LeftyJ

12 hours ago, snorkie635 said:

"Gay Kremlin?"

 

 

 

 

There's this famous photo of some really rare instruments (especially the lefties!) all together on one wall:

Just incredible! I'd love me that lefty Coronado and that Precision, but it's especially the Telecaster Deluxe and the Mustang Bass that have me hankering. 

On 14/11/2025 at 15:46, ped said:

https://reverb.com/uk/item/93109785-atelier-z-zpo-4-jr-short-scale-natural

 

 

Those are little beasts! It was the predecessor to the Baby Z-4J, and it's specced very similarly but minus the neckdive and I believe with an EQ that's boost/cut instead of the boost-only job in the Baby Z. They're amazing little basses, and sound very modern and punchy. The 17 mm string spacing will not be for everyone. 

On 15/11/2025 at 19:36, TheGhostofJaco said:

Also the tall frets on the am pro ii are not really my thing.

Aye, the  Narrow Tall frets are my one gripe with the Am Pro II Jazzmaster I own. They required some getting used to for sure. I've had many guitars with regular jumbo frets, and a Fender with medium jumbo frets, and I wasn't a fan of those either but these narrow talls are somehow even less comfortable to me. I'll take a medium or vintage fretwire over these any day! 

If that was just defretted it would have had to have the entire fingerboard replaced, because there's no hiding the original fingerboard dots unless you shave off a few millimeters!

Either way, cool score. It looks great! 

@uk_lefty is looking for an '80s style bass. I'd say it doesn't get more '80s than this! 

Seriously though: It looks like it was kept in a rather damp environment, judging from those screws, the separated fingerboard binding and the peeling finish. It needs some work, and the right loving home because this is definitely niche! It's also really cool though, and USA-made Jacksons have always been built to a very high standard so I'm sure it's lovely. It looks like it's mostly the clearcoat that's flaking, and most of the graphic is still in place? 

I don't think Sims do finish work anymore, but only pickups and LEDs these days? That's a shame, I couldn't think of a better man for the job.  

The JTKB200 with the two chrome-covered singlecoils should be neck volume - bridge volume - master tone, but the Ibanez Wiki says master volume - pickup balance - master tone. Conflicting indeed! The 2009 catalog confirms VVT though.

The JTKB300 with the three J-style pickups has 3 on/off-switches and just master volume and tone.

10 hours ago, Brian18242 said:

However, it would be nice if they reissued the BB3000 as they are constantly in demand and would fly off the shelf. 

They probably would not, for they would be prohibitively expensive for the general public and would only appeal to fans of the series. Especially if they were to be made in Japan like the originals. The current bolt-on BBP34 and BBP35 sit at €2100 which is roughly the same as a Fender American Professional II. They're probably better-made, but many people will still argue "Made in the USA" is the holy grail. A neck-through model would sit quite a bit higher still, probably not below €3000. 

1 hour ago, Kiwi said:

If I were him, I might be a little cautious about that.  It's not technically his property and he probably trespassed to get it.  Whether the matter gets enforced or not is another thing though. 

He's not. He filmed himself while doing it, and during the car ride back home described in full detail to his selfiecam what he has taken home with him, including many photo's and video's of everything. 

9 hours ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

It's the same workshop with the original workbench where Leo worked when it was the original Fender factory, so a lot of classic Fender design work was originated there too.

It was not the original Fender factory. That has long been torn down, there's a parking garage there now. It's the old CLF Design facility, where Leo built the original Music Man guitars and basses for Music Man after he sold Fender to CBS. So FMIC has zero history in that building, other than all the cool prototypes Leo took with him.

I wrongfully thought this too, but was corrected when I posted it on Reddit. 

They should do a Peter Frampton / Richie Sambora version that lets you do talkbox effects. 

LeCompte makes some interesting pickups, with those triple pole pieces.

They were on my radar through NoTreble, who made their creations Bass of the Week several times. 

This one stood out to me, I love the body shape which appears to blend the offset waist of the Jazz Bass and something a bit Wal or Shergold like. 

LeCompte Electric Bass - SHR - Short Scale

Interestingly, they spec this one as a 30.3" scale model. 

I wish they had kept the 60s body shape, which was ever so slightly more elegant and more compact. And a 70s style tummy cut would have been nice. 

Stole this from Talkbass, where someone put the outline of a JMJ over a '66. The current reissues are more bulky and bigger: 

16 hours ago, lemmywinks said:

Assume these are Japan Custom Shop builds? If so the price is nothing out of the ordinary, that's where their top artists' instruments are built.

That would most often be the LA Custom Shop in the US 

Much of their Japanese high-end builds are outsourced to Sugi these days. The Japan Custom Shop is for the really top notch stuff. I'm really curious where these Visions models are being made! 

I'm surprised it hasn't sold yet at that price! 

I just came across your status update and replied there, but I'll repeat it here too (and I'll share the pic you posted there): 

For what it's worth, this doesn't appear to be a factory fretless (RS940) but a defretted RS924. A 940 would have no fretlines, and only tiny dot inlays near the edge of the fingerboard where the fretlines would have been, rather than inbetween fretlines. Maybe this helps lower the boundaries to have this neck refretted instead . Being a lacquered fingerboard there will be some extra work involved to do a tidy and invisible job. These are fabulous basses, I really enjoyed mine a lot when I had it, so definitely worth the effort! It was prohibitively heavy though, and nowadays I favour a narrower nut width.

On 26/10/2025 at 17:49, kodiakblair said:

For spraying some tomato plant grow tent was used.

 

 

 

That's brilliant! The tent, but also the drain pipes! Love it 

Fame guitars and basses always used to be built by Mayones in Poland. I wonder if they still are!

No lefties, bummer! In fact, I couldn't find ANY lefty on their website. They used to be such a lefty-friendly company, with a wide range of instruments available in left-handed versions. It used to vary widely per market, the Dutch distributor had few interesting lefty models in their range but France got a huge range including the neck-through Artisan models that have always tempted me. I've owned an Artisan B4, an NTL-B FL (the most high-end acoustic series Cort had around 2000, very unusual and rare lefty) and still have a lovely, lovely MGM-1 Matt "Guitar" Murphy signature that's also quite rare. 

1 minute ago, LukeFRC said:

I think it's the standard from the shopify theme

Solid point.

That does look remarkably like the fonts on the Fender website. 

G&L's W's don't have the pointy bottoms. 

Nice, and my second-favourite colour combo for a P, closely behind black + black 3-ply guard + maple board. Looks great! 

There was, for a short time, also a range of Czech made MTD basses but they're rare to come by. I know at least the Grendel was part of that range, I don't know about other models. 

Whoa, you could at least have included a NSFW warning in the title! That's stunning! 

1 hour ago, Dood said:

I'm going to look in to the new Peavey Cirrus V basses 

These look promising! Made by NBE in the Czech republic, in the same facility that builds the Euro Spectors.