Fender Jazz Bass Black 1977 (pre-owned)

By 1977 the Jazz Bass had spent seventeen years earning its place as the most articulate, midrange-rich bass Fender ever built — and this one wears the CBS-era spec sheet exactly the way the factory shipped it. Black over alder, a one-piece maple neck, and that low, vocal Jazz growl that has anchored records across every genre that matters.

What makes this one worth your attention is that it’s all here. Original finish, original electronics, original hardware, and the original hard case it left Fullerton in. Nearly five decades on, it plays like an instrument that’s been used the way it was meant to be.

The body is alder, finished in black. Alder is the wood most people picture when they think Fender — balanced and full, with a slightly scooped voice that lets the midrange of the pickups do the talking. On a Jazz Bass that translates to a tone that’s punchy and clear without ever turning brittle.

The neck is where this one earns its looks: a one-piece maple neck with a bound maple fingerboard and pearl block inlays. The all-maple build is brighter and snappier than a rosewood board, with a tight, immediate attack — and against the black body it’s one of the best-looking pairings Fender has ever offered. It carries the CBS-era 3-bolt joint with Micro-Tilt adjustment and the bullet truss rod adjustable up at the headstock.

Scale is the standard 34 inches across 20 frets, with the narrow Jazz nut that makes the neck feel fast under the fingers — the reason so many players reach for a Jazz over a Precision in the first place.

All original. The finish, pickups, pots, hardware, and neck are exactly as Fender built them in 1977, and it comes complete with its original hard case — no refinish, no replaced electronics, no later parts.

Like any honest vintage instrument that’s been played rather than parked, it carries the wear of its years. We go over the specifics — finish, frets, neck relief, and electronics — in detail with every vintage piece, so there are no surprises when it arrives.

Two single-coil Jazz Bass pickups, one near the neck and one near the bridge, each with its own volume control and a shared master tone. That layout is the whole trick: blend the two and you move from the round, warm neck-pickup voice to the nasal, aggressive bridge-pickup growl, with every shade in between. Solo the bridge pickup and you get the cutting, slightly hollow midrange that defined fingerstyle and slap tone for generations.

It’s passive, simple, and direct — no preamp, no battery, just pickups and wood doing the work. Plugged in, a ’77 like this has the weight and authority the later reissues spend a lot of money trying to recapture: a low end with real heft, mids that sit perfectly in a mix, and that unmistakable vintage Fender clarity.