LeftyBassist.com

It's in Australia - site says they ship worldwide but the owner is on holiday until the end of July so you'll have to wait if you want it

http://www.grouseguitars.com/ibanezlhroadster.htm

Damn, man. Those are cool basses. I'd like to play one at some point.

Holy cow! I used to own one of those back in Vancouver in the 80's. I played it live and it was my main axe for a while when I was playing in clubs 6 nights a week. *sigh* those were the days. No idea where it is now but this one isn't it for sure. The condition sounds way too good. ...oh yeah, then there's that Australian location thing.

bit pricey, even for us Aussies

I think Peter pointed me towards that RS924 earlier, in my personal 'My guitars and basses'-topic. It's beautiful indeed, and the only lefty I've ever seen in that colour (they're always finished in 3-tone sunburst). Beautiful bass, and they're great players and sound great too. I've played a lefty RS924 at the Lefty Bass Day in Germany last September (the daughter of the shopkeeper of the store where the bass day was held (CMS, Duisburg) owned one, it's for sale. Optically in somewhat poor condition, great player, electronics need work) and enjoyed it a lot.

ummm...hold on there partner- did you forget that your old pal Carmine has one? This finish is referred to as an RS 924TVL. I do agree with all of your observations- outstanding bass in every regard, the all original active circuit is excellent, mine has Barts instead of the standard Ibanez DiMarzio types (I have many Ibanez basses with those Ibanez PUs in them, and in passive applications like the RB 630 there is nothing better IMHO). I was going to re-install a set of the original Ibanez PUs, but I was fortunate to do a side by side comparison first with a righty buddy's 924, and we both actually liked the Barts better in this-- a bit less "hot" and more capable of handling the added range and boost of the active circuit. The bass just sounds HUGE- rich, fat tone, warm like your best P Bass on steroids but clear- with the option of dialing in as much bridge PU as needed to add punch or enhance attack. This bass is the only reason I've been able to survive life without a Musician! I have used it in the studio on several occassions, and it records beautifully. But it's heavy as hell- so the studio is a good place for it, because you WILL want to sit down after a couple songs...

The looks of this remind me of the 70's Odyssey bass I have.

There, fixed it. Happy now?

Oh yeah, much better thanks!!

One of my favorite basses. Beautacious.

Pete

That bass has been for sale there for at least 3 years. It won't sell at that price anytime soon.

There's another place that has had a Tobacco finished one listed for over 3 years too at a reasonable price of $550 (Name escapes me. "Jersey Guitar" in California?), but their method of doing business seems a bit sketchy to me (cash and carry or bank check only), and they get horrible customer reviews.

I got one of these puppies, bought in 198?. Serial number is I804163. Weighs a ton. Just curious - what are the designations for all the knobs?

They got a bit scratchy with time, any good trick to revive those pots?

Love this bass, and is going on show this weekend along with my G&L L-2500.

Cheers!

Have you ried Caig De-Oxit? works wonders on scratchy pots. Runs about 8 or 9 bucks online. Just be sure to tape off the surrounding body parts so that none of it spills onto the finish.

The serial number indicates September 1980: I, being the 9th letter of the alphabet, indicating the 9th month. And 80, indicating the year it was built.

The one I played had a very interesting control layout, I wonder if that was original. There was volume, a two band active EQ (bass and treble, the two small knobs), and the miniswitch would switch between the pickup selector switch and a balance pot! But my guess is it was modified, and the miniswitch probably used to be an active/passive-switch with a passive tone pot in the position of the current balance pot.

It was a very cool bass, played and sounded great and was incredibly versatile.

Hi Jeroen, thanks for the reply.

I was just wondering, because the way it is set up for me, there is the mini switch that turns on the internal preamp, so that seems common. There is the volume knob, a tone knob, the preamp bass knob and (probably) treble preamp knob. The treble preamp knob doesn't seem to affect the tone at all so I took it apart, gave it a thorough cleaning, even shorted the leads on it to see if it would change anything but nothing, so i'm figuring something is fried on the preamp itself. The bass on the preamp works very well, to the chagrin of my neighbors. I will investigate the preamp (wish i had schematics) - it is based on the JRC-4558 op-amp. Seems basic enough. Perhaps some component around the treble control needs changing. I remember picking up this bass for around $300 Canadian way back when and never parted with it. I also have one of it's cousins what i believe is the RB 720. Also very nice

Anyways, if anyone happens to have the schematics for the RS 924 it would be much appreciated. Thanks for the help.

Well, I'm going after an RS924 this saturday...
I was deeply impressed by the one I played on the Lefty Bass Day, shown next to my MC924's and SR5 here:



And I was already seriously in doubt of buying it then, but it didn't feel right. I already had a feeling the electronics had been modified, and the neck pocket had some gaps. And cosmetically, it was in poor shape. But the playability and tone were incredible, it can truly do it all! So this saturday, I'll pay the owner of this one a visit:

I've got the exact same one, except in a red color.

The preamp on it seem bonked, the bottom treble knob has no effect. the bottom bass know cuts/boosts the bass. It has the JRC4558 chip inside.

I'm looking for a schematic or a trace of the circuit so I can try and fix it.

Thanks

I would say "one of only three lefties I've ever seen in that color" as I have one too

Good gawd that’s cool.

Welcome to the club, Paulo!