Hey Guys,
I hope you can help me to identify my Jack Bass, the serial number is 9001830.
It is a beautiful instrument and I have never played a bass like it.
The tonal capabilities are an inspiration and it truly is a joy to play .
I would be grateful to know it’s history.
Kind regards
Paul
Hi Paul, welcome to my.hohner.
I can’t tell you any technical details, but around 1985 Hohner acquired the exclusive license to use Ned Steinberger’s revolutionary headless design and brought out a couple of models (bass & guitar) which featured it. These were highly regarded and sometimes you still see them on stage today, they had many of the features of much more expensive Steinberger instruments. At that time I believe they were built in S. Korea. So if your example is still in good condition, you have a cool bass which I hope will continue to give you many years of good service 
Hi Steve, I have 2 Jack basses. One is black with active electronics purchased new around 1990. The other is a brown natural without active electronics. I got the second in1988 or maybe '87 from a dealer Massachusetts USA who said it was a salespersons demo. The serial number is 8850373. I haven’t been able to find another example of a Jack bass that doesn’t have active electronics. Could this be because it’s an early first year production model?
These two basses were my performance workhorses for many many years and I still have both of them! Yes, I modified the output jacks to the face on both, oh well … but if you look there is no active/passive switch on the brown one and there is no battery compartment on the back either. Prototype or 1st production run?
Thanks!~
I can’t tell you exactly, but your assumption sounds plausible. If your brown Jack bass was a prototype, it may lack features which later became standard. Glad you like the instruments, some of the Hohner guitars from the 1980s & 90s were excellent quality and good value for money.
I betting it was because there is no mention of a passive model in the historical models lists description.
It’s a sleek and compact bass and it still gets used often!
Jack Bass1988-1993
body: Californian solid maple; through neck: Californian maple with
Indian rosewood fingerboard; 24 nickel silver frets; colours: dark natural,
black; 2 Select, designed by EMG; bass humbucker / 2 J-style pickups;
active tone control, on/off; vol/vol/tone: treble/bass; black hardware,
Steinberger; Fine-Tuning-Bridge
Do you know of any place I could buy the DB bridge for The Jack Bass Custom?
I assume your best bet would be to look on Ebay, I don’t think Hohner Service will still have spare parts for this instrument in stock.
Ok, thanks. I did look there and didn’t see anything. I’m actually thinking about buying a used B2ADB and swap the bridges. I think the Steinberger Spirit DB bridge is the same too.
Here’s a link to all parts still available from the Hohner CSHOP, but it’s a small and diminishing selection:
As far as I know, when Hohner acquired the rights to use Steinberger designs in about 1985, the parts were functionally the same, so I imagine the Steinberger DB bridge will be compatible.
Hohner Service tells me they no longer have stocks of the bridge. It was a long time ago…
Hope you find one and can restore the guitar!
Well thanks for checking. I’m trying with Gibson too since they still make the Steinberger Spirit. I believe the Spirit DB bridge is the same as the one Hohner used.
Most of the early ones I saw here in Ireland were passive. So much so, I was delighted when they brought out an active variant
No.
No hardware from a Hohner or spirit fits a real Steinberger. Not even the legrest! Though you CAN drill those out to fit!
