Bassassin

Not really, probably because there aren't enough names in the world. The exceptions are two of my MIJ Rick copies - the Kasuga is the Rickenbugger, while another is a bitsa which I put together from parts scavenged from various dead basses, and is (predictably) The Frankenbugger. Jon.

[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1451847199' post='2944001'] Haha You presumably only play headless Steinberger type basses Jon, in the interest of losing unnecessary wood [/quote] I have got two Steiny-type headlesses, now you come to mention it... I have a massive soft spot for Ibby SRs, had a fretted & fretless pair of SR800s in the early 90s, sold them a few years back & regretted it. Recently got a fixer-upper SR500 which I gave a Danish oil refin over Xmas - it's currently hanging by my desk drying, & I keep being struck by what a good looking bass it is every time it catches my eye... and then I see [i]this[/i] thing... J.

No. The original SR is an elegant & lightweight design and all this does is add 2lbs of unnecessary wood, and make it pig-ugly. Horrid. Jon.

It's always the money these hamfisted, artless chimps expect for this sort of misbegotten garbage that amazes me. £450? He couldn't even be arsed to buy 2x2 tuners for it. Jon.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1451587004' post='2941722'] But, here we have a bass that's just so MIJ that it's made in both the Fujigen and Matsumoku factories. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Satellite-Bass-1970s-MIJ-Through-Neck-Japan-P-Bass-P-Bass-Matsumoku-Fuji-Gen-/131687897880?hash=item1ea935db18:g:a0cAAOSwAKxWUkBH"]http://www.ebay.co.u...0cAAOSwAKxWUkBH[/url] [/quote] That'll be from when Fujigen & Matsumoku went off on holiday together. To Korea. J.

Aren't Thomann selling these for under £400? Thinking of watching this on the remote offchance it actually sells. Could be the start of a gloriously implausible business opportunity... Jon.

[quote name='Vinny' timestamp='1451643492' post='2941960'] Surely it aten't beyond the realms of machining technology to make a truss-rod changeable without major surgery? [/quote] This. I was having the exact same thought only this morning. J.

Oh, where to start? Any 2-pickup bass with Les Paul wiring. What the hell do you need a selector switch for when you can blend & mute with the volumes? Or: any bass with two volumes rather than a volume & a pan. Or even worse - a 2 pickup bass with a poxy selector switch and only one volume & tone! That's right, Ibanez RS924 - I'm looking at you. Ever wonder why you don't get gigged any more? Aside from weighing about 30 kilos? Which leads neatly to: Any bass that you need a back brace/intensive care after wearing for more than 15 minutes. Bye bye, Peavey T-40, and take your pointless selector switch & stupid fiddly controls with you. Any bass with a bridge that does not offer proper height & intonation adjustment. Double points if that bass costs more than a decent used car and the bridge bends in half within a year. Mr Hall. Any bass with Precision type pickups fitted with the E/A half towards the neck. Sorry Leo, that's the wrong way around if you want a more balanced string response. Any bass with twin coil pickups that do not have phase or single coil switching. Clear off & come back when you have a bit of tonal variety. Any bass with a symmetrical double cut body. You will be staying on the wall, looking pretty rather than having your neck supported by my left arm, because you presumably think it has nothing better to be doing. I'll probably think of a few more, in a bit... Jon.

Sad, but sadly inevitable. RIP

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1451147216' post='2938560'] Yes, he is. You're lucky these basses are made in Japan. [/quote] Well, in fairness if you want a 70s bass that looks like this, but has functional truss rods, and is assembled using glue that still holds the body wings & fretboard on - then buy a Japanese one. J.

I remember. The bad old days - and basses back then were just too damn light too. I'm sure I'd have kept my Peavey T40 if only it had had an extra 5lbs of wood between the top horn & 12th fret. What were they thinking? I cry myself to sleep over What Might Have Been... J.

One o' these: [url="http://www.rickysounds.co.uk/Bezels.html"]http://www.rickysoun....uk/Bezels.html[/url] Very sensible way of not lacerating your thumb on the sharp metal edges of the standard surround. Looks better than a bloody great hole, too. Jon.

[quote name='sprocketflup' timestamp='1450973637' post='2937555'] I seem unable to read the word 'Guiter' in my head in anything other than a Hillbilly drawl. Anyone else have this problem? [/quote] I read it (phonetically) as "gwitter". J.

[quote name='itsmedunc' timestamp='1450993710' post='2937776'] Why? [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/End-of-the-Road-Guitar-Looks-Smashed-Plays-Perfect-Road-Worn-Sunburst-Strat-/172034363620?hash=item280e0c10e4:g:RkYAAOSwLzdWTbXt"]http://www.ebay.co.u...kYAAOSwLzdWTbXt[/url] [/quote] Because there's a market for horrible, over-expensive novelty garbage, I suppose. And breaking a musical instrument is just [i]so[/i] rock 'n roll. Man. Jon.

This is what I see: [sharedmedia=core:attachments:58513] Jon.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1450872667' post='2936586'] What more do you need to know?? [/quote] What the brown goop smeared over the scratch plate is. I've had several nearly-new guiters over the years and I'm sure none of them featured brown goop smeared anywhere. Maybe my nearly-new guiters weren't as nearly-new as the sellers might have intimated. Should there have been brown goop on mine? Jon.

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1450480005' post='2933329'] Not sure what you mean by 'the same case'? It has a different colour lining and handle... [/quote] Never noticed the handle - might just be a similar shaped case then. Bass is still a Melody, though. Wouldn't bank on the pickups being DiMarzios, lots of other cream-coloured ones around in the 70s. J.

That bottom horn definitely is a bit wonky! Anyway - am I right or what? ScumTree "60s Fender": Melody 5000: Even looks like the same (presumably original) case. Jon.

Blind ones, presumably. Judging from the position markers & truss adjuster, I think that's an Italian-made Melody, from the 70s, and IMO that makes it infinitely more interesting than some poxy Fender. Would be easily worth £70 if not for the Dulux paintjob. Jon.

These are good basses but I very seriously doubt they are US-made. My money's on MIK. Jon.

Saw them in Edinburgh a couple of nights back. A quite joyous mix of virtuosity and nonsensical silliness. Bands like them exist to remind us that playing music is meant to be fun - and I've seldom seen a band so blatantly enjoying themselves on stage. Oink! Jon.

Great pics Dups - unfortunately what this does is chuck us right in at the deep-end of the confusing, poorly-documented and murky world of vintage MIJ basses & guitars - where there are very few absolute answers to anything! There are a good few Washburn oddities out there - I know this because I have one. Mine's an SB40, although some "experts" have insisted it's not, despite what it says on the pointy end. Not as rare as Dups' Force 30, but not in any known catalogue, and there aren't very many identical examples out there. Anyway - this isn't about [i]my[/i] bass... Good to get a look at the guts of the thing, glad to see it's not been messed with, apart from the pickups, which I'm 99% sure aren't standard. The P unit is definitely a DiMarzio, but not sure about the J. Does it have 2 separate coils, end-to-end? The poles look do like DiMarzio Model J types but the visible wiring is different. You find lots of random letters & numbers in various different neck pockets & routes, so no real way of knowing what that mean. Might be a daily production run number, or maybe relates to the finish - no idea, really. My bridge has the same Chushin logo: [sharedmedia=core:attachments:70307] What's interesting (well, from an MIJ nerd perspective) is that Chushin was known specifically as a hardware manufacturer before the current perception that they were a major instrument manufacturer, and it was therefore assumed that Matsumoku (then assumed to be building Washboards) bought in Chushin parts like these bridges. I may well be rambling a bit here, but It occurs to me that the current trend (backed up by no concrete evidence that I'm aware of) which assumes that any otherwise unidentified MIJ instrument is "probably a Chushin", is likely to be encouraged by Chushin-stamped hardware like this. So Chushin or Matsumoku - or someone else entirely? I dunno... Sorry about that. Just don't get me started on those tuners! J.

I'm a bit of a pretend guitarist on the side, and on balance I will always go for single coils over 'buckers when recording. Much easier to achieve brightness & clarity, and pretty much automatically leave a nice space for the bass to sit in, without having to spend ages fiddling with eq. I have a nice 80s Fenix Strat and an Aria PE with p90s which I use pretty much exclusively, even for heavier stuff. Jon.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1449926063' post='2928042'] [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vibrator-classico-Ace-of-Spades-Motorhead-classic-vibrator-stimolatore-intimo-/161835444110?hash=item25ae24e78e:g:OGwAAOSwVL1WAq60"]http://www.ebay.co.u...GwAAOSwVL1WAq60[/url] [/quote] All that silver paint really looks like it would just, erm... rub off.

Been having SR GAS pangs for a bit now, regretting having sold both of my 90s MIJ SR800s. Came very, very close to pulling the trigger on an SR300 several times. Then a somewhat beat-up SR500 came up, took a punt and got it for £87... Jon.