1977 Fender Jazz Bass Electric Bass Guitar

When the owner of this bass popped the lid on the case I was slightly dumbfounded. This thing looks like it was made -- you know -- a decade ago? It's absurdly clean for a '77 and it arrived here factory-original. Unfortunately, its neck pickup had a damaged coil and so now it's sporting a (nice quality, SD Antiquity II) replacement that both looks and sounds right.

My work on it was minimal but now that it's done it's playing perfectly fast and doing that with a fresh set of LaBella flatwounds on it. This neck is quick and easy and it's slim, too, front-to-back as well as the usual narrower 1 1/2" width at the nut. The neck is stable in service, has room on the truss rod to adjust, and it's straight.

There's not much else to be said about it -- it's a nice, closet-classic, lightly-gigged, stunner of an old Jazz Bass. As my buddy Rick said, "If you Google 'bass guitar' this is what you find in the photos..."

I've included a bunch of internal shots from when I was going-about in there as well as shots of the case candy (Fender strap, wrenches, and inspection card) and the original neck pickup stowed safely in said case...

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, replacement neck pickup install (SD Antiquity II), and setup.

Body wood: looks like ash to me!

Bridge: original 4-saddle

Fretboard: rosewood w/big block inlay

Neck wood: maple

Pickups: 1x (replacement) Duncan Antiquity II single coil, 1x original Fender single (bridge)

Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 96w-39w LaBella flatwounds (fresh)

Neck shape: slim-medium C

Board radius: ~7.5"

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-wider

Scale length: 34"

Nut width: 1 1/2"

Body width: 13 5/8"

Body depth: 1 5/8"

Weight: 9 lbs 13 oz

Condition notes: it's quite clean with only very light playwear here and there and some minor finish hairline/weather-check-lines here and there. It's all-original, too, save two pickguard screws and the neck pickup -- which is a new SD Antiquity II. The original pickup (damaged coil) is stashed safe in the case. There are some extra (out-of-alignment) bridge-mount holes drilled but they're hidden under the bridge pickup cover. See photos. Yessss, the Strat-style knobs are factory original in this period.

It comes with: an original hard case, Fender strap, inspection card, and truss wrenches.