1961 Fender Jazz Bass owned by Jaco Pastorius

Word is Jaco Pastorius was the most influential bass players ever ! Okay I said it ! Ever since I started playing bass in 8th grade, I have loved just a few bass players. In particular I was a huge Stanley Clarke fan & studied his  “School Days” album from start to finish in 1976. The other album I studied was Jaco’s 1st solo album & I became 1 of his biggest fans. To say Weather Report’s “Birdland” was simply 1 of the most influential bands on my go to list, Jaco’s “Donna Lee” just blew me away & I was a fan for life. He sadly passed away back in 1987.

This 1961 Fender Jazz Bass was 1 of Jaco’s last main stay fretted basses he owned prior to his downfall between 1984 until his death in 1987.  In fact late in 1981 when his band “Word of Mouth” started to tour Japan, this exact Jazz Bass was on his guitar stand right next to the “Bass of Doom” for those fretted moments. The roomer is that Jaco bought this bass around 1981 in New York City & he used it almost exclusively on his 1982 “Word of Mouth” tour & his 1983 “Big Band” tour in Japan. Sometime late 1983-early 1984, it was acquired by Mr. Randy Herring. Randy put it under his bed until 2011 when he brought this Jazz Bass in to get the strings changed at a local repair shop & somehow found Kevin Kaufman’s shop, who was Jaco’s main tech for many years & was the one who perfected Jaco’s slippery fretless fingerboard mods. Kevin educated Randy as to its history & Randy put it back under his bed until we purchased it at the Orlando Guitar Expo in February 2025.

The Jazz Basses that were amongst the Bassography of Jaco’s that have been owned personally by Jaco was put together by Kevin Kaufman & has been incorrect for many years until now. Being these basses can be taken apart & parts interchanged is most likely why there was a mixup in information. The exact details of this bass prior to its disappearance for 41 years, it was known simply as the Hiroshima Bay Bass. In their Bassography Kevin & 2 cohorts described this bass as an early 60’s w/the serial # 87XXX all from memory, that it was on tour in Japan w/out documented its true month & year of production. They simply stated “whereabouts unknown” as to its history since 1984.

This wonderful example is from August 1961 w/an original serial # of 64437 on its back plate. The infamous Bass of Doom, Jaco’s main Fretless Jazz Bass was from 1962 & Kevin’s recollection was it had this serial # 64437. This back plate may have been installed by Jaco on the “Bass of Doom” at some point but clearly it has its own serial # dating to 1962 but Felix Pastorius doesn’t return a call to verify this detail. Now that we have that out of the way…here’s the true story on my ’61.

The story goes while on tour in Japan for their “Word of Mouth” Tour, Jaco got himself arrested. He got so angry he shaved his head in protest & tossed this actual Jazz Bass into Hiroshima Bay before it was fished out of the water. At that time Jaco was being courted by Ibanez Guitars to get his endorsement to make some Ibanez “Jaco” spec’d Jazz Bass models. Ibanez took this bass back to their factory in Aichi Japan to spec it out & as a favor to Jaco, refinished it in May 1983 & presented it back to Jaco during his “Big Band” Tour in 1983. They supposedly made a big media event out of it when returning Jaco’s Jazz Bass back to him, but to no avail Jaco passed on the idea stating “their bass was not as good as my bass” LOL.

There is a plethora of information documenting its past including so many photo sessions (including the Jaco Photo Book by Shigeru Uchiyama), 5 album & CD covers, magazine front covers & a few videos. Check out the pic section attached to see how excited I am to own this crazy rare piece of history. Jaco was the Hendrix of Basses & maybe the most inventive bass player ever to influence 3 generations of musicians.