Bassassin

That Wilkes has been a beautiful bass, and could be again, with some tlc and a pro refret. Would like to hope someone here will get it & bring it back to life.

Here's an idea. Don't buy a Rick. Buy a good condition 70s MIJ copy and get everything that's cool about a Rickenbacker with none of the downsides: A truss rod that works! A finish that doesn't change colour and fall off! No association with John Hall! And all for less than 25% of the price of a new 4003. I'd recommend the Shaftesbury branded copy - still lots of them around, very robust and accurate (some MIJ basses were neither!) and pretty much indistinguishable from the real deal. And if you don't like it, you'll get your money back, no bother. Just don't go thinking you can buy one on here...

[quote name='Skybone' timestamp='1496871758' post='3314482'] Or is that a capital "I"? Ibanez serial numbers at the time are Month Letter then Year then 4 digit serial no., so that would make it September 1978, No. 6932. [/quote] Ha!

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1496869340' post='3314457'] s/n 1786932 and a gold Made In Japan sticker just beneath. [/quote] That'll be I (the letter) 786932. Meaning your bass was the 6932nd instrument produced at Fujigen Gakki in September 1978. Probably one of the last ones.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1496856778' post='3314345'] I wonder which model the Ibanez I had in my teens was? It was through-neck and had the fake mudbucker, but the inlays were greyish and not sparkly. [/quote] Maybe some sort of transitional 2388B/DX - I've seen pics of examples with mix & match pickups, probably just using up stocks of parts. Ta for the pic Bluejay - Jack's looks like a late-ish 2388B/DX - does it have a serial number on the headstock? Interesting that it doesn't seem to have the 1" pickup spacing I mentioned - not seen one like this before.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1496838813' post='3314192'] So if mine is a 1970s Ibanez with a sort-of Toaster pickup and a through neck, does that make it a 2338? And is a 2338b the same but with a bolt-on neck? [/quote] In Ibanez-speak, 2388 is the model number & sort-of defines the "range" - a plain 2388 is a guitar, copy of a Rick 480. Therefore, a 2388B is the bass "version", and yours, being a through-neck, is a 2388B/DX! Simple! The 2388B changed quite a bit over its life, early ones having big Gibson-type pickups (presumably because there weren't any Hi-Gain & Toaster copies at the time) and full-width sparkly inlays like 60s/early 70s 4001s. Later ones had small inlays & replica pickups, and even had the 1" pickup gap like later 4001s, which I don't think any other MIJ copy did. All of them kept the checked binding though. Have you posted any pics?

[quote name='Number6' timestamp='1496790315' post='3313928'] How does the quality of current Chi-Fakers compare to the 70s/80s Japanese ones? [/quote] I think many of them seem to be decent enough quality but as far as accuracy's concerned, they're not that close. The MIJ instruments were often built to replica standard, with identical hardware, very closely copied pickups and the correct scale & neck dimensions - there's not a single modern copy that does any of this. This is an interesting head-to-head between a Chicky & a real 4003 - the Chinabacker comes out surprisingly well: [media]http://youtu.be/EiP_yqMtL_A[/media]

The frets look like they've been levelled but not re-crowned. Bit lazy, & that will affect the intonation slightly.

Bizarre decision to list it as a BIN - anyone see this similarly listed Ibanez MC924 Musician? [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222527120318"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222527120318[/url] Seller plainly has no idea what it is, but put it on as a no-reserve auction. I think they'll be pleasantly surprised by the result.

Bloody hell - never spotted that, I'm assuming it wasn't up for long! Don't know too much about these but I'd guess that's about 1/4 of its value!

[quote name='Skybone' timestamp='1496438138' post='3311523'] Wasn't Westminster a Matsumoku brand? [/quote] I think so - the few Westminsters I've seen have been Mats, and I've read that it was a Matsumoku domestic market house-brand. Might turn out not to be, though!

[quote name='prowla' timestamp='1496085875' post='3308691'] Westminster. [/quote] Now that's a possibility I didn't think of - Westminster was a Japanese domestic brand but small quantities could've been imported privately. I thnk that's how Grecos got sold outside Japan.

It does look to me like a generic P copy with a slightly differently shaped scratchplate & headstock. But as with all unidentified instruments, working out anything at all about it depends predominantly on clear and detailed pictures. Really can't tell much from this, beyond what I've just said!

I have a bass listed at the moment - using their handy-dandy fee calculator app, it's still 10%. Hard to avoid the temptation of loading the BIN to reflect that.

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1495965291' post='3307767'] On the other hand, he did play on this: [/quote] I didn't know he played on that! Met Jayne/Wayne County a few years back. I was in a band with a trans guitarist/vocalist at the time, Jayne seemed to feel a bit threatened, which was a shame.

The seemingly intentional exclusion of particular musical genres is the only gripe I have about the show. As I've mentioned before, while there's seldom (pretty much never) anything that's "my" sort of music, I always find a lot to enjoy and it exposes me to a lot of good music I would otherwise not encounter. I even quite like Jools, obsequious little tit that he is. Could do without his rinky-dink piano antics, though. Re: metal - Metallica have been on twice. And... err... that's it.

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1495884025' post='3307315'] Jools is from the punk era. Sniffy contempt was the absolute minimum reaction to prog rock about that time. [/quote] Jools/Squeeze were about as punk as Boyzone, but that's what I mean. You'd think that 40+ years on, he'd have worked out that 99% of that attitude was just Malcolm McLaren-esque posturing. Other than being a Guild, no idea what bass Sheryl was playing. Ugly as sin & sounded horrible. The bass, I mean...

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1495829818' post='3306981'] Why do you reckon though Jon? [/quote] Aside from perhaps a sort of stuck-in-1979 sniffy contempt for the genre, I genuinely have no idea.

[quote name='throwoff' timestamp='1495794168' post='3306628'] Does the swear checker really get triggered by sw***y? Edit - Blimey! It does! [/quote] It's gonna hate w***el Rotary Engine, then.

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1495620132' post='3305297'] Why he's not had an act like Big Big Train on by now completely mystifies me. [/quote] Because you can count the number of prog artists that have been on Jools on the fingers of one stump.

I remember these from back in the day, really interesting concept and design. Liked it then and I still do.

It's a generic plywood or butcher block copy body - it's absolutely not 1969 because no such thing existed in 1969.

First picked up a bass in '78 - I was 15/16, listening to punk/new wave and the uglier end of heavy rock at the time. But it was going to my first-ever gig, a local pub-rock act called The Warm Jets, that made the real difference. I came out deafened, sweaty and smiling, going - I wanna [b]do[/b] that. Me & my two mates formed a band as we walked home, deciding who would play what - I chose bass because I was a Stranglers fan. Funnily, we all got involved in bands subsequently but never actually played together.