No problem, always glad to contribute in any way I can- and anytime the topic of these basses come up I will always chime in!
The Roadstar II up for sale on eBay is a
1986 RB 650 model, and these are certainly very good basses, and I'm sure you'll be happy with it, especially if you get a good deal on it. But just to make sure I didn't confuse with my previous post: the Roadstar II model that I wholeheartedly endorse is the
1984-85 RB 650 model, which is recognizable by the maple neck and inline 4 heart-shaped open gear tuners. Speaking from my personal experience having owned literally hundreds of basses, IMHO there has never been a better mass produced "old school" passive P/J bass on the planet. Of course folks will rave about old vintage pre-CBS Fenders and rightfully so. Obviously these are nowhere near as rare or expensive- but if you remove brand bias from the equation, the build quality, tone and playability on these are second to none, extremely consistent, and they're durable as a tank- I've never run across a "bad" one unless it was severely abused. IMHO it is by far superior to anything Fender was doing during the same era (and the equal of anything they've done since for that matter). How these basses continue to fly under the radar is a mystery to me- but if no one else knows, I'm fine with that!
As I posted way back in 2009, the only "big name" guy that I know swears by these is Kenny Aaronson, who has played with just about everybody (Bob Dylan, Hall & Oates, Rick Derringer, Stories, Neil Schon/ Sammy Hagar, Foghat, Leslie West, Brian Setzer, Dust, Mick Taylor, Dave Edmunds, etc., etc.). To quote Kenny:
"...for guitars, I still have the '58 P-Bass, I have a '63 P-Bass that's great, I have a Spector that's active, and I'm using a few ESP J-styled basses. Another GREAT instrument I picked up for $100 from some guy in the street is this maple neck Ibanez Roadstar, that has DiMarzio's in it. Its simply as good as any Fender that ever was. As you have heard, this bass sounds great and records really well. I love this bass, I use it with LaBella nylon tape wound strings..." The best testimony that I can personally give is that I love them so much I own 4 of them, which I've had for many years. Other basses have come and gone but I'll probably be buried with these:
This is my first and "go to" RB 650- I refinished it in firemist gold, because it's that priceless to me!
This one was originally black and was relic refinished in fiesta red by the previous owner.
Factory colors were black, white and burgundy. Almost all lefties were black, so I jumped to get this burgundy one. Previous owner painted pickup covers white ( I could have done without), but I love the look of the finish checking.
Last but not least, an all original (except the knobs) black RB 650 in mint condition.