Bassassin

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.

1985 Blueshift Custom: [URL=http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Gordy%20Blueshift%20DoubleNeck/gordy01_zpszuvp8til.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1276.photobucket.com/albums/y472/LanterneRouge/Gordy%20Blueshift%20DoubleNeck/gordy01_zpszuvp8til.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Back-brace not included. Jon.

[quote name='Rick's Fine '52' timestamp='1462815618' post='3045937'] Headstock and tuners look like Jedson? [/quote] Might be the same as used on some Jedsons, but Jedson was just an importer brand. Owned by J. E. Dallas & Sons Ltd (subsequently Dallas-Arbiter), if you're interested. J.

Late 60s MIJ, possibly made by Kawai or Teisco. Jon.

What a beautiful bass! I don't usually like singlecuts, but that's a real looker, maybe the nicest SC I've seen. Superb craftsmanship & design from someone who doesn't style himself a pro builder too - might have to have a chat with Andy about a twin-neck headless fretted/fretless one of these days... Jon.

Hairdryer. It'll soften the glue & the stickers should just peel straight off. Any residue will wipe away with acetone or white spirit, neither of which will damage a polyurethane finish. Don't use a heat gun or you will take the whole finish off! Jon.

Rebranded early 80s Musima from behind the Iron Curtain - Musima or unbranded examples (which often have better quality Gotoh tuners & bridges) probably fetch £80 - £100 on a good day. With a recognised rubbish brand like Marlin on the headstock, you can probably knock about £50 off that! Probably a halfway decent old bass if he was asking about £70, they are less common & better quality than later MIK Marlins. At least he had the decency to leave the Made In GDR sticker on the head and not pretend it was MIJ. Anyway - "Guitar Garage London" - missed out a "b"? Jon.

I've always felt that if the house was on fire & I could only grab one, it'd be this: [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/CSL%20Jazz/CSLresize1_zpskufavwxd.jpg.html"][/url] I've had this for about 12 or 13 years - it's a Japanese CSL Jazz copy from 1980-ish, which I paid £60 for from a local pawn shop. When I bought it, it looked like this: [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/CSL%20Jazz/CSLoriginal%20upscale_zpswmli7jh0.jpg.html"][/url] My intention was to give it a wipe, replace the missing scratchplate, bung some new strings on it and flip it for (hopefully) 3 times what I paid - which was something I was doing a fair bit of back then. The fly in the ointment was that it was, with no restoration or setup at all, the nicest-playing bass I'd ever had in my hands. So over the years, it got a few new bits - Schaller 3D bridge, DiMarzio Model Js (period-correct, I think) and a stack knob plate. Now it sounds as good as it plays - and I think looks the part too, it's been my go-to bass for anything/everything since I got it and really makes me question why on earth I have so many others! Jon.

Missing a Lada badge.

Cort have a deservedly good reputation - never had a Cort Squier, but I've had numerous other brands built by Cort & in general they've been very good. I expect the Squiers are the same. J.

Well, if I really, really wanted a YOB bass - it wouldn't be that one. It's a bit of a bodgefest - and I cannot help wondering why a Mudbucker that's apparently been there since 1969 is so much cleaner & shinier than any other bit of metal on the bass. Jon.

I only have experience of MIK Squier guitars, not basses, but IME it depends on the factory - you can use one of the many online s/n decoders to find who made what. Early MIKs were Young-Chang builds, and were excellent quality, same as their own-brand (& now sought-after) Fenix copies. However there are some nasty Samick-era Squiers with ply bodies & dubious quality control. AFAIK this isn't the case with all Samicks but while I'd happily take a blind punt on a Young-Chang, I'd want a proper look at something from a different maker. Jon.

Never a massive fan, but as many have said, he was a spectacularly gifted musician & composer. This year's death toll's getting harder & harder to get my head around. I would not wish death on anybody - but with so many monumental bastards in the world, why does it seem that only people of true value are being taken? Jon.

[quote name='BottomE' timestamp='1461265501' post='3033178'] Yes, here it is. Sold it to a friend in 1985 and then lost contact with him. Last year he sends a Facebook friend request and asked if i'd like to have my old bass back! Its terrible to play and sounds awful but back in the day i loved it. [/quote] Looks like a cool old P copy to me - can't be sure from the pics but it's either an Italian-made Melody, or a Musima from the old DDR! These were usually pretty well-made, maybe it just needs a good setup & a decent pickup dropped in. J.

I assume most artists who are "tributed" appreciate that trib acts actually help maintain their fanbase & profile, typically in the twilight of the original artist's career. It can hardly be seen as detrimental, however you look at it. Meatloaf though - clealy a glutton for cash [i]and[/i] pies. Jon.

[quote name='Wonky2' timestamp='1461155438' post='3031928'] First amps are interesting one..... I had a huge H and H hw100 combo, as big as a washing machine and has a neon green back lit panel long before trace elliot ever existed Happy days [/quote] HH VS Bassamp! My second amp, in fact. It probably sounded like arse, but the light-up front panel made it awesome to the power of 10! My first amp was a Selmer Treble & Bass 50, flooded to death in our drummer's basement, some time around 1982, I think. As I understand it, these are worth a minor fortune nowadays. J.

[quote name='luckydog' timestamp='1460980638' post='3030309'] P- and J-Bass copies are sometimes referred to as from/before 'the lawsuit years', which AFAIK was sometime in the 70s and concerned some very good guitars from Japan. Some of them go for a decent price now and by accounts play and sound very well. Presumably the lawsuits had some basis, so some form of protection must have existed then I suppose ? LD [/quote] This "lawsuit" thing. What actually happened was that Norlin, the then-parent company of Gibson, decided to commence legal action against Elger Hoshino, the US arm of Hoshino Gakki, owner of the Ibanez brand. This was a response to the use of Gibson's trade dress headstock profile on Ibanez Les Paul copies, and other Gibson-based designs in the Ibanez range. The action commenced in June 1977, and this is the letter sent out to their dealer network at the time: [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Random/lawsuitletter_zpszdod2dkk.jpg.html"][/url] The proposed court case never actually took place, because Hoshino had changed the headstock shape of their range of Gibson copies to a non-infringing design a year earlier, in mid - 1976. The litigation was only aimed at the headstock, as the other design features were presumably regarded as generic. So there are no actual "Lawsuit" guitars - and the only ones that the term can loosely be applied to are pre '76 Ibanez-branded Gibson copies. If you're not going to be quite that pedantic, then "lawsuit era" covers that whole 1970 - 1977-ish period. Although no-one actually got sued, the whole thing stirred up the Japanese & Korean guitar industry, headstock designs were changed across the board (even lowly Hondos) and the "quality" brands ditched their copy ranges overnight. The likes of Ibanez & Aria had been tentatively marketing original designs for a few years already, and these became the mainstay of their output. Even budget brands upped their game and weren't scared of building interesting instruments that weren't US-brand clones. I suppose that was the birth of the "proper" Japanese guitar industry - budget copy manufacture moved to cheaper sources like Korea & Taiwan, and by the early 80s, everyone seemed to be playing MIJ Ibanez, Aria Pro, Yamaha, Washburn etc originals. J.