Bassassin

These were sold branded Satellite in the UK, they were Korean-made budget instruments and unfortunately nothing to do with Matsumoku or any other Japanese manufacturer. These appeared around 1980 and were around 1/3 of the price of similar-looking Japanese instruments. They're not terrible - I had one as a cheap project around 12 years ago, it was very heavy, with a massively thick neck but playable enough with a bit of work. If it was priced around €150 it might be worth a look but as it is it's very, very overpriced! Here's an old cutting of a review of one from back in the day!

LIke buses, presumably! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/306090339623 Japanese dealer so no idea if the eye-watering (£3800!) price is in any way realistic. Both have Schaller M4 tuners which would suggest mid 70s or later. I'm aware of the brand but know nothing about it, in fact I don't think I've ever seen one before just now. And now I've seen two.

I'm pretty confident that I could design an aesthetically pleasing & functional 15-string bass, within the significant constraints of the design parameters imposed by that specification. I am similarly confident that it would be fitted with eleven strings that were never touched.

Three years ago, right here! You'd have had to fight me for it. If I hadn't missed it too.

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That's a bit rubbish. Fair enough if it'd been £300 but nearly £900 for that's a joke. It looks like a generic budget P type (check out the glued-on maple board) with Tbird pickups bodged on - I guarantee the cheap-looking surrounds are to cover chopped-out routing for the bridge unit, & the original P cutout on the pickguard. The headstock sticker's the most custom thing on offer. I think it'd be a fun & quite straightforward project to build a far more accurate replica of Pino's than this thing. I bet you could do it for a good bit less too - including getting the body properly routed & a pickguard made.

Naah! The 'Made In Italy' sticker's likely right. I think it's probably a Gherson - a quick Google for 'Gherson JB' shows a bunch of different versions, none identical but with a lot of the same details across them. I think the bridge pickup's not original, looks like a new-ish DiMarzio with those black hex poles. Looks like the tuners also may have been changed, the way the D unit's hanging off the headstock doesn't exactly look 'factory'! Do you have a neckplate pic? Anyway, I think it's pretty cool, I'm a sucker for a bound dot board on a J.

Happy birthday!!! I had no idea, but it turns out I too am a Grand Master. That's bait.

Wavy Grovers! Split pickguard! Extra tailpiece screws! Lovely example of an early 4003, and it looks pretty much unplayed!

Good score. These were broadly mid '80s - mid '90s, made in Korea by Cort, and very nice quality. Lots of P/J versions turn up but not too many single Ps around.

We don't have a guitarist, drummer or keyboard player. We never perform live. We manage to write approximately one song a year. In a good decade. Beat that.

A reverse image search chucks up a few Reverb listings & a bunch of pics from a TalkBass Skjold thread, showing 4 & 5 string Drakkars with this string anchor system. No clear pics of exactly how it works, but it does appear to be pins, similar to how guitar strings are anchored to a Bigsby trem system.

Pete's also a member of Kino, one of the many creative outlets of one-man UK prog scene John Mitchell (It Bites, Arena, Frost*, Lonely Robot, John Wetton, Karmakanic, Asia, David Cross Band etc etc...).

To be fair, if it was a 4-string (there doesn't seem to be one) & £100-odd cheaper, it could be the basis for an interesting project.