Here in Miami, while Covid-19 rages, the first named storm of the Atlantic Hurricane season is dropping so much rain on us that I am tempted to stop with the guitar stuff already and begin working on an ark. But my internet connection is stable at least, so I decided to do some other stupid thing instead: I purchased a $33 bass body on ebay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Unfinished-...72.m2749.l2648
There are a number of things wrong with this presentation, not least that the body is referred to in a number of places as a "barrel." The email that I sent to the seller resulted in no actual new information. Still, there were three things that attracted me to this body. First was the price. Hard to beat $33 with shipping from a US seller. 2nd, the weight, listed as 1150g. That could mean (3rd) that it is made of paulownia, which is what the photos look like.
Of course there is reason to doubt almost all of these things. When I wrote to the seller the email clearly came back from Shenzhen, which is an odd name for a city in New Jersey, which is where the ebay listing says it will ship from.
I think the photos are to show that the body might, or might not, have a fifth hole under the neck plate. What the photos show most clearly, however is that the body may not be accurately represented by the photos. Notice that the woodgrain pattern is identical on both face pics, the only difference being the hole. I have not figured out whether they photoshopped the hole in or out. Also, I get that they side view was to show that the body is 4 cm deep...but I am pretty sure that's a Telecaster body, rather than a p-bass.
Finally, in the description, it says that the body weighs 1150g. This seems close to the shipping weight of 1350g. It also says the body is maple. I am willing to bet that it's not maple. The only kind of wood I can think of that might be that light that has been used in guitars is paulownia. Of course both could be wrong. Or it might be sycamore or something like that that is sometimes sold as maple. But hardly anything would be that light.
Should have a better idea in about a week... it may be that I will be out some shipping charges to send it back.