I am stoked with this new bass I bought, my first fretless ever. I got it mainly because it had an ebony fingerboard, and because basses from this factory and period have a great reputation.

More pictures in comments (not sure if the image upload succeeded for the OP).

List of modifications

It was originally: Ibanez Soundgear SR-1000 1987/88 Made in Japan, in the Fujigen factory Ebony fretboard Maple neck Alder Body Black lacquer finish “Power Curve” active electronics (weird stuff that ALWAYS did a mid cut, switch would choose how much and the knob would choose which frequency)

Previous owner(s):

• Had it defretted
• Replaced the body’s black finish with natural finish
• Replaced vol/blend and active “power curve” electronics with passive vol/vol/tone controls
• Broke the tone pot shaft and applied superglue, fixing the whole thing in place

My work on it:

• Lowered the action
• Cleaned and oiled the fingerboard
• Replaced the foam underneath the neck pickup to bring it closer to the strings
• Added missing screws to the bridge
• Replaced the stuck tone knob with an EMG VMC

The superglued tone knob required a lot of brute force. I tried WD-40, acetone, pulled out every subcomponent of the pot meter one by one and eventually had to go to a machine shop to have it demolished with a heavy duty drill. But it’s out and my active parametric mid EQ is in!!

So now I have 2 volume pots, and a stacked knob for the active mid EQ: botton for frequency (200-1000 Hz) and top for cut/boost.

Pretty unusual setup but it works well for me. I like setting a mid boost on the higher frequency for extra nasal/trombone-like fretless “burp” sound on the bridge pickup, while boosting lower frequency gets a more supportive “Precision bass”-like tone. The mid cut is nice for more percussive playing (using a pick or when slapping).

I am considering changing the vol/vol to vol/balance but that means you can never have the full unfiltered tone of both pickups when switching to passive mode. I am also considering adding a second 9V battery so the EMG circuit has more headroom. I do notice compression with some settings but I’m not looking forward to drilling in the small body and I don’t think it will fit in the existing cavity.

Planned future work

• Replace the disconnected SPDT on/on switch with a DPDT active/passive switch
• Have the fingerboard levelled

What do I play with it?

Honoring the birth period of this bass, the 1980s, I have been playing a lot of Pino’s work with Paul Young: “Wherever I Lay My Hat”, “Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down”. Also Kate Bush’ Wuthering Heights.

“Come Back And Stay”, “Babooshka” and Paul Simon’s Graceland album (“Diamonds on the Soles Of Her Shoes”, “You Can Call Me Al”) are on the to-do list.

Do you have any suggestions? Songs to play and modifications to make to the bass?