Tell me about this bass - Ibanez Roadster

[Duarte]

I'm constantly on the lookout for beat up old basses.

 

A huge portion of old japanese instruments seem to wash up on the shores of Thailand, poorly modded or degraded by the tropical climate. I recently bought an old yamaha P bass and I've stripped the old finish and currently oiling it and replacing all the broken parts. That bass cost almost nothing but I've found that I'm quite good at this kind of project. 

 

So here's the next potential candidate, an 80s ibanez. I'd love to know more about the instrument - is the rear pickup modded? And this must be a refin? Are these things any good? I suspect they are. I've got a lot of tru-oil to get through before it dries up. What would you do?

 

Asking price converts to £220. Is it reasonable? 

 

Cheers!

Zak

 

 

[PaulThePlug]

have a look on the ibanez website...

they have loads of old catalogues from the 80s...

http://www.hoshinogakki.co.jp/pdf/ibanez/catalog/1982EB.pdf

I'd say £220 is reasonable to low compared to reverb the bay etc...

What model? 34" or 32" If its fun then then its prolly worth it. as for the pickup, perhaps the plate is to fit a slightly diffetent size J?

[franzbassist]

I had a Roadster back in the day.  I suspect this was originally a single hunbucking pickup in the sweetspot and a more basic EQ.

[TheGreek]

I recently sold mine - very playable, nice necks, great tonal package but heavy - well over 11LBs. 

 

They were selling for over £1k a couple of years ago - £6-700 seems common at the moment (there's one on ebay).

 

If you can manage the weight - buy it.

Edited August 31, 2021 by TheGreek

[Doctor J]

I used to have a 1980 RS924 which shared the body and neck shape with this.

 

Negatives: heavy and no forearm contours

 

Positives: Immeasurably better build quality than the 70's Fender I had, great tone, intelligent design, high quality hardware, sounded great, set up and played really well too.

 

I sold it for €650. As an instrument, excluding all the jibba jabba we get caught up in when talking about instruments, I felt it was worth more than that. They weren't playing games in Japan in this era. These are properly excellent basses. If you can get this one, even though it has been modded,  for £200, do it today.

[Duarte]

48 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

I recently sold mine - very playable, nice necks, great tonal package but heavy - well over 11LBs. 

 

They were selling for over £1k a couple of years ago - £6-700 seems common at the moment (there's one on ebay).

 

If you can mange the weight - buy it.

 

Interesting. I'm not too bothered by weight, I've owned some ludicrously heavy basses (Rays and Jazz basses are the usual culprits), but 99% of the time my basses are lounging around the house for impromptu jams and home recording. Heavier basses just stay in comfier locations! £6 - 700 means serious bass far as I'm concerned. Looks like I have a good deal on my hands.

 

40 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

I used to have a 1980 RS924 which shared the body and neck shape with this.

 

Negatives: heavy and no forearm contours

 

Positives: Immeasurably better build quality than the 70's Fender I had, great tone, intelligent design, high quality hardware, sounded great, set up and played really well too.

 

I sold it for €650. As an instrument, excluding all the jibba jabba we get caught up in when talking about instruments, I felt it was worth more than that. They weren't playing games in Japan in this era. These are properly excellent basses. If you can get this one, even though it has been modded,  for £200, do it today.

 

Interesting. I don't subscribe to the jibba jabba really - as long as it's a good bit of wood with some sturdy hardware, chances are I'll love it. A bit of modding is fine too, I can mod it further without feeling guilty about it. Perfect!

[Duarte]

2 hours ago, PaulThePlug said:

have a look on the ibanez website...

they have loads of old catalogues from the 80s...

http://www.hoshinogakki.co.jp/pdf/ibanez/catalog/1982EB.pdf

I'd say £220 is reasonable to low compared to reverb the bay etc...

What model? 34" or 32" If its fun then then its prolly worth it. as for the pickup, perhaps the plate is to fit a slightly diffetent size J?

 

Great resource. Thanks for that!

 

I'm not sure of the scale length or any details really - it's a mystery. Kind of looks like the RS824BB from the catalogue - with some modifications. 

Edited August 30, 2021 by Duarte

[TheGreek]

Fretless on eBay - £525 - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353644492075?hash=item5256dab52b:g:DZ0AAOSwAH1hAubZ

 

 

[LeftyJ]

I loved my RS924, but it was the heaviest bass I've ever owned (it even beats my MC924's), and it has a very substantial neck. 

 

The one OP posted looks like a heavily modded RS824: replaced pickups, passive contols removed and replaced with a 3-band EQ, refinished, and rerouted for a larger bridge pickup at one point. Could still be a cool player, and at that asking price it seems very cool. 

[Duarte]

11 hours ago, TheGreek said:

Fretless on eBay - £525 - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353644492075?hash=item5256dab52b:g:DZ0AAOSwAH1hAubZ

 

 

 

That's stunning. I wonder why fretless maple boards aren't 'in' any more.

[LeftyJ]

3 hours ago, Duarte said:

 

That's stunning. I wonder why fretless maple boards aren't 'in' any more.

Right? 

Sire still does them though: Thomann

[Duarte]

11 hours ago, LeftyJ said:

I loved my RS924, but it was the heaviest bass I've ever owned (it even beats my MC924's), and it has a very substantial neck. 

 

The one OP posted looks like a heavily modded RS824: replaced pickups, passive contols removed and replaced with a 3-band EQ, refinished, and rerouted for a larger bridge pickup at one point. Could still be a cool player, and at that asking price it seems very cool. 

 

I think I'll go for it - it looks like a great base (bass) for experiments. Revert back to passive, refinish, etc. 

 

6 minutes ago, LeftyJ said:

Right? 

Sire still does them though: Thomann

 

Well well well, I don't need a 1970s P bass to crop up after all...

[Bassassin]

That's a very beat-up, modded and refinished RS924 or RS824 (in 80s Ibby-speak the '9' denotes active & that's the only difference), value depends on what a good condition example would go for in the same market. These are superb players and with original pickups (which I don't think this has) great-sounding basses. The downside is that they're boat-anchors so you'll want a good strap!

 

Edit: Looking closer, it's a passive 824 - the 924 originally had V/T, pickup selector, active on/off switch & actibe treble/bass boost & cut. Doesn't look like this had the active switch. These were orignally P/J (pickups were very good DiMarzio clones) and this one has, at some point, presumably been routed for something that wasn't a J unit and then converted back. Controls would have been V/V/T/T & selector, looks like someone's stuck a knob where the switch should be (Matron!), anyone's guess what it does, if anything, but might be a blend if you're lucky.

 

For reference, here's my one. I really do need to take better pics of it!

 

 

3 hours ago, LeftyJ said:

Right? 

Sire still does them though: Thomann

 

They do and they're superb. For fear of derailing a perfectly good vintage MIJ thread, here's mine:

 

 

The only criticism (which depends entirely on how good at fretless navigation you are) is that the side dots are between the fretlines rather than on them, and (on mine at least) are tiny white dots sandwiched between the binding & neck wood, so are functionally invisible anyway.

Can anyone recommend some good stick-on side dots?

Edited August 31, 2021 by Bassassin
Additional guff!

[Bassassin]

23 hours ago, PaulThePlug said:

have a look on the ibanez website...

they have loads of old catalogues from the 80s...

http://www.hoshinogakki.co.jp/pdf/ibanez/catalog/1982EB.pdf

I'd say £220 is reasonable to low compared to reverb the bay etc...

What model? 34" or 32" If its fun then then its prolly worth it. as for the pickup, perhaps the plate is to fit a slightly diffetent size J?

 

For the interested, this is a bigger & more comprehensive (not to mention easier to navigate) repository of old Ibby blurbs than the official site:

 

http://s93105080.onlinehome.us/Ibanez-Catalogs/

[Misdee]

 

I remember playing these basses when they first came out at the dawn of the 1980s and they were superb instruments. Well made, really gutsy sound, modern tone but with plenty of balls. The Di Marzios probably contributed a great deal to that sound. Yes they were heavy, but no one seemed bothered about what basses weighed back then. Back in those days if you had rung a shop and asked them what bass weighed they would have thought you were an eccentric, and that's the polite word for it, if you know what I mean.😄 Heavy was a mark of quality. Alembics were heavy. On purpose.

 

Ibanez were really in their golden era back It's such a shame they don't turn out Japanese-made basses like these any more. I do seem to remember however, that these basses had a very pronounced shallow D neck profile. On of my friends had one of these Roadster basses back in the mid 80s and I have a distinct recollection of the neck profile being like a slightly exaggerated version of a pre-EB Musician Stingray. Could be my memory playing tricks on me though. Forgive me if I am wrong!🙂

Edited September 1, 2021 by Misdee

[Misdee]

 Graham Edwards playing a Roadster back in the day. 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Misdee

[TheGreek]

I had the fretless version of this.

 

[Bassassin]

My inner pedant has to point out that these didn't have DiMarzio pickups - despite appearances Ibanez never fitted them on their Blazer, Roadster & Roadster II basses. They're very good DiMarzio lookalikes though, almost certainly made by Maxon/Nisshin Onpa & referred to as 'Super P4/J4' in the Ibby promo literature.

 

A quick way to check whether your hex-pole pickups are DiMarzios or just similar looking is to try an allen key in a pole piece - DiMarzios are imperial, all the others will be metric.

[neepheid]

52 minutes ago, Misdee said:

Heavy was a mark of quality.

 

 

[Munurmunuh]

6 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

My inner pedant has to point out that these didn't have DiMarzio pickups - despite appearances Ibanez never fitted them on their Blazer, Roadster & Roadster II basses.

 

Have you considered having this as your signature? 

[Misdee]

12 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

My inner pedant has to point out that these didn't have DiMarzio pickups - despite appearances Ibanez never fitted them on their Blazer, Roadster & Roadster II basses. They're very good DiMarzio lookalikes though, almost certainly made by Maxon/Nisshin Onpa & referred to as 'Super P4/J4' in the Ibby promo literature.

 

A quick way to check whether your hex-pole pickups are DiMarzios or just similar looking is to try an allen key in a pole piece - DiMarzios are imperial, all the others will be metric.

I too thought that they were Ibanez own Di Marzio rip-offs , but read elsewhere that the were DiMarzios so thought I must have got it wrong! The were super-gutsy sounding pickups. It's a shame they don't sell them nowadays as separate item. They would be a fascinating option to have.

[Bassassin]

25 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

Have you considered having this as your signature? 

 

I am seriously doing so, but in the fullest interests of pedantry it'd need to be a bit broader.

 

How does "My inner pedant will be along to correct you in due course" sound?

[Munurmunuh]

1 minute ago, Bassassin said:

 

I am seriously doing so, but in the fullest interests of pedantry it'd need to be a bit broader.

 

How does "My inner pedant will be along to correct you in due course" sound?

 

[1] Certainly not a Dimarzio 

[2] Probably not Matsumoku

[3] Please wait by your vehicle until we are able to attend

[Bassassin]

2 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

 

[1] Certainly not a Dimarzio 

[2] Probably not Matsumoku

[3] Please wait by your vehicle until we are able to attend

 

[4] No, you're mistaken, it's definitely a Gotoh. Like I told you.

[Munurmunuh]

14 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

 

[4] No, you're mistaken, it's definitely a Gotoh. Like I told you.