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Post subject: 1959 Jazz Bass prototype w/ Jazzmaster soapbars
Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 11:58 am
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I never knew that the first Jazz Bass prototypes made in 1959 were totally different animals than the production versions which officially debuted in 1960. They got two Jazzmaster soapbar pickups instead of the well-known J-style single-coils.

Apparently Fender didn't released a replica of the original '59 soapbar Jazz Bass.


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Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 12:19 pm
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The early "prototype" Jazz bass you are talking about was a bass that had very wide Jazzmaster like pickups but they actually had 5 pole pieces on the Treble PU and four on the bass pickup.

Fender actually made a modern Jazz Bass with similial pole piece spacing.

I guess Leo didn't like the tone of those wide pickups as much as the normal Jazz bass pickups.

I saw and auction that Speedy West or some famous country artist had an early Jazz bass that was routed for the big pickups but it had a standard sized set installed.

There was some strange stuff built on the way to the Fender models that we know and love today.


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Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 6:29 am
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BCbassman wrote:
The early "prototype" Jazz bass you are talking about was a bass that had very wide Jazzmaster like pickups but they actually had 5 pole pieces on the Treble PU and four on the bass pickup.

Fender actually made a modern Jazz Bass with similial pole piece spacing.

I guess Leo didn't like the tone of those wide pickups as much as the normal Jazz bass pickups.

I saw and auction that Speedy West or some famous country artist had an early Jazz bass that was routed for the big pickups but it had a standard sized set installed.

There was some strange stuff built on the way to the Fender models that we know and love today.


This bass brings me a lot of memories after seeing a couple of early/mid 1990s pictures showing Roscoe Beck fooling around a modified Inca Silver Boner Jazz Bass with dual humbucking pickups, 5-way selector, master volume and TBX tone controls.

I believe the Roscoe Beck signature models were developed upon the modified Boner Jazz Bass and the Stevens Slant 6-string monster. Both basses are no longer made, despite the rumours of a possible reintroduction of the 5-string model with a maple neck option.

Image

Image


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Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 6:55 pm
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chromeface wrote:
BCbassman wrote:
The early "prototype" Jazz bass you are talking about was a bass that had very wide Jazzmaster like pickups but they actually had 5 pole pieces on the Treble PU and four on the bass pickup.

Fender actually made a modern Jazz Bass with similial pole piece spacing.

I guess Leo didn't like the tone of those wide pickups as much as the normal Jazz bass pickups.

I saw and auction that Speedy West or some famous country artist had an early Jazz bass that was routed for the big pickups but it had a standard sized set installed.

There was some strange stuff built on the way to the Fender models that we know and love today.


This bass brings me a lot of memories after seeing a couple of early/mid 1990s pictures showing Roscoe Beck fooling around a modified Inca Silver Boner Jazz Bass with dual humbucking pickups, 5-way selector, master volume and TBX tone controls.

I believe the Roscoe Beck signature models were developed upon the modified Boner Jazz Bass and the Stevens Slant 6-string monster. Both basses are no longer made, despite the rumours of a possible reintroduction of the 5-string model with a maple neck option.

Image

Image


I, for one, would like to see the 5-string reintroduced with maybe some tweaking on the controls. I like the pickups on this model but am put off by the control layout. Something along the lines of a Lakland 5502 makes more sense from a control layout standpoint to me.


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