mavuser
Enlightened Member
well it is sort of "NOS."
As some of you may be aware, over the past few years I have acquired several pieces of unfinished necks and bodies from the Westerly factory, thanks to a couple of very special members of this forum. Among the acquisitions is this Pilot Pro 5 bass.
The Pilot was a little different than the other pieces/projects I acquired. This one was a complete set, neck and body, that were both factory finished/painted, and had clearly been attached to each other at some point, and subsequently taken apart...clearly prior to completion, as tuners had never been installed (no holes for tuner screws), and the neck had never been played (fretboard was still covered with tape residue, frets were brand new). The body had signs of being assembled with some hardware, or partially so, and then taken apart. It has a serial number that is the last of 1994 for this model- Pre Fender baby! the last one!! Thus, one can only speculate the many scenarios that could have led to this bird getting shelved. Fender comes in and the quintesential "Everyone stop what you're doing" haa...seriously though, Fender has their own J+P basses, and had zero reason to continue building Pilots. Another scenario is that someone during thier last days or hours at Fender-owned Westerly, needed something to do, so began assembling this Pilot, and then took it apart, by the end of the day. In any event, when I got the bass it was a neck and body, with the chunky gold bridge, and the output jack. There were some marks and scratches on the body from storage, but nothing too bad. The neck was super clean and new but had finish checking. the fretboard was perfect. headstock was clean, but had checking, and a slight small cosmetic imperfection in the finish, unrelated to time or storage, that was original- and may have been a reason the bass was never sold. overall though, very, very clean.
It came with (4) 500 K pots, but they were not in the EMG board, and there was no EMG anything at all, but those do look like the same pots from the EMG board. There was also ONE *chrome tuner for the non-gold and/or 4-string version of this bass. All of this came from Westerly, and was in a former employee's closet until 2023 (I started raiding his closet in 2019!)
So I messaged @mellowgerman and let him know the task at hand. He was more than happy to spend waaaay too much time helping me, as usual, and make sure we finished the job.
In fact I should stop here and acknoweldge how much I have learned from Mello over the past few years, regarding electronics, amps, speakers, cabinets, circuitry, wiring, and pickups. (I havn't even asked him how to actually play bass yet, just wait buddy!!). It is more than you would imagine. If I knew zero before, I'd at least have a bachelor's degree right now. And I'll probably never stop chipping away at him. So truly Mello, thank you, again and again. I'm sure you are anxiously awaiting my next message, ha!
So anyway, with Mellow on board, and picking a couple other key brains (another member or 2 here, and some randoms on my end), we came up with a plan.
Of course step one of that plan was GET PARTS FROM HANS. This bird was pre-Fender, and we needed to keep it that way! We love Fender but the last serial number pre-Fender sitting on a shelf for 22 years because of Fender, needs to stay "Fender Free." Anyway, I digress...@hansmoust had the backplate w/screws, the strap buttons w/screws, and the string T w/screws, all of which was huge, in keeping the Fender DNA away.
The only 5-string drop-in hum cancelling passive jazz pickups option I was aware of, other than Fender, was Bartolini's 59J1L/S dual in-line coil pickup set. So those were on my radar for a while. I was mostly sold on them, when Bill Bartolini passed away, and I knew at that point this was going to be a Bartolineed Passive Pilot Pro 5. Held out until "Black" Friday (seemed appropriate, looking at the bass), and got one of the last brand new pair available, for a solid price.
Not having the active EMG circut, that 4-knob layout on this bass is very odd-ball. There were a few options, and without question, without the Mellow German, I would have made some wrong decisions. In the end, I wanted it to look stock, but I did not want the blender knob (someone can do that later if I ever sell the bass). I am used to the 3 way switch, and for bass I am never in the middle position (but that is just me). A regular switch would require enlarging the hole, so we got a gold 3-way mini-switch, which required no mod. One volume, one tone, (used new pots for those, saved the 4 Westerly pots), and one 6-way cap selector (similar to a varitone, the options on mine are simply different value caps, and one setting with no cap...no transformers or anything). The original knobs and tuners for this bass are still
made today, so those are all brand new. My luthier made a rear cavity cover. We do not have a TRC- I am going to keep it naked. It has been that way for this long...even if I had the TRC, I'm not sure that I'd want to drill two holes in the original finish on the headstock now.
Knowing I would spend way too much money on this project, and I was probably going to be the only one playing it for a long time, I splurged for the 5-string set of TI Flats. Expensive, but I never plan on replacing them, or re-stringing the bass with anything else.
All this to say I am a beginning bass player at best, and greatly prefer short scales to long scales in my previous experience...but the opportunity was there, and something inside me just wanted this time travelling bird to fly again.
All I can say is, wow. I'm not surprised how great of a bass it is, i'm just surprised how
much I personally like to play it. First, I never even knew a Jazz bass was shaped different than a P-bass, and I also never knew a Pilot was not the same as either or both Fenders- I just knew I hated playing Fender long scale basses (love Mustangs!).
But this Pilot has an agressive offset, it makes it hang just perfect so the neck pops up, more in the direction of an upright. It is just the perfect counter balance- for this reason I would say to *any one, try *any Pilot bass, as they are much easier to play than a Fender! But this one is also a 5-string, so the strings are closer together than a 4-string, plus you have access to all those other scales, and even moreso, at the slightly higher frets (so both an e scale and a scale are right there at the 5th fret...). So for me I may have stumbled upon the most playable long scale electric bass I know of, 5 or 4 string. I'll say for sure the 5-string would seem easier to me, in any scenario, apples to apples, than a 4. It is still a wide neck and would definitely take a ton of practice to really play it (a 6-string may be pushing it, for me), but the string spacing on a long scale 5 is a million times better, for me, than a long scale 4.
I'll just stop here, since this is way too long. here it is:
As some of you may be aware, over the past few years I have acquired several pieces of unfinished necks and bodies from the Westerly factory, thanks to a couple of very special members of this forum. Among the acquisitions is this Pilot Pro 5 bass.
The Pilot was a little different than the other pieces/projects I acquired. This one was a complete set, neck and body, that were both factory finished/painted, and had clearly been attached to each other at some point, and subsequently taken apart...clearly prior to completion, as tuners had never been installed (no holes for tuner screws), and the neck had never been played (fretboard was still covered with tape residue, frets were brand new). The body had signs of being assembled with some hardware, or partially so, and then taken apart. It has a serial number that is the last of 1994 for this model- Pre Fender baby! the last one!! Thus, one can only speculate the many scenarios that could have led to this bird getting shelved. Fender comes in and the quintesential "Everyone stop what you're doing" haa...seriously though, Fender has their own J+P basses, and had zero reason to continue building Pilots. Another scenario is that someone during thier last days or hours at Fender-owned Westerly, needed something to do, so began assembling this Pilot, and then took it apart, by the end of the day. In any event, when I got the bass it was a neck and body, with the chunky gold bridge, and the output jack. There were some marks and scratches on the body from storage, but nothing too bad. The neck was super clean and new but had finish checking. the fretboard was perfect. headstock was clean, but had checking, and a slight small cosmetic imperfection in the finish, unrelated to time or storage, that was original- and may have been a reason the bass was never sold. overall though, very, very clean.
It came with (4) 500 K pots, but they were not in the EMG board, and there was no EMG anything at all, but those do look like the same pots from the EMG board. There was also ONE *chrome tuner for the non-gold and/or 4-string version of this bass. All of this came from Westerly, and was in a former employee's closet until 2023 (I started raiding his closet in 2019!)
So I messaged @mellowgerman and let him know the task at hand. He was more than happy to spend waaaay too much time helping me, as usual, and make sure we finished the job.
In fact I should stop here and acknoweldge how much I have learned from Mello over the past few years, regarding electronics, amps, speakers, cabinets, circuitry, wiring, and pickups. (I havn't even asked him how to actually play bass yet, just wait buddy!!). It is more than you would imagine. If I knew zero before, I'd at least have a bachelor's degree right now. And I'll probably never stop chipping away at him. So truly Mello, thank you, again and again. I'm sure you are anxiously awaiting my next message, ha!
So anyway, with Mellow on board, and picking a couple other key brains (another member or 2 here, and some randoms on my end), we came up with a plan.
Of course step one of that plan was GET PARTS FROM HANS. This bird was pre-Fender, and we needed to keep it that way! We love Fender but the last serial number pre-Fender sitting on a shelf for 22 years because of Fender, needs to stay "Fender Free." Anyway, I digress...@hansmoust had the backplate w/screws, the strap buttons w/screws, and the string T w/screws, all of which was huge, in keeping the Fender DNA away.
The only 5-string drop-in hum cancelling passive jazz pickups option I was aware of, other than Fender, was Bartolini's 59J1L/S dual in-line coil pickup set. So those were on my radar for a while. I was mostly sold on them, when Bill Bartolini passed away, and I knew at that point this was going to be a Bartolineed Passive Pilot Pro 5. Held out until "Black" Friday (seemed appropriate, looking at the bass), and got one of the last brand new pair available, for a solid price.
Not having the active EMG circut, that 4-knob layout on this bass is very odd-ball. There were a few options, and without question, without the Mellow German, I would have made some wrong decisions. In the end, I wanted it to look stock, but I did not want the blender knob (someone can do that later if I ever sell the bass). I am used to the 3 way switch, and for bass I am never in the middle position (but that is just me). A regular switch would require enlarging the hole, so we got a gold 3-way mini-switch, which required no mod. One volume, one tone, (used new pots for those, saved the 4 Westerly pots), and one 6-way cap selector (similar to a varitone, the options on mine are simply different value caps, and one setting with no cap...no transformers or anything). The original knobs and tuners for this bass are still
made today, so those are all brand new. My luthier made a rear cavity cover. We do not have a TRC- I am going to keep it naked. It has been that way for this long...even if I had the TRC, I'm not sure that I'd want to drill two holes in the original finish on the headstock now.
Knowing I would spend way too much money on this project, and I was probably going to be the only one playing it for a long time, I splurged for the 5-string set of TI Flats. Expensive, but I never plan on replacing them, or re-stringing the bass with anything else.
All this to say I am a beginning bass player at best, and greatly prefer short scales to long scales in my previous experience...but the opportunity was there, and something inside me just wanted this time travelling bird to fly again.
All I can say is, wow. I'm not surprised how great of a bass it is, i'm just surprised how
much I personally like to play it. First, I never even knew a Jazz bass was shaped different than a P-bass, and I also never knew a Pilot was not the same as either or both Fenders- I just knew I hated playing Fender long scale basses (love Mustangs!).
But this Pilot has an agressive offset, it makes it hang just perfect so the neck pops up, more in the direction of an upright. It is just the perfect counter balance- for this reason I would say to *any one, try *any Pilot bass, as they are much easier to play than a Fender! But this one is also a 5-string, so the strings are closer together than a 4-string, plus you have access to all those other scales, and even moreso, at the slightly higher frets (so both an e scale and a scale are right there at the 5th fret...). So for me I may have stumbled upon the most playable long scale electric bass I know of, 5 or 4 string. I'll say for sure the 5-string would seem easier to me, in any scenario, apples to apples, than a 4. It is still a wide neck and would definitely take a ton of practice to really play it (a 6-string may be pushing it, for me), but the string spacing on a long scale 5 is a million times better, for me, than a long scale 4.
I'll just stop here, since this is way too long. here it is:
