bassbiscuits Posted November 17, 2015 Share Posted November 17, 2015 (edited) Hi all, Unusual one this and I wasn't sure how best to price it. It's a Japanese SGC Nanyo SB301 passive unlined fretless bass from 1988. Anyone who is familiar with these will already know them as being very lightweight, comfortable basses with very playable jazz bass-ish necks. I've owned it since 2009 and I've had a couple of mods carried out to bring it up to its current condition. I'll explain... When I got it, it had the original SGC P pickup, but the J pickup had been replaced with a Bartoloni, which had gone a bit microphonic. The original passive controls also included a blend pot, but it made the 'both pickups on' setting quieter than either individually. Hmm. So I got both pickups replaced with a new Wizard PJ set, which sounds great, and at the same time got the controls changes to vol/vol/tone/tone (as on a Les Paul). I should say all this work was carried out professionally by the techies at Sheehans Music in Leicester. I have all the original wiring and the pickups it came with. The eagle eyed among you might notice that the pole pieces on the Wizard set are slightly wider than the string spacing on the bass, which is slightly narrower than a P bass. But the sound is absolutely fine with no difference in volume (presumably the magnetic field is big enough for it not to matter? I don't know). The fingerboard is a lovely slab of rosewood, which I've lemon oiled regularly, and it has always worn flatwounds to my knowledge. There are the tiniest string marks on the board, but nothing that affects the feel or playability in any way. Currently strung with a set of Rotosound 40-100 flats with plenty of life in them. Cosmetically it does have a few marks on it. The front of the body beneath the forearm has a few scuffs, and elsewhere there are superficial dings and scratches as expected from a 27-year-old bass. Overall it plays well, with comfortable medium/low action and all the important bits working well. It's pretty loud and lively when unplugged and good fun to play, even tho I'm not a particularly great fretless player! I've used it for perhaps a dozen gigs since 2009, plus a bit of recording on a friend's country / bluegrass album, but it hasn't come out of its bag for over a year now so that's not enough for me to hang on to it really. I checked the previous sales on Basschat to get an idea of the price, so £145 plus postage was a sort of guess based in that. It comes with a tatty but clean Ritter gigbag too. NOW SOLD Edited November 29, 2015 by bassbiscuits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted November 18, 2015 Share Posted November 18, 2015 Great basses - I'm actually waiting for a 301 to be delivered as I write and have a 320 somewhere in the courier system (waiting for the seller to provide tracking details) - lot of bass for your buck... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahamd Posted November 18, 2015 Share Posted November 18, 2015 Seconded, I have a SB512 fretless that I love, and this is bargainous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassbiscuits Posted November 23, 2015 Author Share Posted November 23, 2015 Bump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassbiscuits Posted November 27, 2015 Author Share Posted November 27, 2015 Trying to think of something witty and Black Friday related to bump this, but alas I cannot. So just a normal ready salted bump then. I can be a bit flexible on price but it's already a lot of good MIJ bass for the money... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassbiscuits Posted November 29, 2015 Author Share Posted November 29, 2015 Now sold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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