LeftyBassist.com

Andrew asked me in the Please say hello-topic to post my basses here, so Andrew, eat your heart out! . I also added some of my guitars.

Click for a bigger version.

My Ellio Martina Forza:


My Ibanez ATK's (a '96 MIJ ATK300 and a '98 MIJ ATK305):


My Sandberg Bullet 5 Fretless:


My Cort NTL-B fretless:


My Big Kydd EUB (which is for sale, actually, and will probably get sold to a German guy next sunday)
The pictures aren't mine, they were taken from the eBay auction from the guy I got it from. It is the actual instrument I own though, but on these pics it's still righthanded. I had it converted by Dutch luthier Ellio Martina.


My G&L ASAT Special (I still need to make better and larger pics of that one...)


My EBMM Silhouette Special in pearl purple:


My MIJ Squier E-series Strat, the cheapest guitar I ever bought but a real favourite that I'll never let go. I slightly modified it, by adding a graphite nut and string trees, DiMarzio Blue Velvet (N + M) and FS1 (B) pickups, CTS pots, USA switch and locking Schaller tuners, and now she's a real tone monster.


Missing in action are my ESP Horizon, Squier Affinity Strat (my very first guitar), my Washburn D12S, my Crafter D7L, my Czech-made Furch S23CR all-solid wood jumbo and my Taylor Baby.

Recently added (over the past two months):

2008 Rickenbacker 4003 MG


G&L SB-2





On its way here:

2004 (?) Fender MIJ '75 Jazz reissue

Wow, great collection!

Thanks!

Very nice collection indeed!

I lust for your Ric, It's interesting to see that they are FINALLY doing a completely lefthanded neck including the fretboard inlays.

The White binding and blocks on the Jazz are very nice too!


Cheers!

I got a 1981 Ibanez MC924 today, from its original owner (he even gave me the receipt), in a beautiful condition with the original lefty hardcase (that looks brand new as well). The electronics need some attention, the bridge pickup doesn't work and the pickup selector switch and jack are a bit scratchy, but I don't think that will require much work. I have long lusted for one, it's great to finally be able to buy one!

Expect pics of my own soon

Wow, super score, Jeroen! These are very rare basses, and acdcording to Arni's site, there were under 500 lefties made in total. I searched for one for over 7 years myself, and finally found one a little over a year ago advertised on Arni's site. I probably overpaid for mine, and it was coming from the Netherlands via a 3rd party escrow service, so that was a bit tense, to say the least, but it was well worth the wait.

Enjoy!

Q: I've been able to get a straight answer on whether or not the wood grain showing through the finish is the true wood grain or a faux painted grain. I've heard mixed stories, and on mine I'm inclined to believe that it is painted because there's a chip in the finish of mine and the finish is very thick. The little portion of exposed wood doesn't appear to have the same kind of grain as the grain on top of the finish.

Ibanez has been known to paint wood grain on bodies, especially on Blazers, Roadstars and Roadsters. The Musician has an actual ash top and back glued to the mahogany body wings though. This especially shows in the tummycut, where a very distinct border shows between two layers of wood. In other places it's like the mahogany grain shows through the ash grain, and it's hard to find a real border between the both. I've seen Musicians finished in natural though, that definitely had ash tops and backs. I've looked it up in my book 'Ibanez, the untold story' (yes, I'm a bit of an Ibanez geek ), and it says the following about Musicians (including the guitar line):



It's also mentioned in the 1981 catalog (click for larger version):



When was yours made? Does it have the two big singlecoils, or does it have the big singlecoil and splitcoil?

Speaking of the devil, a guy on a Dutch bass forum just bought an '81 that has been sanded down:



If that doesn't answer your question I don't know what will

And another photo: I was just working on mine and noticed a pick had slipped in the cavity of the neck pickup, so I loosened the pickup to remove the pick and there definitely is an ash top glued on to the mahogany core:

I like the way the pickups follow the radius of the neck, and how the adjustment screws screw into the base plate - very cool, and very well thought out.

I've been messing about in the control cavity with a screwdriver to test some contacts, and all seems well except for the pickup selector switch. In the middle position the bridge pickup is often left out, and the bridge pickup soloed won't work unless you fiddle a bit with the switch. So that seems to be the only part I'll need to change out. No big deal! At the price I got it for (because of the electronics that were malfunctioning - at first, the preamp wouldn't work too) it was an absolute steal.

Peter, could you tell me about the difference in volume between active and passive mode on yours? When I switch to active, I get a massive volume drop. When I turn the boost/cut-knob to maximum boost level it still is a lot weaker than passive unless I turn all EQ knobs to their highest setting.

Here's some pix of mine below. It is an '82 I believe:



After reading about yours, I took mine out last night for a spin since it's been a while. Note that the 3 rubber rimmed knobs work as master controls (tone, pickup blend, and master volume)in both active and passive modes, so you do need to use them in conjunction with your 3 band EQ in active mode. I also noticed a dropoff of output in active until I engaged the master volume rubber knob fully and boosted some 3 band active EQ, so I have to assume it's how the preamp was designed. Very odd. Anyway, depending on the year of the Musician, the pickups and the control/preamp layout changed. You probably know about the Ibanez Registry page, but if not there's a lot of info there about the history of the Musician Basses and their various configurations: http://www.ibanezregister.com/

Now I have another question for you. Is your passive selector knob pot raised slightly higher than the other two (tone and master volume knobs?)? On mine it is, so I'm wondering if it's got an after-market pot installed.

If you mean one knob is raised higher above the top of the body, I would say that's not how it should be. Have you ever opened the control cavity to check on the pots to see if they look alike and if the ratings match with the specs? I don't know what ratings they should have on yours, I only have schematics of the model I have, but I'm sure you should be able to find them online.

The control layout on the 1981 MC924 is slightly different than on yours: there is no pickup blend but a three-way pickup selector switch, and the controls consist of master volume, master tone (which also works in passive mode, as you describe), active/passive switch and preamp boost/cut (with a center click) which allows you to set the overall preamp level. To get the same output as in passive mode, I need to turn that knob to its full boost position and turn all EQ knobs fully up.
The older models look different too, they didn't have the bevelled upper body edge on the front and rear like yours but only a tummycut.

I know about ibanezregister.com, both my old lefty RG's are registered there and possibly my '87 SR800LE too, I can't remember. I should register my ATK's and my MC924 too, there are no lefty MC's in the register currently (only a catalog shot from an '81 catalog).

Have you seen this one? It's been for sale for a while in Australia. A bit pricey, but seems to be in excellent condition:

http://www.grouseguitars.com.au/ibanezlhroadster.htm

OMG, why did you post that? That's tempting as hell!

Must...resist...

Sorry!

I'm assuming that their price is pretty high, as there's also a store here in the US in California called Jammin' Jersey Guitars that has an '82 tobacco Roadster in stock for over a year for $500US. Jammin's business setup is pretty strange though, as I inquired about the bass over a year ago and the only way you can pay is via a mailed bank check. I declined. Anyway, here's a link to that one. (It's mislabeled a Roadstar, though it's the Roadster). No pix though. They also have a lefty Guild Pilot that's been listed forever. Scroll down their stock listings here:

http://www.jamminjersey.com/basses.php

Regarding my Musician, I'll open her up today and see if the pots and readings differ as you suggested.

They should differ from one another
They just need to match the schematics. However, the only schematics I can find are for the 1980-1982 model and the reissue of that version that was built by Ibanez in 1997. That official Ibanez schematic shows no ratings for the pots though:



I do have a full schematic with ratings for that same era, but unfortunately not on this computer, and not for yours. I've tried to find one online but couldn't find it anywhere.

Okay, I just finished opening it up and taking a look. It didn't go as smooth as I had hoped, and I ended up cursing your name the whole way, Jeroen, for putting the bug of curiosity in my mind because I encountered a series of mishaps that added another hour to my time.

First I plugged her in again to double check the layout/configuration. The active treble pot was now crackling like crazy and needed tightening. No problem, I thought. So I unscrewed the teeny tiny knob screw holding the knob on the pot shaft and it proceeded to bounce away and under the shop table somewhere. I'll get it later.

I then tried to pull off the knob and it wouldn't budge. I tried everything - a wrench, flat head screwdriver, etc. - nothing. I started thinking the idiot who sold me the bass had crazy glued the knob to the shaft. Fifteen minutes later it turns out I'm the idiot because the knobs have 2 different tightening screws and I didn't see the second one (When was the last time you saw two tightening screws on a knob?).

So I got it off, tightened the pot nut, and plugged her back in. More cracking! Turns out I had a bad cable. I replaced the cable - now I dead silence in active mode! Turns out the battery died at that specific moment. Replaced the battery. FINALLY everything's in order. Ugh! Took me a half hour to find the lost screw under the table, but it's back on the bass now.

Anyway, back to the original discussion. I looked under the hood. What a rat's nest! I found the PUP blend knob actually has 2 pots stacked under it (not a true stacked knob/pot, just another pot sitting on top of the other one), with the top pot listed at 500k. I'm not sure if this is original or not, but the pot under the 500k top pot is definitely original and still wired up, so I have to assume that each PUP's got it's own pot. (The top one might be a replacement, however). I also checked the output of passive to active again, this time through my amp. (I previously did it through headphones). With all knobs turned up fully and the 3 band active knobs flat (mid point), the output is about the same, though I'd say the active mode is just a tad thinner sounding. Adjusting the EQ in active mode to cut frequencies is fairly noticeable through all stages, but when boosting EQ bands the sweep is more subtle and less apparent until you get to the final 1/4 -1/8 turn where it definitely boosts the levels substantially. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I believe these were designed to do this with that added signal boost in the final stages.

Mine has the Super P5 and J5 PUPs, with a humbucking P style PUP in the neck and a single coil J style in the bridge. The 60 cycle hum on the J PUP soloed is fairly noticeable and even when PUPs are blended it's still there, so there's no hum canceling as on a standard J bass when PUPs are blended. Yours has the Super 4 single coil PUPs in both the bridge and neck positions, which are single coils, correct?. Does the hum cancel with both PUPs on?

One other pet peeve of mine: also note the righty truss rod covers on these basses (as well as the Roadsters). It never ceases to baffle me how a company can go the distance to tool together a lefty instrument, yet leave a relatively simple detail out like left handed truss rod cover! is it that difficult to do when you've tooled for everything else lefty?

Hehe, sorry for the mess
Indeed I have never seen knobs that lock on to the pot shaft with two screws! I just checked the EQ knobs on mine, and it has the same thing: one screw opposite to the white index line on the knob, and one 90 degrees away. Interesting!

The stacked pot is completely normal, many balance pots are constructed that way. They are not two separate pots, but one stacked pot where both pots are controlled by the same pot shaft.
They're more or less two volume knobs stacked together, turning in different directions. At the center click, both are fully turned up. Turned towards the bridge, the pot controlling the bridge pickup level does not do anything but the volume of the neck pickup is gradually cut. Turned towards the neck, the pot of the neck pickup doesn't do anything above the center click but the volume of the bridge pickup is cut.

Is the pickup balance pot the one with the elevated knob?

Mine too has an upside-down trussrod cover. It doesn't bother me, but it does look a little cheap. It's the only piece of hardware on the entire bass, together with the interesting half-plastic / half-brass nut, that would have to be made specifically in a lefthanded version.