Current Possessions

[Lefty007]

From left to right (bottom pic):

-2008 MIA P-Bass
-1996 MIA P-Bass
-1982 MIA Jazz
-1988 MIJ Squier P-Bass 32" scale
-2005 Rogue (Korea)
-1994 Yamaha RBX 350
-2008 Carvin B5

[Basshappi]

Nice!
How do you like the B5?

[Lefty007]

I absolutely love it! That and the red MIA P have been my main basses for the year, and I'm pretty happy.

The B5 has a very modern sound, even when set to passive; it has a lot of treble. The preamp is ok, but it's a bit noisy in some stages. I usually keep it on but flat with the treble cut a bit. I put a new J99A in the neck, and it sounds great, very clear and growly, although those J99 have very low output. And the neck is really just perfect for me, I can really play my best (or should I say, faster) when playing the B5.

I wish more manufacturers made 5-string basses with those specs: 1.75 at the nut, 17 or 17.5 mm string spacing at the bridge (besides EB/MM, which I don't like), but it seems that the rest of the world prefers full string spacing at the bridge. . . .

[bhunt1]

Great collection! Tell us about your '82 Jazz please.

[reynoldbot]

Love the '82 jazz with the white pickups!

[Lefty007]

You can see more of the Jazz here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/LeftyBasses/CurrentBasses#

I bought it from New Jersey Guitar and Bass Center maybe around 3 years ago. It had been there for more than a year, and I finally pulled the trigger. It was close to $2000, but well worth it.

In the early '80s, Fender was assembling basses with mixed parts from the late-'70s and current parts. They changed the instrument dramatically in 1983, and no more USA lefty Jazz basses were made until 2008.

This one has '82 pickups and neck stamp, but a '78 serial decal, but it properly is a 1982. It's pretty light, at 9lb. I put Hipshot Ultralite tuners in it to make even lighter. The original pickups were microphonic, so I tried a few aftermarket pickup and settled for Dimarzio Js. Its pretty dark sounding, because they are humbuckers and I left the original 250K pots in it, but with EQ it can get as bright as I need it.

It sound just like a good '70s Jazz (the pickup spacing is '70s specs). Bar-none, the best sounding bass I've ever owned.

The neck is also pretty special, very thin with a marked V profile that I haven't experienced in any other Jazz. It also has white binding but black dots, not blocks, a feature that only appeared during 1982, I believe.

The neck is super straight and I love those low and wide frets they used back then. I try not to play it much live because it's so precious to me.

[reynoldbot]

Man that's a great bass. The white DiMarzio pups really tie the whole bass together. And its got a great story to go with it!

[Basshappi]

^^Yes they do, I have DiMarzios in both of my black basses ('75 MIA Precision amd MIM Jazz in which I put a set of DiMarzios from a bass I built in high school woodshop early 80's) The look is a good one and DiMarzios do good things to the Fender sound.