Bassassin

18 hours ago, ped said:

Super cool. I think I’ve seen and admired that body shape before (albeit a singular necked instrument). Guessing the controls are shared by both sets of pickups and switched by the toggle in the centre?

 

I think it makes more sense having the fretless on top, but some are the opposite. 

The controls (if I remember!) are separate for each neck, 2x master v & t, & 3-way microswitch pickup selector. Plus a toggle to switch between necks. Always thought co-axial volumes would be a good upgrade, so you could blend the pickups.

The necks/scales are identical so it would be easy enough to swap them - fretless on top suits me so I never tried.

It's as well-made as you'd expect from a hand-crafted bass, & the fretless neck is especially nice - but  it's a slightly cumbersome & very, very heavy lump! It did get me to the point of starting to design what would be my ideal fretted/fretless twin-neck, basically by listing the things I don't much like about this!

I've got this. Bought it for my now-defunct prog band, where fretless would've been nice in parts of a couple of songs. Sadly hasn't been out of its case in several years!

It's a 1985 Gordy Blueshift, and was a one-off, as far as I could find out.

Bloody hell! Looks like a horribly modded manufactured neck fitted to a home-bodged body. I'm guessing the neck must have a tenon sitting in a slot in the body, & the screws that actually hold it together are hidden under the neckplate.

Nice bridge & tuners though, I guess...

Always liked Antigua, but then, I have no taste. Quite relieved there's no Jazz. And I definitely don't need another Strat. Do I?

On 11/04/2024 at 15:29, neepheid said:

Yay, snotburst!

That's no SnotBurst! This is SnotBurst - or more accurately, SnotGlo.

19 hours ago, fergs40 said:

This very guitar, or one very similar, has just appeared on the BC classifieds: 

 

 

I bought a MIJ Mk3 new in 1987 and still have it - mine only has one toggle switch, the back of the neck is body coloured and the battery compartment cover is completely different, though. 

 Yep, it's the same bass as the Ebay one!

Yours - MIJ, 1987 - would have been the last Matsumoku version before the factory closed that year. This one's '88 so almost certainly Korean, probably using most of the original hardware/electronics from the Japanese production, with the body & neck being MIK. That would account for minor differences.

23 hours ago, prowla said:

An interesting interpretation of a Riverhead interpretation of a Flyte on eBay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185840185516

That's been up for a while, think it's been discussed here too. Originally made for Matt Pegg, son of Dave (Fairport Convention) - Dave loved his Riverhead Unicorn so much he wrote a song about it!

On 03/04/2024 at 13:13, LeftyJ said:

 

The bass in your example is a Stingray Shortscale though 

Bugger! Where's me specs?

Not seen the bass before, I first saw the guitar version reissue a year or two ago.

These probably don't have a great deal in common with the original Watkins instruments - I had a Rapier 33 guitar, which had no truss rod, home-made pickups, an odd plastic coating instead of paint & switchgear 'borrowed' from a Morphy-Richards hairdryer. The reissue is £470 - mine was £6 from the car boot!

They've made a decent job of replicating the look of the originals - although the 24 fret, block inlay neck on the bass doesn't quite look 'right', to me.

7 hours ago, Geek99 said:

I’ve seen a very petite lady playing a full sized p bass and doing it very well; it can be done

I'd think this young lady not being hampered by a 34" scale & 42mm nut is worth showing to any young bassist!

4 hours ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

I have two of those. Great basses very rock n roll. I might have one up for sale soon as I really don't need two.

I had an idea someone on here had one! But two, you say? One for me & one for Ms. @MuddBassthen! Sorted!

1 hour ago, ezbass said:

I think we have a winner from a looks perspective.

To be fair, that's why I want one.

This is what she wants:

Daisy Rock Stardust Elite. Unfortunately, so do I, so she'll have to fight me for it.*

*Spoiler - she'll win, no bother.

4 hours ago, TheGreek said:

It was a 4 string Ibanez with a humbucker - TBH I haven't even played it - mostly (when I actually pick up a bass) 5ers now.

 

 

It's an Aria STB-GT, basically a mashup of a Stingray, a P shape Aerodyne body & a Jazz neck. I managed to blag one for £99 back when it was a current model. I think list was £250-odd back in 2007 or so.

The G4M 'version' looks like a steal at £150 - I'm actually relieved there isn't a PJ or JJ version - don't need any more impulse purchases!

That's not a Mats serial or any MIJ that I'm familiar with, and if it's as clearly dateable as it looks, this is post-Matsumoku (the factory closed in 1987) and 99.9% likely to be (as the guy says) a Korean-made Thunder 1A.

MIK Westones are pretty uncommon compared to MIJ, & I don't think I've seen a Korean Thunder 1A before.

5 hours ago, prowla said:

It certainly looks oarful.

Where's the groan emoji when you need it?

I'd like to think that saved someone's life in a flood.

On 22/03/2024 at 09:32, lemmywinks said:

Was getting a bit paranoid about the pickup in this as apparently it was also available with an in house Dimarzio clone which has cream coloured covers, the pole pieces take a 0.9" (translates to 3/32") or 2.3mm hex key, I take it these are legit pickups?

 

@Bassassin prob best just tagging you to save time really!

Sounds right - DiMarzios are imperial, anything MIJ/MIK & hex-poled will be metric, them's the rules! If you pop it out the wiring should be black/white/red/green - I don't think any Japanese units used that.

If you're lucky it might even have PAF stickers...

1 hour ago, itsmedunc said:

I wouldn’t have sat on that toilet seat 😳

You wouldn't have what on it?

That's actually pretty cool. I do think I'd have made that centre section broad enough for a proper intonatable bridge, less precarious string retainers & a bridge pickup, though. Wonder why they didn't?

The bendy bridge is another thing that points to Matsumoku - loads of Mats basses from that late 70s/early 80s era had these & they all seem to be made of cheese. This is the one that was on my Westy Track 2 when I got it:

I've never played an SR300, but have owned a few other versions of the Soundgear (there have been dozens - the range goes back to the late 80s!) and they tend to be very good basses, particularly if you get on with a narrow neck.

What's interesting about the SRs is that for some reason they've always had a pretty low re-sale value, which means you'll very likely be able to find a used model from higher up the range for the same sort of price as a new SR300.

2 hours ago, Maude said:

As an aside, there's Honda II and Aria Pro II, is there Hondo I and Aria Pro I, or was it marketing to make the sound more advanced? 

I've never been entirely sure 'Hondo II' was actually a thing. The logo started appearing on Hondos from the early 70s & I'm inclined to think the part that looks like a Roman numeral is (or at least was originally) just a bit of the design, but it sort of stuck as a name. Later Hondos have a couple of different logos that don't have a number.

Aria Pro II was a rebrand/update of the Aria brand, so the Pro II bit was meant to suggest improvement/advancement - although unlike Hondo (a US brand originally owned by International Music Corp) it's proper Japlish & therefore borderline inexplicable. The Aria & APII brands continued side-by-side & have been known to appear on the same instruments, so it's anyone's guess. The parent company is Shiro Arai Co, so at least you can see where it started!

Steal. Probably Matsumoku - my Westbury Track 2 has that style of plate & apparently those were all Mats. Pickup almost certainly a DiMarzio (stick a hex key in a pole piece, should be Imperial so metric won't fit) and worth the price on its own.

I love the fact that deals like this still come up.

On 07/03/2024 at 20:48, Mickeyboro said:

Mick was a really good bass player who certainly impressed me.

 

Fly Guitars - an excellent resource - did an interview with him which explains the genesis of this instrument.

 

https://www.flyguitars.com/interviews/mickhawksworth3.php

That's a really interesting read. In its own way, this weird/hideous bass is a proper bit of UK music history, as is its original owner. It should be restored & stuck in an (unfortunately non-existent!) museum!

Conditional recommendation for Streetshirts here - I've used them for band, work & novelty stuff for years. For the most part they're very good considering how inexpensive they are but print durability is variable & I've had a few average-quality prints too.

The design interface is OK for upoading completed artwork but it's important to enter the actual size you want the the design to be, not what it looks like on the screen. Not sure how it will handle the OP's (excellent!) artwork but what's good is that a one-off with a single front print is £17 delivered, so not too much of an outlay for a sample. There are significant reductions for bulk & they'll print on any colour shirt.

2 hours ago, madshadows said:

 

Anyone else notice the upside down Ricky style body on the bass in the background  😛 

 

John 😎 

It's a Musicvox Momo 8-string.

Or is it?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305054963788