1983 JB45 Jazz Sound bass

stratman323 · Guest

I recently won this on eBay & I collected it yesterday. I can't tell you a lot about how it plays or sounds as my bass playing skills are very limited! One day I'll get around to learning bass properly, but I'll get my band colleague to give it a good work out soon.

But it all looks good to me. I assume the block decal means it must be a 1983 model? It's quite light, which makes it slightly neck heavy, but I guess that's better than weighing a ton.

One thing I noticed straight away is the high quality of the rosewood; this seems to be a consistent feature on 80s Tokais. I know age makes a difference and helps to darken the wood, but the look and feel of the rosewood on all the 80s Tokais I have seen is excellent - much better than some much more expensive newer guitars.

Any comments?

marcusnieman · Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:06 am Post subject:

Nice.....love that tortoise shell pickguard on the white with chrome....very cool. You're right about the quality of the rosewood.....looks nice.

SteveDoG · Guitar God Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Posts: 62 Location: England

Congrats on it..looks a fine plank indeed...
_________________
http://www.myspace.com/tubilahdog

Chipps · Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 4:37 pm Post subject:

That's lovely. You will let me know if you decide to sell it? I've recently taken over bass playing duties in one of my jam-session 'bands' and I'm already looking to upgrade from the cheapo (but good) Cort bass I bought to get me started...

It's not a field I know much about. Were there many Tokai basses made?

stratman323 · Guest

JohnA · Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 2:02 am Post subject:

Nice find Mike!! I have a hardpuncher tht I use for all my recording, definetely Fender standard's! I would say the bass's asre just as good as their guitars.

Chipps · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 5:31 pm Post subject:

And Mike, you WILL tell me if you end up selling this one, won't you?

stratman323 · Guest

Funnily enough, my bass playing mate has had my Tokai bass for a few days, & he reckons it isn't a patch on his 90s Fender US Standard. Diificult for me to argue with him, since I can barely play bass at all, but I was surprised to hear him say that.

Finnglas · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 3:53 pm Post subject:

I've got a nearly identical one that I'm trying to date . Colourwise its the same - and a truly gorgeous combination they are!!

My logo's different - does anyone know if the logos on the 'dating and ID' page apply to basses?

Sorry for piggybacking off your thread, Stratman - its my first post on here!

stratman323 · Guest

Hi Finnglas, no problem mate. Yes, the block logo was only used in 1983. Show us a pic of yours and someone should be able to date it for you. It helps if you put your location in your profile, so it shows up on the left of the post

<

Sometimes details changed on models at different dates depending on which country they were intended for.

Finnglas · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 4:20 pm Post subject:

awesome, thanks! I'd update my profile with location etc and see if I can find my camera. It's taken me half an hour to retrieve my bass from the spare room (embarrassed to say I'd dumped a load of stuff on it since we moved in, couldn't even open the door properly) so God knows where the camera is!
Cheers!

stratman323 · Guest

Cool, just get a pic of the headstock on your phone, if you have a camera on the phone. It doesn't have to be too detailed for us to see which logo is it. You know about using a site like www.photobucket.com to host your pics?