1963 VOX JMI BASSMASTER SHORT SCALE BASS
Brand : VOX
- SKU:
- BG-VOX-JMI-BASSMASTER-63
- Condition:
- Used
- Shipping:
- $49.00 (Fixed Shipping Cost)
1963 VOX JMI BASSMASTER V204 SHORT SCALE BASS
The Vox Bassmaster (V204) was one of Vox's earliest guitars, and their first bass.
The Bassmaster was short scale (30") and the thin neck made it ideal for smaller hands. The Bassmaster was a loose Fender Precision copy, but smaller, and more economically manufactured. It had similar hardware and headstock, but with a smaller offset body and much narrower neck. JMI offered the Bassmaster from late 1960 until at least early 1966.
The Vox Bassmaster was built in the UK by JMI with necks outsourced to furniture manufacturer G-plan. Electronics and assembly took place at the JMI plant in Dartford.
Like most Vox guitars and basses from this era, the Bassmaster was equipped with chrome plated Vox V-1 single coil pickups. The Bassmaster utilized two of these V-1 pickups in a most unusual way. While most two pickup instruments provide switching for pickup selection to maximize tonal variation, the Bassmaster did not. The Bassmaster pickups were hard wired to each other in parallel so one could not choose to operate or blend either pickup independently. The Bassmaster offered only two controls: one 250kΩ linear volume pot and a 250KΩ logarithmic tone pot coupled to a .05uf capacitor.
The pickups and controls were mounted to the pickguard. While single ply white plastic pickguards were used in early production, this one has the three ply white/black/white laminated pickguard that would be incorporated later. The pickups were secured to the pickguard with spring loaded screws, enabling pickup height adjustments. Bassmaster basses used a pickguard mounted 1/4" output jack for connection to the amp.
The Vox Bassmaster featured a rosewood topped, sycamore neck with a 30" scale. The twenty fret neck was quite slender, only ~1⅜" wide at the nut and ~1¾" wide at the twelfth fret. Four individual, open gear tuning machines were incorporated. A zero fret improved sustain. The neck did not have an adjustable truss rod, it was equipped with two embedded steel rods for reinforcement.
The compensating bridge/tailpiece used on the Bassmaster was similar in concept to those used on Fender basses, allowing both intonation and string height adjustments.