Hohner J-Bass

Essentially a Fender J-Bass clone. Really nifty "pearl" trapezoid inlays on the fretboard, and even the "Hohner" on the headstock is written in "Fender script" so it looks like Fender from a distance. Anything you'd expect on a Jazz Bass, you'll find here. Sunburst finish, tortoise shell pickguard... Had one of the two metal guards... it was the neck pickup guard which had been moved to the bridge pickup... more on that later.

Very very mellow. I mean, if you disregard the amp totally, this is a great dark toned monster to get you through ballads, a lot of jazz, and quite a bit of rock. It won't get a lot of high end, but it is called a "jazz bass," for crying out loud. Not exactly voiced for slap. It lacks a little in the clarity department.

I got it used at a pawn shop. It's been subjected to a lot of crappy weather (including some classmates hauling it out to a football game for pep band in the rain... without my permission), and it's still playable... more on that later.

WELL, like I said, my friends took it out to the football field for pep band in the rain. When it got back, the glue holding the nut in place was totally shot, and even the glue holding the fingerboard to the neck started to go. My guess is humidity.

After that, some of the same friends were trying to move a keyboard without looking to see if it was still plugged into an amp. Guess what, it was, and they accidentally dropped a 75 pound amp face first on my bass. All it did was bend the snot out of that poor pickup guard, so I took it off. Never was a big fan of those, anyway.

I have gigged with it without a backup, and it's currently my main backup axe. I've loaned it out for people to learn on, and they seem to be doing pretty well. Nice bass, and it takes a lot of abuse.

N/A...

Been playing drums for 13 years, guitar for 10, and picked up bass during my junior year of high school. I bought this my senior year, after playing on my band teacher's Hohner bass (although that was a lot nicer one). I've since decided to major in bass in college, and I replaced this with a Washburn Taurus 5 string as my main axe. I bought it mainly because I had a little over a hundred dollars to spend and needed a nifty bass, but I really dig the looks of the thing. Someday, when I get a little bit of extra money to throw into it, I'll get the bass overhauled with my local setup gurus, and maybe even drop some more versatile pickups into it. For now, however, it will be a great backup axe for when my main bass is out of comission. Oh, and it looks sexy, so that's nice.

Im guessing it was made in around 1988, that's when I got it.
4 strings, 21 frets, bolt-on rosewood neck & fingerboard, nice coloured marble-esque inlays, some form of ply jazz copy body. Black finish. 2 jazz style pick-ups(passive)of unknown origin, 1 volume & 2 tone controls. Black finish with tortoise-shell style scratchplate & metal plate for knobs. Unknown tuners (work fine). Bridge is of a type I've never seen before, I think it may be for a strings-thru-body setup, but on this bass there just some (poorly done) routing under the holes onn the bridge plate. It's solid enough though.

Sounded good at first. Used to be able to get a good Steve Harris of Iron Maiden clicking going (yes I know he plays a precision!!!)by turning up both tones full, which suited my metal style at the time. Not a great variety of sounds however.

To be honest at the time I got it I wouldn't have known the difference. I was 14 for God's sake!!! It looked good (though I wasn't keen on the scratchplate, which I covered in stickers almost immediately. Kids eh?) It seemed solid enough.

In terms of tone, this bass might have done ok in a gig setting. However by the time I was old enough and experienced enough to gig, I had (poorly) fitted a p-bass pick up, making a bit of an arse of the electrics as I did so. The strap buttons were always a bit dodgy, the finish and body (even though ply) were solid. It stayed in tune very well, even when I was going through my Billy Sheehan tapping and neck-bending phase!

Never dealt with hohner.

I have been playing since 1988 and this was my first bass. I still have her, though I haven't treated her that well. She's called the Boghandle and I've fitted the p-bass pick up, scalloped all the frets for bending purposes, cut a corner off the heel for easier access to the top frets, cut a bit off the underside of the headstock. I'm currently in the process of sanding her down for a respray. I loved the way you could bend the neck and she would stay in tune. I love her and could never sell her ('cause no-one would buy her anyway, even though she is a bit of a legend in my old home town). I also own a Sunn Mustang 4 string (which I'm about to rip the frets out of) a Shine SB-26 6 string and a Laney 150w combo.