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It finally arrived, and it's in better condition than I anticipated. It has its share of minor scratches and dings, but it's not bad for a bass that was made between 1990 & 1992. 

Tobias had so much success he had to seek outside vendors to help manufacture them. This is their "Standard" model, and these were built at the Terada factory in Nagoya. According to founder Michael Tobias himself, these were "great basses." The bodies were made in Japan, and then sent to Michael's shop in Burbank to dress the frets and install the electronics. There were only about 400 made, and there would have been more, but the dollar/yen ratio at the time killed the project.

The pickups are Bartolini, and the controls are Volume, Balance, and stacked Treble/Bass boost/cut. What's odd, though, is there is also a Mid boost/cut control, but it's inside the control cavity, I emailed Michael and asked him why, and he replied, "Actually the only reason is because we didn’t want it that way. I wanted it to appear different than a basic which was our most popular model then. The standard would have been direct competition." I may move it to the outside where the others are located for ease of access.

I bought the bass from Elderly Instruments in Lansing, MI through Reverb. Mike said the bass should be worth anywhere from $1,500 - $1,800; I got it for <$1,000. The previous owner wanted it converted to fretless, and I must say Elderly did an outstanding job. The fret slots are filled with maple strips, and the fretboard is as smooth as glass. It came with a nice SKB case, too. It sounds great, too. No fret buzz! 
 

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Delivery status has been changed to "pending." Great. At least it left Atlanta after spending 23 hours there. 

 

EDIT: It has arrived; please see original post.

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Those maple strips look like frets!! I think I could play that fretless just because of the fret markings. I think that is an awesome idea!!!

Great Score!!!!

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On 7/18/2020 at 9:44 AM, Thundersteel said:

I bought the bass from Elderly Instruments in Lansing, MI through Reverb. Mike said the bass should be worth anywhere from $1,500 - $1,800; I got it for <$1,000. The previous owner wanted it converted to fretless, and I must say Elderly did an outstanding job. The fret slots are filled with maple strips, and the fretboard is as smooth as glass. It came with a nice SKB case, too. It sounds great, too. No fret buzz! 

 

3 hours ago, Dutchman said:

Those maple strips look like frets!! I think I could play that fretless just because of the fret markings. I think that is an awesome idea!!!

Great Score!!!!

Congrats on the snag!  I'm glad they did a pro job on the fretboard, I've seen some fretted basses sloppily converted by amateurs where the fretboard was all chipped up, from the frets being yanked out, that wound up needing wood filler even with the fret marker strips.  I'm a hack at playing fretless, but I've got a mutt MIM Fender Jazz Bass with a Special Edition JB fretless neck and a factory "Road Worn" Series '60's JB body in alder, that a previous owner put together;  it's fun and light (8 lbs. 3.5 oz.)!  Indeed, no fret buzz, but you still want to be able to do the occasional mwah.  Anymore, I don't really use the fret markings except for intonation, I've messed around on bass enough over the years where finger placement comes pretty naturally.

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7 hours ago, Dutchman said:

Those maple strips look like frets!! I think I could play that fretless just because of the fret markings. I think that is an awesome idea!!!

Great Score!!!!

Fretless basses are about 50/50 fretlines/unlined. I have both.
Fretlines do help, but in the end you have to listen to your pitch.

It's one of those things bassists rag on each other about - whether you need fretlines or not.

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9 hours ago, killerteddybear said:

It's one of those things bassists rag on each other about - whether you need fretlines or not.

That is a distraction from the real argument of whether a bass player who uses a pick is a real bass player or not. 

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2 hours ago, Steve Haynie said:

That is a distraction from the real argument of whether a bass player who uses a pick is a real bass player or not. 

It's no argument. A real bass player uses both fingers or a pick, whenever the song suits.

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Everyone knows a REAL bass player never even WANTED to play guitar.  And besides, all the bands already had guitarists anyway.

Congrats on a sweet score!  Which is what a bass player hears when he buys a nice bass, and AT NO OTHER TIME.

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