Bassassin

Yeah. It's one thing to look at as pic & go "that's actually pretty cool", and quite another to own it on a bass that probably costs more than most people's cars. You'd have to [i]really[/i] like it.

[quote name='Naetharu' timestamp='1439068836' post='2839810'] Do I win? [/quote] I like it. But I am wrong in the head.

Oh - most highly jealous! I've had masive GAS for a Flashback for years. Best looking bass Warwick ever made. Jon.

I'd give it a throrough sanding to get the wood colour as even as possible, while leaving the black that's penetrated the very open areas of the grain. Then I'd lacquer or oil it. Jon.

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' timestamp='1438949150' post='2838893'] Yes! As long as it looks ok . Can't see if hthe front has been modified ,as I m using iPhone [/quote] It's just weirdy reflections. Pic 3 shows the front more clearly & it looks spotless. J.

+1. Would, definitely. Jon.

That's cool, whatever it is! Not sure it's worth £150+ though, by his own admission the pickup's crap, and the neck (hopefully just a result of the camera angle) looks alarmingly twisted. And why's it strung with guitar strings? Jon.

[quote name='FlatEric' timestamp='1438930517' post='2838686'] Someone get that Ibanez. . . . . Quick! Great bass!! [/quote] Definitely is - it's an RS924, I have a near identical one & I'd say £250 is a good price. A couple of minor mods which might bug the purist (guilty!) though. Original cast brass trc has been swapped for a bit of wood, as has the steel plate over the neck bolts - this is an early one with the "Quadra-Lock" neck fitting, ie machine screws/threaded inserts. The proper cover should be black with white printing & stamped Fujigen s/n. Might've had one owner since new but I don't think that's who's selling it - unless they happily carted it around for 35 years with its "maple stalk" poking out of a cheap acoustic gigbag. That SD Curlee's interesting too, they don't turn up too often. For a moment I thought it might be a US-made original (in which case it would be a bargain) but I'm pretty sure it's a licensed Hondo. Shame there's only the one low-res pic... J.

I think that big-nosed guy out of Rush might be looking for a gig just about now. Plus he did base his early career on sounding ever-so-slightly exactly the same as Mr. Squire, which might help. Jon.

[quote name='chriswareham' timestamp='1438631356' post='2835976'] I find the style of bridge on them quite appealing - looks like the ones on old Gibson basses. [/quote] Good to see the bridge is in one piece. The 3-pointers on Matsumokus of from this era have a disconcerting tendency to collapse under string tension - I've seen/read about a good few which have done this, including my Westbury Track 2: [sharedmedia=core:attachments:45688] Pickup underside & wiring suggests it's not a DiMarzio (should be green/white/red/black), but you'd have to do the pole-piece check to be certain. J.

It's a Cort, made in Korea around 1980-ish, almost certainly originally badged as Kay for the UK market. It's missing its original "Kay" logo'd brass trc. I had one of these - build on a par with a lot of midrange MIJ from the same period, hardware a bit more rough & ready. Unfortunately mine had a neck twist so I didn't keep it - if it had been a better player I might well have hotrodded it with better quality parts. Wouldn't ming picking up another one day - some of the attention to detail was lovely,particularly the brass triple-dot inlays, which looked great after a bit of elbow grease! [sharedmedia=core:attachments:35073] Definitely worth a look, if it's decent then £120 is probably about right. I wouldn't pay much more, though. Jon.

[quote name='wotsy' timestamp='1438468449' post='2834792'] Tokai Hard Puncher, advertised as an 80's Japanese Bass......... [url="http://www.cashgenerator.co.uk/product-bass/tokai-hard-puncher-bass-guitar-red-w211146"]http://www.cashgener...tar-red-w211146[/url] [/quote] Definitely 80s MIJ - looks like the PJ48 from this '86 catalogue, only more red: Not really that big on old Tokais, but £350 seems like a lot. Particularly considering it's Crack Generator. J.

He should post on here. With that level of obsessive-neurotic, anorakist fixation, he'd fit right in. Plus there's a whole universe of vintage MIJ he needs educating about... Jon.

About 6 years ago I had an A-serial ('85/'86) MIJ Squier P for £30 off Scumtree, plus a nice strap & stand. It was very, very nice after a good cleaning & fettling, but I'm not much of a P user, so it just sat there. Eventually sold it on here, for a few bob more than I paid... J.

In a moment of prog madness last year, I acquired this: It's a Gordy Blueshift custom, made in Manchester in 1985. Now, my excuse is that I play in a prog rock band, & some of our more extended compositions have passages I'd love to use a fretless for. The reality is that this thing, while being utterly amazing, is so heavy it has its own atmosphere and my back goes out when I'm in the same room as it. It's also quite awkward to play strapped on, because the necks are exactly parallel & set quite wide apart. However it sounds, plays & looks great, and I'm sure I'll use it one day. Probably after having a steel rod inserted into my back. Owning this has made me think quite seriously about what a genuinely practical & useable fretted/fretless twin neck would be like, and at some point in the future I do want to sit down with a luthier & kick some ideas around. Headless, small-bodied, necks close together, staggered and set at slightly different angles - I'm thinking along the lines of the sort of thing Prosebass used to do - maybe even 32" scale... Anyway - I've never wanted a bass/guitar doubleneck, and have always thought it was curious that they're so common. The only use I can think of for one is to make it easier to show one's guitarist how to play something correctly. I'd never actually do this, but only because I know if I did, him & the drummer would gang up on me & force me to play [i]Xanadu[/i]. Jon.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1437672337' post='2828124'] Well smoke my kipper! That still looks more like a shaft than a switch to me, but I learned (a LONG time ago) not to argue with Jon. [/quote] Well - I guess I must know a shaft when I see one, ooer missus etc.

The blurb says this: [quote][font=Arial][size=2]I took E string out and I moved A-D-G strings one level-up. Finally, I put C string to the bottom line. Technically, I played baritone style[/size][/font][/quote] So light string gauges & insufficient string tension probably means neck back-bow & fret rattle/choking - hence the bit of snot-rag in the G slot, to raise the height a bit. I suspect the weird stringing is because the D (originally the G) is cut too short to reach the tuner.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1437662043' post='2827976'] They were sold with a knob missing? [/quote] No - 3 knobs & a selector switch! New specs, Jack? [quote name='kodiakblair' timestamp='1437664346' post='2828008'] Just to confuse matters more check these 2 B-200's [/quote] The 'burst finish is possibly an SB-40, quite a lot like mine! I say "possibly" because Washburn (or more specifically, Yamaki & Matsumoku) produced a lot of variations of this model, with different electronics, control layouts & pickup positioning, with various different model numbers. The Washburn forums do produce a lot of conflicting binary opinions, which can have some quite aggressive defenders. There's a BC thread from a few years back, in which an American Washburn "expert" appears to have signed up here specifically to take me to task for describing my SB-40 as an SB-40, despite the fact it clearly says "SB-40" on its trc. Weird.

[quote name='kodiakblair' timestamp='1437610475' post='2827616'] Couple of the fellas on the Washburn owners group say it was never sold in the USA but it's definitely early 80s Japan. They'd been in touch with seller for serials and more photos,it's an LP-40 or sometimes called a B-200 model One of them worked for Washburn at the time and says they're ultra rare,he's never played one though Want to ask if they can give a year Jon ? Might help add a piece to the Japanese Bass Building puzzle. [/quote] Did a bit of digging based on the model number, the bass is a Washburn B200, and it's early 90s, meaning not MIJ, so probably Korean. It's refinished and the original hardware swapped for crap, by the looks. Might've looked like this before it was "upgraded": There's also a pic of a solid blue-finished one in [url="http://www.washburn.com/media/catalogs/pdf/Washburn1993ElectricsCatalog.pdf"]this '93 catalogue[/url] (if you can be arsed waiting for the .pdf to load), where it's being presumably endorsed by an amusingly dressed man with a silly name, from a band with a similarly silly name. Anyway - not MIJ, not '80s - and because I am a dignified sort of person, I'll refrain from saying "told ya so!". J.