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I've bought 2 basses from Japan, both from Miki Bass Side. I'd recommend to take a look at their site every now and then. Both deals went without any trouble. They happily answer in English and are very friendly. In both cases prices were negotiable, and I got about 15% off if I recall right. Shipping went fast on both occasions.

I'm probably late to the party on this, but iPad with GarageBand and an audio interface works well for live monitoring and adding some effects, can do some in-depth EQ analysis and adjusting. Stock effects aren't great but third party ones are decent. And it has tuner/mute. I think this could be quite a portable and useful setup to take to rehearsals. Some effects and tuner, but also metronome/drum loops, recording. etc. This stuff seems to have almost got to the point of replacing multi fx for me, especially reliability is really good and latency is low. Just needs a better interface for live stuff (e.g. midi Bluetooth footswitches).

And it says nut width is 38.1mm. I wonder if it’s just a typo on the ‘Governor’ one.

please mean latest not last !

I was at one time thinking I must have a combination of cabs to achieve 4ohms so i can get max watts from amp ! Now I run an 8ohm MarkBass 122 cab with a 500w head and it’s very loud when it needs to be ! One cab solution and easy carry in I never thought to much about cabs but I now see a decent cab is more important than lots of watts 100w Ampeg V4B very loud amp ! not got it anymore as too heavy !

No, we don’t gig, just rehearse. and the rest of us know that we would be far too loud for a pub sized venue - we’d get halfway through a soundcheck and get thrown out, that kind of volume empties places. Plus the kit itself is bigger than most pub stages.

Does your band, with this drummer, play pub gigs..? Does that volume level work, in that context..?

Many thanks for the great advice and for sharing your wisdom and experience. It's much appreciated 🤗 Ishibashi keep coming up and so in line with your suggestion I'm going to test the water and drop them an email (in English, sadly) citing the very bass it is I'm looking to buy ( an Ibanez BTB845) and see how they respond. We'll see how I get on!....

I've had 2 basses from Japan, one from Ishibashi and another from a large ebay based outfit but I cannot remember their name. And a bunch of pedals. No problems with any order. The Ishibashi bass was a Japanese market Fender P bass (PB-62 or something?) and was actually in even better condition than the sales blurb claimed. Obviously like an idiot I sold it because at the time I didn't understand P basses. My most recent Japanese buy was from Effects Bakery - they make tiny budget pedals. I bought their "Japanese Butter Roll" vibe and it arrived in under a week, was under the import fee point and vat was dealt with so got to be for about £50 including the shipping.

The natural finish one is even more Ade.......

I use the Mobile Sheets app , I was told it's the best android one,it's great, easy to import PDF , photos etc , easy to arrange in to setlists , I was a late adopter but it's a game changer , oh and Bluetooth page turner is really useful

I bought this a year or so back, and also the guitar version (can't remember the name). After a while it stopped working, saying that the trial period had expired, despite my having paid for it. They tried to resolve it, but none of the codes they sent me worked and in the end I got a refund.

Are they these guys?

Sadly my band need those watts. Whatever 500/600 watt amp of the studios that I use, through their 810, its on a minimum of 5, otherwise I can’t be heard. It’s the drummist, yet another caffeine fuelled chimp with hammers.

Can someone help please? I've got a 1985 Japanese made BB1100S and one of the tuners has an issue. As I turn the D string tuner to slacken off the string, rather the string coming slack, the tuning is unscrewing itself and the knob with worm gear is coming out of the tuner back plate. Is there anyting I can do to fix it? I really don't want to replace the tuners, they've got an amazing look to them from over 40 years of use although that 40 years of use may be the problem!

I don't know why you would use 15" tops with 18" subs really if you are buying these new. You'll be crossing over well above the frequency where 15s give any potential advantage over 12's. I have a Passat estate I can take 15" tops plus two 15" subs, 10" monitors, my bass gear with leads, stands and several lights with careful packing but it is tight and it would be far quicker to pack into something a bit bigger. You can't see out of the back either. I rarely use the subs as there is not much the 15's can't do on their own but starting again with 12's might be better.

Oh yes, download some scanning SW (app) to scan notes from books. A very useful extra.

I use Forescore (ipad) and a cheap Donner bluetooth footswitch page turner. I'm assuming Forescore has versions for non Apple kit. It takes pdf and other formats. It's very clever in that with a foot press it will turn pages, but if the tablet is in landscape for a bigger image it will will first move to the bottom of the page and then flip the page. Very pleased with it.

If you want a very good SW to read music from different formats, I suggest you to buy the Mobile Sheets Pro. There's no monthly fee, just pay once. Very functional. If you need (I do) a page turner, check Pageflip Dragonfly. It is small, very quiet (studio use), simple to use, and batteries last really long time. There's a 4 button version available, too, but I found no use to those two extra buttons. I use these with my Android tablet. I have +3000 scores there. Setlists are easy to do, and you can import a few formats to the SW. If you have books in PDF format, you can make sidecars to index big books to individual notes. No more papers!

Yes, I’ve personally imported many instruments (> 20 basses) over the years. My dealings with the Japanese, either via a large corporate entities ((like Ishibashi, Ikebbe, Shimamura), bass specialists (Geek-in-box, BassDirect Japan) and individual sales on Digimart have been generally hassle-free. Certainly, the Japanese end of the transactions have been smooth. Sadly, not the case with couriers or Customs at this end though. This is a tale of delays and expense that needs to be factored in if you decide to purchase. These concerns are not unique to purchases form Japan, however. I would recommend, as a first trial, to engage with Ishibashi via their English-language site. Ask questions about an instrument you are interested in and gauge their level of responsiveness, speed of reply, and overall level of customer service. Compare with your average Joe in Europe. You might be surprised. Good luck!………but it comes with a wallet warning about how easy it might become.

Here's a couple more photos. The inlay is based on a tattoo I have (maybe cheesy, but I think it came out very well) of the crow, (hometown symbol) with the GD bolt. Definitely inspired by that look, as well as the cocobolo Alembic stuff. I love the neck-through aesthetic, so I wanted to sort of emulate that with the sapwood(?) of the cocobolo.