Lakland Skyline 55-AJ [Nordstrand 2B Pre/Tone Control/Anaconda Pups] *Price Drop - £750* UK Shipping Available - *SOLD* £795 Durham

[Paddy777]

For sale is my outstandingly good Lakland Skyline 55-AJ 35” scale Active Jazz Bass. This is one of the best playing & best sounding basses I’ve ever had, I’ve had numerous comments on how good it sounds, particularly since the pickup & preamp mods,’which has turned it into an incredibly versatile bass giving you the option of everything from thumpy, tone down passive P-bass to Marcus Miller slap, to rear pickup focused funk and anything inbetween. Condition-wise the bass is in good condition - it’s been gigged and isn’t a dog by any stretch but it isn’t a brand new bass - it’s a working bassists bass, supremely high quality and it will not let you down. The only thing that I have to mention is it did get a knock underneath next to the back strap button - this caused a couple of cracks in the lacquer that went around from the stacked knob to the rear control panel. It was taken to a luthier for professional repair and it was fixed & the lacquer was redone, you can see the mark if you look, and if you tilt it in the light you can see where the lacquer was cracked, but it has been repaired and it is smooth to touch. There’s no structural damage and you only notice it if you look for it, however I have to mention it as it’s there and I have factored it into the price 

 

SPECS:

It has a swamp ash body with a beautiful figured maple top, 22 fret rosewood fretboard & a 35” quarter sawn maple neck with a reinforced head and 2 graphite reinforcement bars. It has the option to string through the body or through the Lakland custom bridge, and 5 hipshot tuners in a 3+2 layout. This bass has one of the best B strings I’ve ever played, only bro g beaten by my Dingwall, but you can get the same clarity on the B string all the way up the neck.

 

MODS: 

Preamp: The original preamp on these is the cheap Bartolini-licensed MK1 that is also in the 55-01. It had no Passive mode and sounded pretty rubbish. The preamp was replaced with a Nordstrand 2 Band preamp (2B-4C) with Tone control & push/pull for active/passive mode, so the layout is now: Volume/Blend/Tone/Stacked Bass & Treble. Tone control works in both active and passive mode, and if you open the rear cavity there is gain trim pot, where you can have the preamp so it is exactly the same volume in passive as it is when active and totally flat, or it can be turned up by up to 15db. Bass is +\- 12db @ 50hz and the Treble is +\- 12db @ 4khz - I t’s a very musical preamp, not one of those where if you boost it more than 30% it sounds horrendous 

 

Pickups: The original Lakland single coil pickups that were in the bass were pretty good, however I don’t play a jazz bass at centre detent very often and find single coil him annoying, and I thought I may as well do it whilst I got the preamp done, so after a lot of researching decided to go with the Anaconda AC5-TN stacked coil pickups, and they sound really great. Loads of clarity and a fat low end - if you give Anaconda basses a look on YouTube it gives you an idea, but they do old school/vintage just as well as modern if you EQ it for that - and they look ace with the big pole pieces too 😁 

 

I am including a nice padded Ritter gig bag with the Bass, and I can post within the UK for £20 with DPD (I have a Bass Direct box & packaging from the last bass I bought from them & it will be extremely well packaged). I am selling as I have seen something I want, so I am putting it up for a very good price with a view to a quick sale, however I’ll likely pull it and keep it if what I want to get is sold 

 

Reduced Now £750!

(inc Gigbag +£20 for UK shipping)

 

Edited yesterday at 05:34 by Paddy777

[walshy]

All kinds of lovely that mate. GLWTS dude

Edited Thursday at 08:20 by walshy

[JazzLobster]

I have the exact same bass, but with SD Apollo stacked coils and a Noll preamp wearing LaBella flats. 
Played some big time musicals with it, just a killer bass. 
This is a very attractive price, I paid much more second hand for mine.

[Paddy777]

46 minutes ago, JazzLobster said:

I have the exact same bass, but with SD Apollo stacked coils and a Noll preamp wearing LaBella flats. 
Played some big time musicals with it, just a killer bass. 
This is a very attractive price, I paid much more second hand for mine.

Funny you should say that, I’ve just played 2 different musicals on this, and a whole variety of different pub/function/wedding gigs - it’s a bass that fits in perfectly anywhere tbf.

The weak point was the electronics - or more specifically the preamp, pickups were fine but single coils don’t work for me - once that’s addressed it’s a monster bass and I don’t think you’ll find a better jazz bass under a grand anywhere 

[AlexDelores]

Stunning that! 35” would swamp me but someone will snap it up. GLWTS 👌