Author Topic: 80?s ESP The Surveyor fretless bass (Read 319 times)

gtrguy · « **on:** March 13, 2014, 02:25:29 PM »

I am thinking of selling my 80?s ESP The Surveyor fretless bass. It is in beautiful condition. I have owned this bass for 15 years and doubt if I have played it 5 hours in all that time. It is drop dead beautiful, with a rich honey color and all black hardware. The serial number is 03672, which is very low. The neck has the number 0515 penciled on the heel and the neck pocket has the number NY0515 written on it. I think the ?NY? refers to New York, where ESP originally set up in the USA. It is all original. The wiring looks untouched, the original pickups almost still look new. It has a cool black metal anodized pickguard. It is set up with half-wound or half-flat wound strings. There are some marks from the strings in the unlined fret board, as is normal with anything but flat-wound strings. It does not look bad to me and does not affect the playability or the tone at all. I only see a couple VERY small dings at the tip of the neck, which you can just see in the photo. I seriously doubt you could find a nicer old ESP fretless bass anywhere. This is not at all the same as the more recent stuff ESP makes. The fit and finish are superb on this instrument. It has passive P-J electronics and play and sounds great. Comes with a nice hard-shell case that fits great. I have no idea if the case is original or not. The case has a couple dings on the outside but looks good.

gtrguy · « **Reply #1 on:** March 13, 2014, 02:29:52 PM »

gtrguy · « **Reply #2 on:** March 13, 2014, 02:35:02 PM »

tmoney61092 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 13, 2014, 03:26:35 PM »

How much?? Trades???

~Taylor

hieronymous · « **Reply #4 on:** March 13, 2014, 04:48:04 PM »

That looks cool! I may have missed it, but what is the fingerboard wood? Ebony?

gtrguy · « **Reply #5 on:** March 14, 2014, 10:42:16 AM »

It is a black dense wood that I think is ebony. It is hard to come up with a value for the bass, but $800 is an amount I am thinking, plus shipping.

tmoney61092 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 14, 2014, 10:46:23 AM »

Sent you an email

~Taylor

gtrguy · « **Reply #7 on:** April 28, 2014, 10:15:07 AM »

Still for sale!

gtrguy · « **Reply #8 on:** May 06, 2014, 01:23:23 PM »

Price drop to $750.00 plus shipping!

gtrguy · « **Reply #9 on:** September 07, 2014, 10:14:01 AM »

Price drop to $650 plus shipping.

gtrguy · « **Reply #10 on:** October 31, 2014, 10:32:01 AM »

Price drop to $600 plus shipping. This is a really fine bass.

gtrguy · « **Reply #11 on:** January 07, 2015, 10:34:41 AM »

Still for sale.
$600 plus shipping

bigredbass · « **Reply #12 on:** January 08, 2015, 11:11:52 PM »

This is a real MIJ ESP, as gtrguy points out, not the occasionally-iffy LTD stuff we mostly get saddled with on this side of the Pacific. BIG difference.

In the right hands, instant Tony Franklin or Pino tone. Inexpensive enough to add EMG's or whatever pickup-du-jour you prefer. A really nice 'first' fretless, if you don't need lines (and really, it's inexpensive enough to have them added).

Joey

gtrguy · « **Reply #13 on:** January 09, 2015, 08:23:35 AM »

Yes, it is a great bass. The only reason I am selling it is that I acquired a nice Yamaha TRB-6P that was converted to fretless not too long after I bought this bass, and the 6 string TRB has been my main fretless now for years.

I recently came across a correspondence I got back from ESP 10 years ago and it states that it is their original ESP Surveyor bass made in the mid/late 80's.