Sparky Mark

Brilliant day! I'd never thought about it before but it makes total sense to start with the middle finger on the plucking hand when a phrase starts on the G string because your middle finger is usually the longest (unless you're from Norfolk apparently!).

There's the possibility that as Sherwood Green was a custom order colour that maybe this bass was ordered with non standard frets?

The frets look wider than original early 60s frets like these on a 63.

That 61J looks legit to me, albeit with a refret, refinish and replacement pot. Slab fretboard is correct, beautiful uncracked pickguard and the rough bit by the bridge will be from the mute fixing holes. Black is my least favourite Jazz colour but Sherwood Green would've made his asking price not that unreasonable, possibly a bit of a bargain.

It needs a mudbucker tight against the neck to complete the Swiss Army concept.

They are extremely flexible amps with blendable 12ax7 valve and solid state preamps, usable compressor, 30Hz slider which works as a half decent high pass filter removing sub bass that can damage speakers, great graphic section and quick overall adjustment hi and low tone controls. Two possible negatives are the old school weight and noisy cooling fan.

I've owned mine for 30 years and it's still working fine. If you can find a mosfet version even better.

Classic cars and watches are also arguably less reliable than modern equivalents but can still command massive premiums due to their rarity.

Who wants to buy my 61P for chump change?

Looks like this sold for approximately £10.5k including fees. Let's see if it turns up at a dealer after a deep clean.

This 250k pot is on a 63J.

Please let us know if you get a response to your questions.

Also interesting is the transition from slab to curved fretboard during 61 to 62.

I cannot find a reference to whether the electronics and truss rod are still working? The bass and case looks like they have been stored in a location subject to varying humidity resulting in the quite deep corrosion of the chrome and nickel plating. The back of the neck looks a bit rough too. The pickguard looks perfect with no cracks. Although the provenance is interesting I don't think the Rascals connection adds value unless a family member or seriously dedicated fan gets involved in bidding. If it still works and can be cleaned and set up without refinishing the neck we could expect a dealer to list it in the region of £15k +/- £2k. The lack of original case could impact that to a certain degree. If I wanted a 62P I'd be happy to pay £6k plus fees (£2k) for that as it is.

I actually meant to quote this 63 not the 66! Dirt cheap in comparison to the 66.