My bass collection - G&L

 
 

Leo Fender is not just the inventor of the Precision Bass. His other major contribution to the low-enders is the Jazz Bass. That model has/had some prominent users, Jaco Pastorius and Geddy Lee among them. It took many years into the BBE-era before G&L released a bass inspired by that famous Leo creation. Initially they released the JB-2, arriving on the scene in 2001 and a bass without pickguard and 2 JB/JB-2 Alnico V single-coil pickups. A great looking bass for sure. Still, there must have been plenty of requests for a version esthetically closer to the vintage original. This was corrected in 2009 with the JB with its iconic control panel and pickguard. This particular example is the 4th instrument (2nd bass) with an Empress wood body, here finished in Sonic Blue. It has a customary Saddle-Lock bridge and the pickguard is of the 3-ply Mint variety. The pickup covers as well as the Jazz Bass styled knobs on the separate volume control for each pickup and the single master tone control are all white. The wiring harness only differs from my SB-2T ‘Juicy Lucy’ in the value of the series capacitor used on the tone control, i.e. 47,000pF (.047µF) here. The hard-rock maple neck has a matching, fretless 9½” fingerboard with ghost lines, a bone 1½” nut, and Ultralite bass tuning machine. For more information on this model, visit:

http://glguitars.com/product/jb/.

 

JB (fretless)

The story behind this guitar

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When this bass appeared on Reverb, it was love at first sight. As I wrote for the L-1000F, I had fully expected my first fretless bass to be either this model or a JB-2. Now it turns out to be my 3rd. But what a beauty she is!. That is not how she started out however upon completion on 5/13/2015. As can be seen from the pictured spec sheet below, it originally came with black covers, black knobs, and a rosewood, fretted fingerboard with a 12” radius. Mark Bennett, who sold me this beauty, unfortunately could not tell me when the neck was replaced. And as (un)luck would have it, no date stamp was found on the neck heel. The 9½” radius fingerboard was introduced in July 2015, so this may be an early one. Or not ... What is for certain is that it is a factory replacement. In other news, this bass just sounds fantastic and is very comfortable to play even for my big hands. I truly like the snap in these Alnico V Jazz pickups and the maple gloss fingerboard is slick.

The story behind this guitar

2015

G073237

none, marked ‘Neck 01’, ‘Fretless’, ‘LT[N]”, ‘3’ (replacement neck)

APR 21 2015

D’Addario ECB81 Chromes Bass Light Long Scale (45-100)