Bassassin

Surprisingly good show - just thought it was a shame that they only aired viciously edited versions of the performances - and too many covers! Delighted to see Bombskare doing well, have seen them a good few times, they are an outrageously good & entertaining live band. Back in the early 00s my band got involved organising the live music for the Meadows Festival in Edinburgh & booked Bombskare as closing act one of the years. Mandy Clarke's a great bassist, she used to play in a 3-piece absurdist prog band called Stepdads, gigged with them a few times. Jon.

I remember these (and other Mazetis) being sold new on Ebay about 10 years back - wasn't sure about the headstock but I liked the neck construction & inlays. They were about £150, I think. Jon.

Can't help feeling £65 + postage is a bit over the odds for a bunch of low-end, unfinished parts of hit-or-miss quality. Anyone who's just motivated by curiosity about how a bass works would be better off spending £30 on a car-boot P copy and a screwdriver. Jon.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1464364147' post='3058897'] Of course! I've often seen cars advertised as having detachable wheels ... [/quote] If others had set wheels (or wheel-through), they probably would! Typically loads of the old catalogues for MIJ stuff describes bolt-necks as "detachable", that's probably where the terminology in this ad comes from. J.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1464362763' post='3058876'] [font=lucida sans unicode,lucida grande,sans-serif][color=#000000][size=4]"The Grantson had a [/size][/color][color=#ff0000][size=4][b]detachable neck[/b][/size][/color][color=#000000][size=4] and rosewood fingerboard."[/size][/color][/font] [font=lucida sans unicode,lucida grande,sans-serif][color=#000000][size=4]WTF???[/size][/color][/font] [/quote] Bolt-on, innit? J.

Absolutely ludicrous price for a pretty generic old bass. It's in cosmetically decent & original condition, I suppose, but I'd want a proper good look a this before parting with even 1/3 of what he's asking.. He talks about "binding movement" - having some experience of early 70s cheapo MIJ hollowbodies, I'd bet that this is because the body/ neck join has distorted over time under string tension, causing binding delamination as the neck is pulled forward & upward. I had a 335 guitar copy (coincidentally a Grantson) with exactly this problem. These are fully hollow, with no solid centre section to take string stresses, so this is pretty much inevitable. Noticeably, there are no pics of the damage, or any of the side of the instrument at all. Just went & did a bit of digging, and look: [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EB2-BASS-GUITAR-CHERRY-RED-CLASSIC-SIXTIES-STYLE-BASS-/252325341188"]http://www.ebay.co.u...S-/252325341188[/url] Slightly more honest ad, more revealing pics, and considerably more reasonable price! J.

Found a pic of mine, for completion's sake! [sharedmedia=core:attachments:74442] Pretty sure I sold it to a (maybe former) BCer, back in the Long, Long Ago. J.

I had one of these. OK, pretty much on a par with the more common Columbuses from the same era. If I remember, ply body, slightly weedy pickups, nicely fretted J-width (but pretty chunky) neck. Not liking the look of the back of the neck at all, otherwise I'd say £50-ish for this, in this condition. If the neck's OK it might be a quick resto, the original sunburst poly is probably still there under the rattlecan muck, if you can spare the elbow grease to get to it. J.

Loving the P/P Greco! J.

[quote name='ped' timestamp='1464169274' post='3057058'] They look great - definitely interested to hear anyone's experiences. [url="http://www.laurus.it/en/"]http://www.laurus.it/en/[/url] [/quote] Always loved the look of these - not quite sure about the little flappy paddle on the end, though... Jon.

[quote name='alyctes' timestamp='1464120487' post='3056776'] Thanks, I'll do that This year, and probably this summer - I need to work out what the electrics are supposed to do first. [/quote] Cool. I'll (probably) need to shift one or two basses myself before I can get away with any new acquisitions. Looking at the standard controls, I'd have to rewire it either without the (pointless, IMO) selector switch or with stack pots, so as long as the pups are working, the current state of the electrics wouldn't be a problem for me. J.

If you do go for it, buy a used one (not on here, obvs) - that way you won't lose money if you don't like it & sell it on. Plus, any dodgy quality issues will ether have been dealt with or can be figured into what you pay for it. Of course, the best basses of this type were made in Japan in the 70s. But technically they don't actually exist, so you can't buy them. Of course. Jon.

[quote name='alyctes' timestamp='1464044143' post='3056140'] ...and a 3002, which I will definitely sell. [/quote] Drop us a PM when you decide to move it on! I have been curious about these for a long time... J.

That's a cool-looking little bass, have to admit to not really having paid too much attention to this sort of thing. Can't help but wonder though, from the perspective simply of portability, what advantage these have over full-scale Hohner B2/ Steinberger headless designs The specs for the Gold Tone give its overall length as 34", so it's barely physically smaller. Just curious, really. Jon.

Nice! Matsumoku often used a sort of generic bass template from around 1980-ish, with the likes of various Vantages, Westburys, Hondos, Arias & Washburns typically featuring P pickup, symmetrical doublecut body, 3-piece neck, 2-a-side tapered headstock and usually a Gibbo-style 3-point bridge,. I have a Westbury Track 2 and it's very nice, I expect this is built to the same standard. One thing though - don't be surprised if the bridge is a bit "tired" - the ones Mat used seemed to be made of chrome-plated cheese and prone to doing this after a couple of decades: [sharedmedia=core:attachments:72631] That was my Westbury when I got it - fortunately modern Epiphones are a drop-in replacement. Or the likes of Babicz or Hipshot if you're feelin' a bit flash! Jon.

[quote name='alyctes' timestamp='1463521105' post='3052087'] Since this is the basis of the Brexit campaign, I consider this thread to be too political to contribute to. [/quote] Wot - this thread's really about a long-term schism within the Tory party culminating in a power-struggle between a pair of loathsome, (allegedly) pig-molesting public-school toffs? Jon.

I like that - don't think I remember seeing one of these with red binding before. None More Eighties! But good grief, couldn't he at least have run it under the tap first? Jon.

My band Maya29: [media]http://youtu.be/wwnCsXl19mw[/media] We're currently (very slowly) recording our concept album The Fifth Sun - which doesn't feature the track above. Jon.

You can make split shafts compatible with set screw knobs by packing out the split - I've used slivers of thin plastic card pushed tightly into the gap and it's perfectly stable. Superglue makes a good improvised threadlock for set-screws - use a tiny spot on the thread, and it will prevent it from vibrating loose, but is brittle enough to be easy to undo when necessary. Jon.

[quote name='three' timestamp='1463140797' post='3048935'] Stunning blueshift! Never played a double neck but being a Gordy it will be lovely [/quote] It is - the fretless neck is the best I've played. But dear [i]god[/i] it's heavy, I swear that when you open the case the room gets darker as the light gets sucked into its gravity well. J.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1463067428' post='3048292'] I'm surprised more people don't add wings to these. Take the paint off, add a couple of nice bits of wood and turn a dated design into something contemporary [/quote] Probably because the original design is eminently practical, incredibly portable and pretty damned iconic! Anyway, Hohner did exactly that & called it the Jack! J.

Not necessarily - when I was gigging mine, I made it passive-only because I found it incredibly easy to knock the active/passive micro-switch mid song, and disappear from the mix! Didn't think much of the active sound anyway, it just seemed (at least on the very early ones like mine) to be a big volume boost & prone to clipping. Jon.