Jaco’s famous (and famously abused) “Bass of Doom” started life as a stock fretted ’62 Jazz Bass before being de-fretted with a butter knife, or so legend has it, and being Jaco’s constant companion in what could politely be termed a volatile relationship.
I decided to replicate the bass as closely as was practicable but without resorting to throwing it down concrete stairs and re-glueing it all together - again, a fate supposedly suffered by the original.
A lightweight two-piece alder body mated to a maple neck with a rich dark rosewood ‘board forms the chassis. A period-correct three-tone sunburst finish was applied and dried thoroughly before ageing to mimic the original wear and tear.
If I were building a standard fretless with fret lines, then I would have filled the fret slots with slithers of maple before sanding the ‘board level, but my research suggested that Jaco had filled the fret slots on his with wood filler before adding copious layers of epoxy resin to the fingerboard (to help fill the damaged slots and general mess that the DIY de-fretting would have caused) before it was flattened and polished. We decided to do the same, resulting in a fabulous feeling fingerboard that won’t wear away or need a ‘shooting” level for many years.
Vintage repro tuners and bridge were aged and added before my own “JB64” pickups were installed, along with CTS brass collar pots and a Switchcraft Jack socket to ensure years of maintenance-free use. The tort pickguard featured in a few pics wasn’t fitted, but it offers a fantastic contrast in looks and hints at how the bass may have appeared originally.
