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Post subject: 70's Jazz
Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:31 am
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Hey guys, I just wanna ask, especially for vintage collectors and players... back in the 70's, when did they replace the Alder body into Ash? or did they create a bass having an alder body with the bridge pickup moved slightly lower similar to geddy's jazz bass?


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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:11 pm
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They never replaced alder with ash, they made bodies in both woods just as they continue to do today.

If you bought a natural finish Jazz or Precision you probably got an ash body but if you bought a sunburst or custom color you may or may not get an alder body.

Ash bodies in the 70s were generally pretty heavy. In the 10 lbs + range.
Alder bodies were generally lighter in weight.

Many mid 60's basses were done in alder. Many 70's basses, with the see through finishes, were done in ash.

The pickup spacing on Jazz basses changed in the early 70s, I think.
I played a 71 Jazz for years but I never realized that the PU spacing was different from any other Jazz bass.

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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:48 pm
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Thanks much for the information...

so i guess the Geddy Lee bass is based on a 70's Jazz Bass with alder?


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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:43 pm
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eyecandy wrote:
Thanks much for the information...

so i guess the Geddy Lee bass is based on a 70's Jazz Bass with alder?


Yep, based on his '73 Jazz. I think the pickup spacing was right around 1970, give or take a year. His bass had an alder body.


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Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 11:05 am
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was it in the 1970 that they changed the truss rod adjustments?


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Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 1:58 pm
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eyecandy wrote:
was it in the 1970 that they changed the truss rod adjustments?


Around the mid 70s, only for J basses.


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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 2:07 pm
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Truss rods changed to bullet trussrods in 1975 for Jazz basses. This was later than Stratocasters and Telecaster deluxes which changed to bullet truss rods in 1972.
Of course the change to a bullet truss rod meant that the neck attachment changed to three screws.

Telecasters and Precision basses never changed to the bullet truss rods.

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Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 2:22 am
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question though:
is it in 70's that they changed the truss rod adjustments on top near the nut?

i saw geddy's bass well based on his 73 right... it has the adjustment at the top not like the "oh so hassle" 60's bass where you have to remove the neck... :cry:


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Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 8:37 am
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eyecandy wrote:
question though:
is it in 70's that they changed the truss rod adjustments on top near the nut?

i saw geddy's bass well based on his 73 right... it has the adjustment at the top not like the "oh so hassle" 60's bass where you have to remove the neck... :cry:


Actually the adjustment isn't at the top. The place at the nut where you'd expect to see a trussrod adjuster is filled in with rosewood, like 50's era fender guitars. You can see it here:

http://elderly.com/images/fmic/55N/FGLJ ... -front.jpg

During the 60's all the basses had rosewood and had the adjuster at the body end. There were no skunk stripes and no filled in spot at the nut like the geddy. They basically inserted the trussrods and covered up the hole with the fingerboard. This is actually the same construction as current MIA basses.

In the 70s they started having basses maple and rosewood fingerboards. The rosewood fingerboards continued to have the 60's neck construction. The basses with maple boards were one piece necks, and they had to insert the trussrod on the back of the neck and through that hole near the nut, hence the rosewood skunkstripe and filler at the nut. This is like Geddy's '73.

Then in 1975 they started using the bullet truss rod for jazz basses. Both rosewood and maple boards used the same construction, with a skunk stripe on the back, and the bullet adjuster at the nut (it looks like a metal tube sticking out). The P basses never had this, and they had the different neck constructions for maple and rosewood boards.

I don't know exactly when the bullet trussrod stopped being used, but I think it was at the end of the 70s.


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Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 9:12 am
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but currently the adjustments of the MiAs can be accessed without removing the neck right? and are those the same with geddys?


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Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 11:48 am
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eyecandy wrote:
but currently the adjustments of the MiAs can be accessed without removing the neck right? and are those the same with geddys?


I'm not sure on this one. I don't know of the body is slotted right beneath the pick guard. At the very least you have to remove the pick guard to get at the trussrod. On the Am. Standards they have a little slot on the body and on the pickguard so you don't have to remove anything.


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Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 7:15 pm
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yeah I'm leaning more on the american standards atleast they're hassle free considering the posiflex too..~ but why did fender replaced the 7.25 radius to 9.5 anyways?


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Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 7:30 pm
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eyecandy wrote:
yeah I'm leaning more on the american standards atleast they're hassle free considering the posiflex too..~ but why did fender replaced the 7.25 radius to 9.5 anyways?


Not sure. It's not as much of a noticable difference as it is on guitars, and I think I slightly prefer 9.5


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Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 11:14 am
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I think the change to a 9.5 radius was made when the USA basses were redesigned for 1995. That means they started using posiflex truss rods,
Strings through the body and changed the truss rod nut to an allen nut.

The next redisign was the S-1 switching in 2003? and then the new bridge used on the 2008 models.

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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 3:58 am
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wow thanks for the information BC..
i wonder.. does Mexican standard's necks are made from the US?


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