Bassassin

Lovely little thing, isn't it? I had an identical one about 9 years ago - Antoria 2354B, made by Fujigen, exactly the same bass as the Ibanez & Greco versions. Mine was a car boot classic, needed a proper clean & setup, & a very hard-to-find replacement neck pickup, as the original was dud & rewinding's not part of my skill set! Couldn't find a handrest though, there must be thousands of dusty ones at the backs of drawers... Very, very good little bass and one I thought twice or three times about moving on. Happy to be able to give @Paul S a few pointers and delighted it turned out as good as it looks!

Quite difficult - the MC900 was the first, and consequently rarer 22-fret iteration of the Musican range. I'm not aware of any circuitry issues with these but it's probably reasonable that if an example has issues, they will have shown themselves by now. There will be specific MC series experts who know much more than me, perhaps ask for advice here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ibanezvintageguitars There's also a BC member who's recently acquired an MC800, which is the passive electronics version, he might be able to give info & advice about build & playability: These were the top end of Ibanez' range at the time and build quality is generally exceptionally high. Obviously a bass that's 40-odd years old will have had a life, but unless it's been abused or has excessive play wear I wouldn't expect any construction-related issues. I'm not sure if you're just looking for one of these, or are asking advice about a particular one you're interested in buying - if you're still looking, considering the rarity of the early MC900s, I think if you'd consider a later MC924, there would be a lot more choice available. Hope this helps a bit!

Took a moment for me to realise who the seller was - it was the postage that tipped me off! However - never seen one of these before, it's probably not a thing of beauty to very many beholders, or a design classic - but certainly a curiosity. Won't be too upset if I never see another one, to be honest.

Amusing name aside, they look a lot like yet another set of fashionably filthy and smashed up Fender copies to me. I'm not a Fender copy hater by any means but at what point does a market become oversaturated with countless identical clones of the oldest, most common and by now, most generic basses ever created?

Only from the perspective of a late '70s school playground!

Ooh - had a bit of GAS for one of these a few years ago - the same bass was available in an all-over MOTO finish, that & the stacked lippys got me proper hot & bothered. Not so much a fan of the S&M leather finish. I surprise myself sometimes. Italia were quite high-profile for a while a few years back, just seem to have vanished these days. Had a few basses that caught my eye as well as this one, a Rick 4005-ish semi (also available in full MOTO!) and a glittery LP-shaped thing called a Maranello, which Nicky Wire from the Manics played for a few years. Always felt they were a bit overpriced for sort of niche novelty mock-retro stuff. A bit like Eastwood without the blatant copyright theft.

There's the proof that those people who say "you can achieve anything if you just put your mind to it" are wrong.

I'd give you £50 all day long. Seriously though, these are incredibly rare but very niche, so while they may be priced high (the one in the Edinburgh shop was £2195) it''d probably be hard to find a buyer. Fwiw I have no idea if that's a fair or reasonable price as there literally aren't any others to compare to. Got any pics?

Same here, none more late 70s/early 80s. It was either one of these or an HH VS 1x15 100w combo, like wot I had.

That's a tidy-looking Tele - and a good excuse for a pic of my bargain J&D Thinline, which currently goes for £118. Didn't expect much for £100-odd quid but I was completely gobsmacked by the quality. setup & attention to detail. My favourite guitar by a long way - and I already have an E serial MIJ Squier Strat & a Yamaha SG that's worth about 15 times what this cost. The quality of budget guitars these days is ridiculous!

Not a Fender, not vintage. Looks like a bitsa to me, no idea what's under the covers (could be a P/J with that big Jazz ashtray), depending what the parts are it might be a decent deal for £155, especially if you could haggle down a bit. On the other hand if it's built from cheap tat bits (which the tuners suggest it might be), you'd be better off with something like a Harley Benton for the same sort of money. Also: "I just started playing and I was given this" says the seller, snapping pics of the bass in his room containing rackmounted mixers, flightcases, a Peavey 4x10 cab and another bass... Hmm.

Already a member - like pretty much anywhere online with a vintage MIJ flavour...

Had that since new, got it in 1984. Still in decent nick despite being my main gigging bass for 20+ years - unfortunately the neck twisted really badly, to the point of near-unplayability. Currently has an RSB Straycat neck as a replacement - not exactly the same or a perfect fit , it's a later model, possibly from after production moved to Korea. Hope I can find a proper RSB Deluxe neck one day, but it probably won't have that lovely blue/black burst!

It is. I've got one, looks like this:

That's odd. I'm by no means an MIJ Tokai expert but have come across a few, and this has several details I've never seen on one before: embossed logo, engraved enclosed tuners, "JAPAN" stamped neckplate. Fakes exist (Google "Fakai") but I think this has way too much unique detail to be a knockoff. It may be that the "Morris" pickup logo's a clue - it's known that Tokai contracted out to other Japanese manufacturers in the early 70s because their own small Hamamatsu workshop couldn't keep pace with demand - some of the Love Rock LP replicas were made by Kasuga Gakki, for example. This bass isn't 70s era and is far from replica standard, but it might be that Moridaira, who own the Morris brand, was contracted to build for Tokai at some point. All conjecture, but like @Skybone says, post it on the Tokai forum, if anyone know anything, it'll be on there.