Jazz Bass refinish, opinions?

[wints]

Shell pink gets my vote every time.

I'm still trying to lock down a 64 Jazz that has been refinished poorly and would love to change that to SP.

Go for it John.

Sonic Blue looks cool too...

[sloop_john_b]

Well, I just got the bass back from Dolan today, after sending it off last month. I decided in the end that Sonic Blue was the color I really wanted. He absolutely nailed the color I wanted - a tad lighter than stock Sonic Blue - and him and his team did a great job overall.

I've got the bass' original fretless neck on it right now, but after Christmas i'm going to find a nice Jazz neck with a rosewood fretboard for it - I just can't adapt to SBL with a maple fretboard. If anyone has a suitable neck, drop me a line!

Will post pics of this when I get some suitable sunlight to take some.

[rickenbrother]

Cool, that was a quick turnaround time. I prefer rosewood over maple for fingerboards. Looking forward to seeing the pics.

[lennon211]

Cool, that was a quick turnaround time. I prefer rosewood over maple for fingerboards. Looking forward to seeing the pics.

Aesthetically, I vastly prefer rosewood on lighter finished guitars such as the pastels from Fender like my recent Sonic Blue Strat. I think that there are also those finishes that look better with the maple board such as a sunburst, black, vintage blond...basically the "basic" colors and not the custom colors. As far as feel, it's all the same to me.

Congrats on getting that Sonic Blue bass back, look forward to pictures. And also, I think that Shell Pink would be an awesome looking bass. I don't much care for pink shirts, etc, but a pink bass would be sweet.

[nattiep]

Your friends made fun of a purple bass, but they won't make fun of a pink one?

Grats on the blue!

[sloop_john_b]

Your friends made fun of a purple bass, but they won't make fun of a pink one?

Grats on the blue!

Well, it wasn't the fact that the bass was purple, moreso that I didn't know it was purple when I bought it, due to the color blindness. I've now erased those traumatic memories.

[johnallg]

Will post pics of this when I get some suitable sunlight to take some.

Since you are down-weather from me, that could be a while! Have a great Christmas!

BTW, we were 50 degrees overnight , but today has been VERY windy and it is presently 15 degrees out with a windchill well below zero. And thought the 50 degrees melted all the snow, we have 3 inches and large flakes still coming down right now.

[sloop_john_b]

Since you are down-weather from me, that could be a while! Have a great Christmas!

BTW, we were 50 degrees overnight , but today has been VERY windy and it is presently 15 degrees out with a windchill well below zero. And thought the 50 degrees melted all the snow, we have 3 inches and large flakes still coming down right now.

Don't I know it! Haven't seen the sun in about a week, though the weather was a *very* mild 55 or so today.

Here's a photo of the bass as it stands right now. The yellowish glow of the lightbulbs have cast sort of a greenish tint on the bass, as expected. It is more blue in person - in fact, it's dead-on what I think of when I think "Sonic Blue". Still collecting parts for this bass - so anxious to start playing it though!

[johnallg]

You'll be getting a lot colder real soon!

Beautiful bass, John. I agree, a maple neck would look wrong.

[rickenbrother]

The color looks cool on that bass.

[jps]

Very nice looking Jazz Bass, John! How do those transparent strings sound? Nice and clear and crystalline?

Is the headstock matching or natural?

[sloop_john_b]

Is the headstock matching or natural?

The headstock isn't matching, but it's kind of a moot point anyway. While this fretless neck is the one that originally came with the bass, i'll be getting a fretted neck for it (whether or not i'll have the headstock painted remains to be seen, but I do like matching headstock Fenders!).

I barely play fretless ever (with the exception of playing upright), and the bass will get a lot more use from me with a fretted neck on it. There are several '62 RI CIJ Jazz necks that have been popping up on eBay, so i'll probably go for one of them.

I'm also looking into getting either a J-Retro or Audere active preamp for it, with the intention of having this bass replace my Musicman Sterling bass.

[jps]

I used to have an AV '62 Jazz Bass, one that I bought new in '03. While it was a great bass the truss rod was maxed out + (I had to add a bushing under the TR nut to get more range of adjustment) to get the neck flat enough for me. Hopefully you won't encounter this problem with whatever neck you find.

You should try and spend some time with fretless, and not just the vertical kind.

[woodyng]

that color turned out nice,here's something i picked up recently with a similar-ish color combo-i also have a mint green pg from another project bass that i will probably try on for size.....

[sloop_john_b]

Whoa! What's the story on that one, Woody?

A quick update on this, I bought a neck with a rosewood fretboard on eBay, it came from an 80's MIJ Jazz. It's not a 60's logo (more 70's like), but it looks like a nice one.

I'm also going to get a mint green pickguard for it, and maybe a tortoise as well, to change it up from time to time.