BassesByLeo
Est. 2009

I took a chance on what was advertised as a 1982 L-1000 off a big-name retailer site.

I called them, and they told me the thing was pretty banged up but functional. Natty finish with ebony. Given the stated condition, the price was discounted to $550 shipped (Cali tax --10% -- included) so by my thinking, it was an ok deal for a really roughed up early Wunkay, but I wasn't stealing it….

The Brown Bastards dropped it off, and I unpacked it to discover that (contrary to the ad) there was no case. Or gig bag. Sucker was mummified in bubble wrap.

But the bass itself was WAY WAY WAY better than described. Yes, she had a couple of thumps but really nothing too outrageous. And it wasn't an 82, but a very early 1981, with a serial number in the 2900 range. And, BEST of all, she was 8.5 lbs! Yes, you read that right -- 8.5 lbs!!!!!

So, now, I'm thinking, SCORE!!!!! GOOOOOoooOOOOOOoooooOOOOooOOooOoOooooooooooLLLLLL!!!!!!

Now I get down to work.

Once I tune her up, I realized she had a bit of ski jump, which started to go away when I backed out the neck tilt.

Then I went for the truss adjust and saw this:



Needless to say, it went back in the box immediately.

*Sigh*

Bummer. Big time.

FWIW, the big time retailers usually are pretty good about returns.

dukeplaysbass wrote:Needless to say, it went back in the box immediately.

*Sigh*

Ah, such greatness. Shot to hell because..... ah, dammit.

Ken...

'scuze my ignance, but what am i seeing? Truss rod coming out of neck, cracked fingerboard just south of nut ?

There was a period of a few weeks where it seemed like one of the big retailers had multiple used G&L's at low, low, low-low prices on their website - I'd email the store to ask for a lowdown on the instrument, and they'd always tell me that there was some sort of hideous problem with it.

It's odd that they don't have even basic information about the used instruments listed for you on their website.

jim.i wrote:'scuze my ignance, but what am i seeing? Truss rod coming out of neck, cracked fingerboard just south of nut ?

Yessir. The wood under the adjuster has crushed to the point that it's blowing out sideways (relative to the rod). That one actually isn't too bad, but it will only get worse and it's not repairable without neck replacement.

Ken...

Ken Baker wrote:Tessir. The wood under the adjuster has crushed to the point that it's blowing out sideways (relative to the rod). That one actually isn't too bad, but it will only get worse and it's not repairable without neck replacement.

Ken...

What I forgot to mention was that, once I dropped out the nck tilt adjust, it was going to need some significant truss adjustment to get it playable. Luckily, I noticed the crack before I started cranking away.

The crack is super, super small. I took 5 or 6 pictures trying to capture it; the photo above is the only one where you can actually see it. In fact, the first thing I saw was a ripple or bump in the sheen of the ebony -- and that's what made me stop and examine it more closely.

I've seen a couple of the early ones do this. But Ken is right: It's only going to get worse. And early necks are hard to find and generally pretty expensive when they do pop up. I thought about hanging on to this one and trying to find a neck, but if a neck runs me another $400, it ain't a steal anymore.

There's a red bass on ebay now that supposedly has this problem fixed, by removing and replacing the ebony cap, and doing who knows what in between. i've never run across this, but is the "fix" just wishful thinking?

It would seem like that if you could access the crushed wood that you might be able to reinforce it with epoxy perhaps? If the neck is toast anyway it might be worth a shot.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/G-L-Used-G- ... 4309511.gc

Is this the bass that you sent back? If I read correctly, it seems to at least somewhat match the description.

If so, it's probably not great that they're trying to sell it to someone else.

MHoepfl wrote:http://www.guitarcenter.com/G-L-Used-G-L-L-1000-Electric-Bass-Guitar-111091789-i4309511.gc

Is this the bass that you sent back? If I read correctly, it seems to at least somewhat match the description.

If so, it's probably not great that they're trying to sell it to someone else.

It looks like the same one. Same price that I paid, anyway. I didn't see a description there, Am I missing it?