Hard Maple neck and body (If you
can call it a body), tuned steel rails join the two body sections.
Rosewood fingerboard, graphite nut, 32.25 inch scale 24 frets.
Magnaflux RB pickup, single volume control. No tone control, changes in
tone are achieved by sliding the pickup along the rails.
(Info from the 1985/86 misc
catalogue and my own Rail bass)
Reviewedin Guitarist magazine, November 1984, RRP then was £240
Appears in the Jan 1985 US pricelist at $499.50 including gig bag, the
Sept 1985 pricelist shows it as available in 3 colours (Black, red or
white), the August 1986 pricelist shows an increase to $529.50 for the
black version or $565 for red or white. The Rail does not appear in the
April 1987 pricelist
The rails are uncoated steel on black models, red and white ones had black rails.
The Rail used the same custom gigbag as the Quantum
Thanks
to Kevin Bailey for additional information on the differences between
his '84 black and '85 red Rail basses, and pictures of his red Rail bass
The 85 Rail has rubber end stops at each end of the rails, the 84 one only has them at the bridge end.
The neck pocket is shallower
The 85 bridge heel has two fewer carves than the 84; the two corner carves are gone.
"The Rail" text is under the clearcoat on the 85, whereas it is on top of the clearcoat on the 84.
The dot inlays on the fretboard are still red, but the ones on the side are now white. The heel at the top of the neck (where the serial number is) is smaller on the 85 model.
