I had been buying and fixing guitars for sometime when one night my son asked me about how I found instruments on Ebay. So we lit up the computer and I showed him. I had a Yamaha bass that I wasn’t in love with, so we searched for basses and I found this diamond in the rough:
That there is a Fender Mexican (MIM) 5-string jazz bass.
It was missing a string. Looked OK otherwise. The headstock image showed that it was in fact a Fender, and the serial number was legit. So I told him what I do is pick a price I’d pay and if I get it, I get it. Otherwise, I move on. So I bid something like a max price of $275 with the bid minder. Then moved on to others.
I scored it at $246.
So it showed up. Looked like it was stored awhile or been a wall hanger. The chrome was cruddy. But, the action was OK, and it worked. But, it needed a rebuild. I bought black hardware, with decent tuners and worked over the electronics – copperlined/grounded the electronics cavity, new pots and best yet, Seymour Duncan Basslines.
It came out really nice:
Somewhere along the way, I discovered neck shims and gave it an unbelievable action.
It was my weekly player at Church for years until I got a wild hare and bought my Carvin. My son would play it, and I still played it from time to time. With some songs, it’s really nice to have a bowel rattling low Eb. I doubled my money – all in – when I sold it.
Inspected By Pat 