood to me - you can see what looks like filled-in fret markers, especially at the 12th fret. The bass has a skunk stripe too, which I was always led to believe meant it would likely have a maple one-piece neck. My dad thinks it's always been a fretless, I'm just not buying it. The active electronics are 100% not original, nor is the bridge and what looks like a strange silver foil shielding job? Any insights here appreciated! I believe the J pickup has been routed out specifically to add these pickups, relatively professionally if I do say so myself, and either side of the bridge are these odd circle pin things that I'm assuming were put there after an ashtray was removed from the original. I'm considering whether I should try to restore as much of the bass to original if possible, what people's recommendations would be to go about that r.e. pickup selections and whether to refret it (if anyone knows any good luthiers in the midlands that could handle such a job I would be appreciative!). I think it's a gorgeous instrument let down a bit by lack of care from the previous owner before us - no mods were done by myself or my dad, it is as we received. Cheers!