Oooh I think he's confusing things then. If you're speaking of McCormick's book, I think he means Adams first Ibanez bass. Neil bought that from him when he and his brother had a band(I think his brother was the bassist? don't really remember) and his brother had 'altered' it himself. Around JT era when U2 were huge Adam asked Neil if he could buy his bass back, he wanted to keep it around for old times sake. Neil tried to find it back but it was 'mutanized' so badly he couldn't sell it back to Adam.
At least that's what I remember...