Price: $450.00
Where Obtained: Kurlan Music

This is a Japanese-made bass with 22 frets that I had pulled; converting to fretless cost about $300.00 as I had a very qualified luthier do the job. The fretboard appears to be rosewood, with mother-of-pearl inlays. The bass is white, so I've no clue what woods make up the body and the neck. The body is much like a Fender Jazz, and it has Precision/Jazz pickups set into the body. The bridge, controls, pickup coveres and tuners are all brass. The bridge is quite basic, and the tuners are rather sensitive. This bass is fairly light, another good feature.

When the bass was returned from defretting, the action was so low, and the strings so low-tension (Thomastik Jazz Flats) that I found it too easy to play, and the flat strings didn't have much tone with the passive pickups. Replacing the strings and changing the relief have made it a more comfortable bass for me to play, and it now gets a very "Jaco-esque" tone except in the high range, where it sounds different, but don't ask me how it's different!

I use this bass through a GK 800RB and a pair of SWR 10" speakers. It gets a broad range of tones without losing the fretless character of attack. A denser bridge might beef up the sound, but the pickups themselves are quite good. It's a quiet bass, but needs to have the electronics shielded better. I've not recorded with this bass. If it were my main bass I'd probably upgrade the bridge and put in Bartolini pickups, mainly to approximate the old Fender Precision I had modified in the 70's.

This bass is very solid; that's the chief reason I bought it, besides the neck, which I find really comfortable. I bring it on gigs in a bag in case I have any problems with my other instrument. It's got a bent tuner and some dings, but appears intact after about 20 years' use; that says something itself.