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Post subject: Restoring my mid 80's Jazz Bass Special
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 1:44 am
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So, whoever had this bass before me repainted it this ridiculous glam metal pearl white. Not just the body, but the whole neck and headstock. What is really sad is that I can see elements of black paint around the truss rod hole, and I am pretty sure that this was once a painted black neck and not a natural neck. I am trying to restore it to it's original color and was wondering if anyone has a chart of colors from this era, and if I could identify the original color of the bass from it's serial numbers at the 'bass' (bah dum chshhhhh) of the neck....I also can't see the original logo that was once on the headstock. Not real sure if this makes any difference. If anyone has any or a lot of information about these basses, I would also like to expand my understanding. This bass is my baby, so I want to do it the justice it deserves and get it back to original.


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Post subject: Re: Restoring my mid 80's Jazz Bass Special
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 2:26 am
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Location: Athens, Greece
It's the 22-fret active "Power" version with that reverse split pickup?


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Post subject: Re: Restoring my mid 80's Jazz Bass Special
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 9:49 pm
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Chromeface said what I was thinking. Quite possibly it is and if so only the front of the headstock was black at one time and some had a holographic pattern treament. It had a nice looking decal too with lightning bolts. Might be a candidate for a professional refinish if it plays and sounds really fine and you want to keep it. You will likely never recover the expense of a professional refinish if you sell it though and it will never be original again no matter what you do to it. I call basses like this one basket cases. Pretty much basses like this are a money pit. If you live to be 100 you'll never get your money back out of it, but you refinish it anyway because you want to play it and keep it indefinitely. The most labor in the refinish will be stripping off the amateur paint.


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Post subject: Re: Restoring my mid 80's Jazz Bass Special
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 5:50 pm
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Some had a painted neck, some didn't. I have an '87 which is natural with a "skunk stripe." My headstock is black, as are the tuners, body, bridge, and knobs. The headstock logo is kinda grey/silvery looking. I love this bass, and it sounds better than my '01 American Jazz.

If I were you, I'd just strip it down and refinish it however I liked, but do a class "A" job. Kinda like showing respect, ya know.

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'87 Jazz Bass Special / '01 American Jazz Bass / '05 Std. Strat


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