Guidance sought

Happy Face

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Think I'll wait for a "project" husk Guild at a cheap price. JS-II or M-85.

Thanks everyone for the pointers on the long-scales!
 

mavuser

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Mello, yes you found one. I didn't think the neck was longer though, just the scale...and the distance between the frets...i may be wrong there...

good price w that case and seller says no breaks, however the finish on the neck is a different shade than the body, and the back of the headstock looks abruptly dark (not a burst) and thus requires further inspection in my book- it may all check out ok in which this case would be a decent deal. however, the neck may have been refinished and/or need refinishing at this time (not a big deal on these- at all, imo).

1972 is early for one of these. most are very late 70s completion dates and even have the 80s "DP-8" (black soap bar) pickups- which went on *long scale* late 70s/80s Guilds. This one Mello found, has been for sale previously and/or for a while. it is possibly the only one, or one of two I have seen with the humbuckers. My thinking is the long scale bass sounded so very muddy w the Guild buckers, thats why there is so few of them. then when they started making long scale basses in late 70s (B-302, etc) they finished out the LS JS superstructures from a few years before, which were abandoned based on humbucker LS tone, and/or, simply, nobody ordered one.

so simply put, I believe the reason there are so few LS JS basses is the Guild bass humbucker. if you buy one with the humbuckers, I would definitely plan on a pickup change. with Guild humbuckers, the JS is intended to be a short scale bass, as it should be.

back to the LS bass Mello found- this would be a great unit for the Alembic Harry pickups, and for Tom Fix it Jacobs to refinish the entire guitar in the NCL stain of your choice! just need to somehow make sure the neck and headstock were never broken. is ok if it has...just at a lesser price! it might be clean though!!
 

fronobulax

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not a husk, but it's definitely long scale! I'd imagine these would have quite a bit of neck-dive though
https://reverb.com/item/11844051-guild-jetstar-ii-long-scale-1972-walnut

Definitely long scale. I have seen JS II necks that had a different color and an abrupt change in finish. My '72, walnut, is not one of them, however.

The picture below, from Reverb, is a pretty good example of a long scale. 20 frets, shorter distance between the bottom of the harp and the strap button and the bridge PU aligns with the PU toggle on the neck side of the PU, not the bridge side.

k4r86gys7crdi9tfgqh9.jpg
 

Happy Face

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That's the perfect illustration.

Thanks.

Is the overall length of the bass, from tip to toe, the same then? As suggested above, that might explain the overabundance of shorties advertised as long scalers.



FYI - those darker stained Guilds apparently had a deep-based stain applied, which prevents them from being refinished in white or other whimsical colors. When I bought my, at the time, beat-to-poop JS-II, I polled you all on the Guild section of the DudePit. How should I refin it while the Blackstars were installed?

A fan and my favorite was "pearl opalescence". I loved that idea. If that wasn't feasible, I'd ask it to be refined in white so I could brush on the Chinese characters Electric Thunder.

Neither cold be done. Apparently it was very likely that the stain under the red finish would rise again. So, it looks as it does in my icon photo.

Update: I put the Fender Performer bass up on TalkBass with a Trades interest for beat up JS-IIs or M-85s.
 
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mgod

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The answer as to which M85 I prefer is that it's a floor wax AND a dessert topping.
 

Happy Face

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Alembic pickups finally arrived. I'm also going to swap on one of those metal reissue bridges.

But it will take a while before installation is completed.
 

hieronymous

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Alembic pickups finally arrived. I'm also going to swap on one of those metal reissue bridges.

But it will take a while before installation is completed.

Awesome! Looking forward to the progress pics (hint hint!)

I've been playing my Alembic 5-string Stanley bass lately with my band, but whenever I pick up my AleM-85 I just love it.
 

Happy Face

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Sorry no WIP projects.

I am so thankfully overwhelmed at my day job that I outsourced this one to the MASTER CRAFTSMAN who refined my red JS-II and later put in the Darkstars and then the filters. He also did my AlembRick (which I passed along). So it is great hands, but I don't want to pester him for WIP pixies. Unless you all demand it. He could become the leading (and maybe only) Alembic to Guild/Rickenbacker converter in our region.
 
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