Well, I visited with this bass for a few minutes today. The bass is owned by a pawn shop, not a private party. If it were in perfect shape, I'd pay $1500 for it. As it is, I wouldn't pay anything without a half hour to go at it with my toolkit. Unfortunately, they won't let me touch it until the current eBay auction is over, and it will probably sell this time around, so it's a moot point.
If anyone out there is interested, here's what I saw:
The headstock appears to have been just about broken off, though the top veneers either held or were replaced. The crack on the body runs right to the volume pot, but appears to be solid.
The body seems smaller and lighter than my Persuader, almost like a 3/4 size. It is thin front-to-back and pretty flat at the bottom. I haven't seen a Distillate before to know if this is standard. The neck is extremely comfortable and should be quite playable if it will take a proper setup.
For setup, the nut has been deeply cut and raised. It looks like it needs replacing. More important than that, the neck is straight on the bass side and has a back bow on the treble side. I would want to make sure that the truss rod is at least operational to attemp to correct this before making a purchase.
Electronically, the volume pot spins freely with almost no resistance. Something is definitely wrong there, and it may have taken damage in the body cracking incident. I would want to open up the back and see what's up there, maybe that's an aftermarket pot?
If the neck setup can be repaired and the electronics are really okay, then I'd pay the $795 for the bass, but probably not any more than that, especially without knowing what it would cost to repair the things that are definitely broken. Does anyone know the cost of a replacement nut and/or replacement volume pot?
-Bob