Late 70s Jolana Diamant Bass

[Chris P.]

Hi guys,

This late seventies Diamant Bass is staring at me from a local shop wall for 20 years now. 20 years with a broken tuner and badly mounted strings. It's tuned DADG, so I could try it and this short scale sounds nice and sweet. The search for a tuner begins now, or Plan B: replace 'm all.

[gearHed289]

Japanese? Italian? Looks like a fun little bass. I was going to say replace them all, but those tuners look cool.

[Dave W]

Japanese? Italian? Looks like a fun little bass. I was going to say replace them all, but those tuners look cool.

Warsaw Pact era basses from Czechoslovakia.

[amptech]

Hi guys,

This late seventies Diamant Bass is staring at me from a local shop wall for 20 years now. 20 years with a broken tuner and badly mounted strings. It's tuned DADG, so I could try it and this short scale sounds nice and sweet. The search for a tuner begins now, or Plan B: replace 'm all.

I have 3 tuners for this one, you can have them for free!
But seriously, there is a great bass within the Jolana Diamant if you replace pickups, bridge and tuners. I was thinking of posting a thread on my restomod, but I'm lazy in that department.

I like making bass pickups based on classic Gibson guitar pickups, so this project kicked in when I accidentaly saw a cheap Diamant on ebay after winding a bass alnico style pup. My brain just thought '54 -' 56 LP black beauty project. Perfect LP body, and even 'fretless wonder' frets and block markers...

[Chris P.]

Cool! I think it sounds okay as it is, but you never know. Do you really have some tuners?

[amptech]

Cool! I think it sounds okay as it is, but you never know. Do you really have some tuners?

Yes, I have tuners. Funny, one of mine were broken too. You can have the three leftovers, just PM me. You can have the bridge as well,
you might need spare parts if you plan on using the stock parts!

Out of curiosity, how is the binding on yours? I had to replace all the binding, looked like plaster! It literally turned to powder if you touched it..

EDIT:
Found a nice pic of the 99% finished Jolana-turned-Gibson, here in the hands of Superlynx' bassist/singer Pia.
The remaining 1% is the pickguard, probably never to be installed..

[Chris P.]

Cool pic! And I definitely PM you asap. Mine was hanging in a semi-closed shop for over 20 years and that might have saved the bindings? I will check, but I think they're good! I guess keeping basses in cases is bad for it.