Brother Jones

PM'd

My memory of the Thunder 1A is that the three pots are volume, passive tone, active tone. The switches are active/passive and either a coil tap or a series/parallel. From the logos, that is a relatively late one. 

On 03/11/2023 at 13:27, juliusmonk said:

I think this was mine at some point… I remember you could see the wood a bit through the black finish?

 

 

I thought it was my old one too - but, from memory, mine had a mid-shift switch, and this one doesn't have the wood grain (which you could only see quite close up). We might be talking about the same bass. 

In any case, these are possibly the best fretless basses ever made IMHO (ACG being the others). have to confess I'm tempted. 

19 minutes ago, Norris said:

So did I

 

It's a piece of history

So did I. 

It's certainly a piece of something. 

I remember actually giving away a very nice fretless one of these at the end of 2015. Very, very bad move. 

As a bassist of a certain age, the second hand market on BC can be utterly incredible VFM, and this is perhaps its most extreme example. 

And yes, I really do miss my fretless Recurve.....

I've owned a factory fretless version of this, and they are fabulous. Oh, sod it, PM'd. 

Asymmetric neck? 

Seriously, why is this still here? 

12 hours ago, bigthumb said:

 

Then 999 was a bargain as maybe the seller wanted a quick sale? I've sold lots of basses well under the 'market value' as I've wanted a quick sale and I've also bought a good few at real knock down prices. 

IMO, the asking price is very reasonable for a bass of this caliber and the seller is accepting offers. 

It was a bargain - because, yes, I wanted a quick sale.

Frankly, it's worth a lot more even than is being asked for here. I suspect I'd prefer this to an NYC Sadowsky 5, for example, and certainly to a Metro. 

I suspect there is a really serious strategic problem for companies like Fender. One analogy is hifi equipment. 

One of Britain's most famous hifi brands, Naim Audio, makes integrated amps, preamps and power amps that they have been able to service over the years. As a result, their entire output for several decades is still out there doing great service, with a thriving second hand market. 

Fender have similar issues. If your products are good enough that they don't end up as landfill - or the opposite, actually appreciate in value - sooner or later that is going to affect your new product. 

If you know what you're doing in either case, buying new makes less and less sense as the years go by. 

This is especially true in sectors where either technology has simply ceased to deliver something that is of greater value (possibly the case with hifi amps), or where the vintage nature of the product is the secret to its appreciation (Fender basses). 

I owned this, and it's absolutely lovely. Really should not have let it go. 

If that Jap Jazz you sold me last summer is anything to go by Clarky, your set ups are bang on. 

(It's still going strong btw, even if you wouldn't approve of the EMGs it wears now 🙂).

I hate to appear contrary, but...why does it have to be unlined? 

I've played fretless a lot, live, studio, you name it. And yes, side dots, muscle memory are very helpful. 

But so are lines. Even Jaco had lines.

PM'd...

Having owned one of these right at the end of the eighties, I'd be all over this...if it was in the UK. 

Somehow this is still here. The one I owned totally changed my opinion of 35" basses (for the better). 

I suspect I'd take one over an NYC Sadowsky, but that's a little controversial. GLWS. 

8 hours ago, warwickhunt said:

Dear me at £700 (sorry £699) I'd have had a gamble on that to see what it was like when stripped.  However, as it is now out of the UK, there'd not only be the shipping but the taxes.  Brexit just keeps on giving. 

 

I think it's in the UK isn't it? Bass is in Stirling and ships from there. Just the owner who's in Norway...

Helluva deal. 

2 hours ago, Embra said:

Good question; I'd never thought about it before but looked at from the right angle you can see that it is. According to Alan's website "... the deepest part of the neck is not in the centre, as is usual, but offset to the bass side of the neck" which describes what I can see. It's definitely one of the best things about this bass. 

Thank you. Sadly, that's the one thing I can't get on with on an ACG. Otherwise this would be the perfect bass, at the perfect time for me. GLWS. 

Quick question - is it an asymmetric neck?

Nickel wounds all the way here - on my 98 US Deluxe, and my 97 Jap reissue (Clarky's old black one), and, perhaps more surprisingly, on the Squier VMJ fretless. 

When I were a lad in the eighties it was all 30-90 ultra light, ultra bright. Now I can't stand that clanky sound, but equally I'll never be a flatwound person.

So if I'm feeling flush, it's DR Sunbeams, and if not whatever the D'Addario equivalent nickel is. 

All 45-105, obviously. 

Having owned one of these new in the mid 80s, I'm about 90% sure that the through-body stringing is original. 

Um, what is that nonsense on the back of the headstock? Are all ACs like that?

I'm about 90% that the 1985 Hohner Jazz that my folks bought me for Xmas that year had through-body stringing. It also definitely had 21 frets. 

The Arbor series was a little later - 88 or so - when the company started making the Jack (one of which also came my way).

A black one of these was also my first bass (an abysmal Kay shortscale notwithstanding) - an Xmas present from my parents. It had the same maple board and tort guard. 

My dad took me up to Denmark St and I picked it out because it had two pickups and wasn't too expensive. It was £85, and this was Xmas '85.