Tucked away on pages 20 and 21 of the 1986 Aria Pro-II catalogue was a new range - the Diamond Series. 2 guitars and 2 basses with specifications that seem like they were the spiritual successor to the Westones that had ceased production, but were still in demand. The JPJ-3 was the proper wild one - using the same pick-ups as the older Concord II and Thunder basses - amusingly but accurately titled Hard Puncher, this one punched and kept kicking.
 
3 pick-up basses are rare - a few boutique builders offer them with Strat control philosophy and a few folk have customised their favourite basses to try and just need one bass for a gig, and ended up with a scratchplate full of switches and a good memory to remember how to get sounds on the fly.
 
The JPJ-3 had one major flaw in my opinion. The controls are similar to Gretsches where you have a choice of methods of how to reduce the volume. Even back then, a 3 way blade and a couple of push pulls would have unlocked the potential, but all you had was a blend, 2 volumes and a tone.
 
This JPJ-3 keeps the original magnificent pick-ups and features a Freeway switch that has 2 banks of 3; and a further option for 3 more tones. The toggle has a left and right movement too. Point it towards the headstock and the upper position gives you the traditional Precision pickup. In the middle we have an alternative Precision tone where the two outer-most pick-ups deliver a slightly wider more open tone - still punchy, but more mellow. In the lower position we have the bridge pick-up like a Jazz bass. Move the toggle towards the bridge and in the upper position we have both precision pick-ups in series - shoulder barging a Music Man or similar big pole humbucker out of the way. The sound is as huge as you'd expect. In the middle we have both Precision pick-ups in parallel which offers a calmer very mellow open tone. In the lower position we have the alternative Precision pick-up and the bridge pick-up in series to provide a huge growl. There's more: if you pull up the volume control, the phase of the alternative Precision pick-up is reversed and the series options suddenly take you into new territory. Unless you are rocking a mega-bucks Alembic, Phase reversal on basses gives a very empty 'clacky' sound that can easily get lost in the mix. Not so here, Stevie Wonder's Superstition no longer needs a keys player. There is more variety to chase with the tone controls as they alter the phase relationship without affecting the volume.
 
The idea here is to take the opportunity to unlock a huge tonal variety and give you traditional tones, powerful tones and some tones of your own. No batteries required, no complex pre-amps, just making the most of a lot of very good pick-ups.
 
Nice and light (3.9kg; 8lb 10oz), balanced and plenty of fret left, the action is highly adjustable from super slick theatrics to rattle free slap - I have it in the middle so plenty of both can be achieved. The rod has plenty of adjustment and is now fairly flat, but releasing it half a turn will get a decent bow without rattling the top frets.   
 
Lots of useable flexibility from this bass - not just a palette of every tone possible, just a selection of really good ones and a lot more intuitive than rows of mini-switches.