Fortress masterman - am i misising something here?

Hey guys! Help me here please...

I`ve found a local deal with a warwick, that the seller says it´s a fortress one, bought it new, and at some point he turned it into fretless.



The thing is...
As far as i can tell, this is no fortress one, but a masterman instead;
The serial number end on the neck doesn´t match the production years of this model (2005)
Some of the HW (JAN1, recessed strap locks) ware no longer being used in 2005,
The is one sadle missing,
The neck looks like it had some damages "repaired"
Plus, i asked the guy if the truss rod was fully operational, and he had no idea what i was talking about.

So, i guess something is not right here :roll:
Does this worth the risk?
How much should i offer to this guy?

thanks

 

serial seems to be applied afterwards
ugly wenge was used in the late nineties
neck repair
truss rod is probably exchangeable
fortess covers where mixed independent of the actual model
350 eur

 

finish is gone where the arm rests

300

 

Wow. This bass has seen many sad days it seems. It's been abused and neglected.
The previous owner deserves a slap in the face.

 

No neck volute on a 2005, wenge neck, Fortress? No way! That´s a 90´s looking bass.

As Schlo said, that serial number seem to be applied way after... I won´t pay more than 400€ for that, assuming it has no neck issues.

 

Thanks for your help guys.

 

Also, the "Fortress" trus rod-cover is upside-down.

 

300 seems good enough. Worst comes worst, is the neck is dead, you can always have it refretted and repaired. And the French Violet is pretty rare, too.

 

Here's a demo of a Fortress Masterman I did

[video=youtube_share;sTKYPc4hqpU]http://youtu.be/sTKYPc4hqpU[/video]

Great bass!!

 

Which strings equipped?

 

DR Lo Rider 045-105