Bassassin

It's an apt comparison - it had occured to me but I never really thought it through. Two iconic US brands, both broadly creating quite brash & ostentatious products, with technology & design sensibilities those of a bygone era & relying on tradition & reputation (deserved or otherwise!) to maintain a niche, dedicated market. Latterly both brands succumbing to the inevitability of having to modernise their products. Just a bit, under the surface and not so's you'd really notice.

I've never owned a Rick or a Harley - however I've always loved the look & sound of Rickenbacker basses and have a number of accurate & not-so-accurate Rick copies. On the other hand, I've never wanted a Yamaha DragStar, Honda Rebel, Kawasaki Vulcan, Suzuki Intruder or any other H-D knockoff - Harleys & H-D style bikes always strike me as slightly embarrassing weekend toys for midlife-crisis bank managers & financial advisors* cosplaying as badass bikers - and in no way suited to the realities of UK roads!

*Apologies to any Harley/ cruiser-owning financial advisors. To be clear, one of my best mates is a 51 year-old IFA who rides a 1998 Honda Hornet 600. I think he quite fancies a Harley...

Never was a fan of the pointy/droopy headstock on an otherwise conventional-looking bass, just looks like a mismatched bitsa.

However - proper out-there 80s pointiness: hook it into my veins!

My first 'serious' bass was one of these:

Washburn B20 Stage. Sold it to buy something you could slap on, a somewhat less pointy Aria RSB Deluxe II.

Always had GAS for an Iceman or a Westone Dynasty. Maybe a Raider in one of the 2-tone glitter finishes.

Or an Aria ZZB in blood splatter...

The pre - Kaja Beggsy, circa 1979. Tells you all you need to know.

Kasuga EB-750 from '75-ish, if you were wondering.

Very cool-looking one-off, I'm a sucker for a stripey bass!

I've seen the same body* on a thing called a Double Eagle, made by Chushin Gakki. Probably sold with a bunch of other names, too. Double Eagle seems to have predominantly been a 70s/80s US aftermarket hardware supplier, akin to the likes of Mighty Mite & Schecter.

*Looking closely, it is the same body - check the scratches. Think I know the naughty boy who bought the Double Eagle & parted it out (and for the elimination of any doubt & possible misreading I am referring to an Ebay seller, not the OP).  And no - it wasn't me...

Things that make me wish I didn't have a very nice MM V7 and still had a fretless itch to scratch! GLWTS!

Depending on the bass, I'm quite partial to a bit of pimpage. Usually reversible, but not always. A few victims examples:

My no. 1 bass is a 1980-ish Japanese CSL Jazz copy, which I picked up for £60 from a local pawn shop 20-odd years ago:
 

Schaller 3D bridge, DiMarzio Model J pickups, stacked controls, black pearl plate & lots of T-Cut. Bought this to hose down & flip, ended up being the nicest-playing J I ever picked up, and the one I'd save in a fire.

Next - simple but effective bling on my MM V7 fretless - clear acrylic scratchplate & replacement knobs:

Still haven't ruled out reshaping the headstock to Tele-style...

This one goes beyond mere pimping into full-on butchery. Denizens of the builds folder may already be familiar with this particular exercise in nightmare fuel:

It's a cheapo Ebay thing called a Wesley Europa, picked it up for £100 brand new. neckthrough, active, 2-way truss rod, quite a nicely made thing but with a finish on the back that fell off after 2 or 3 gigs and a misconceived headstock. Languished on the to-do pile until last summer (full uncensored story here), on reflection my Laurus-esque headflap wasn't quite the aesthetic improvement I wanted, so it'll have a second appointment with the hacksaw as soon as it's warm enough to work in the garage...

Always liked these. Stylistically a little bit influenced (especially those inlays!) by the Aria Pro SB-Elite II Sarzo played:

Pretty colour, pretty eye-watering price.

Woul quite like this as an unrouted body/neck project, maybe for £150 or so. Apart from than massive housebrick heel. Why do all Chickenbackers seem to have that?

Bitsa. Borked MIJ 70s Antoria J neck on a random veneered pancake body. Blank, elongated neckplate & bridge with front screws say Korean.

Overpriced by about £120.

Thought I'd seen that before. Gets a passing mention & a pic in this thread:

Genuine rarity turning up in Crack Converters. What a world...

Even better than the real thing.

20 minutes ago, prowla said:

But is it a Satellite or a Hondo?

I gots to know!

That'll cost you £80 & a bit of sandpaper, assuming it's a refin.

On 20/12/2022 at 07:47, Chienmortbb said:

That is definitely a Matsumoku.

It's definitely not!

A bit late to the bickerfest (on holiday, not paying attention!) but Kawai Gakki was a manufacturer in its own right with a guitar making history going back to the mid 60s when they acquired Teisco's manufacturing facilities specifically for that purpose. The Fernandes Alembic copies (related but not identical) were also made by Kawai.

I suppose it's because of the prominence of the through-neck Aria Pro basses that Matsumoku is indelibly linked with all things stripy & MIJ, but every major Japanese brand/manufacturer did them (Ibby Musicians, Kasuga Scorpions & many others) and the irony is that the entire trend was 'influenced' by Alembic in the first place!

Anyway, 'nuff pedantry, absolutely delighted to see this one being given a new lease of life & the care & attention it deserves.

Cheapo early 80s Korean P copy, unless it's had a refin it's not a Satellite or a Hondo (as both were just brand names), but probably from the same factory, which was likely Samick. He's claiming it's a Satellite now (suggesting he's reading this thread), and the £80 BIN he wants for it is probably about right.

On 25/12/2022 at 07:17, Downunderwonder said:

Ricks have neck joints? News to me. 

Single-pickup 4000 series & some 4001S (same bass with an added neck pickup) had set-necks. The double-neck 4080 had bolt-on necks.

Through-neck Ricks are known to collapse & bend at the body/neck junction because of the vast neck pickup route, leading to the same effect.  They'll insist it's because of the 'wrong strings' though.

Looks like an ambitious home-build to me. Some very nice work but the detailing doesn't look pro standard.

2 hours ago, polvo said:

 

It seems like the only really positive thing you have to say about it is the inlays... and the inlays are weirdly missing from the one that's for sale! I actually made a separate post about that here: 

 

Sounds like it might not be such a great deal after all. Thanks!

 

 

I didn't realise the inlays were gone, I just assumed it was 45 years of filth and squalor!

Fair enough if it was £50 - but tbh at £150 I'd give this a swerve.

I had one exactly the same 15 or so years ago - these date from the mid 70s, were not made by Fujigen, and aren't really anything to do with Ibanez. The connection is that in the mid 70s, Cimar was distributed by Ibanez owner Hoshini Gakki, later Hoshino took ownership of the name and marketed Cimar as a sub-brand of Ibanez but this bass pre-dates that. Here's my old one:

It's a Cimar Model 1908, possibly made by Chushin Gakki, although it's not too clear where these were from. It's very similar to the Chushin-made Columbus Jazz copies, although there are enough differences to make it probable it's from elsewhere.

Fwiw I'd say £150 is a bit steep for one of these in resto condition - it's a fairly budget bass - ply body, pickups aren't great (assuming they work), the 2-saddle bridge is cheap & agricultural. Nice genuine MoP inlays, though!

There's some info about Cimar & the various Jazz type basses sold under the brand here. It's auto-translated from German.

That's proper weird 60s MIJ bizarreness! Never seen one like this before but it reminds me of this Ibanez:

And could almost be the precursor to Kawai's 80s era Moonsault:

54 minutes ago, yorks5stringer said:

Despite the 'storied' background of the UK company, that Bass looks very much of generic far eastern manufacture, it has to be at that price!

It's their company & they'll make up any stories they want!

They have 4 of these for sale, for some reason the P/J variant's significantly cheaper.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/4713/i.html?_ssn=runwayproaudio&store_name=runwayproaudio&_oac=1

5 hours ago, Machines said:

I grabbed this as it was only 20 min away from me and looked like a fun project for a few days. Needed a full stripdown, clean and setup and strings, but i've got it singing now. Interestingly I found this exact bass was in the US a couple of years ago, I've messaged the previous owner to try and find out how it got here but they haven't logged into talkbass for a while.

 

The tuners were unusable when I got it (no movement then massive jumps), but they were just overtightened, I stripped them down and reattached, they're fine now. Is it heavy ? Yes, but not quite Peavey T-40 territory. It's a solid instrument and the single pickup with 2 band EQ gets a very close Musicman vibe, albeit a little different due to a lack of humbucker. Very usable though, I'll try and stick a demo up.

 

Great score! The original 'Hercules' tuners on these were Gotohs with a heart-shaped key - if you fancied giving it a treat a set of GB10s would drop straight in.

Lovely bass! Stop me if you already know this but Tokai Gakki was one of the two factories which made Crafted In Japan Fenders from the mid 90s until 2015, the other being Dyna Gakki. The Tokai factory in Hamamatsu has a stellar reputation, going back to the replica-standard clones of Fenders & Gibsons they produced from the mid 70s onwards. Not surprised it's a good 'un.

1 minute ago, TheGreek said:

Hmmm..."keep it in the family" suggests that we should ask his brother. 

If only this thread had been posted a week or so ago - just saw him playing in Edinburgh with the magnificent Frost*. [/irrelevantproganecdote]

1 minute ago, Grimalkin said:

 

It was a bit of a trippy one, I would have forgotten all about it if you hadn't provided the flashback.

At first flashbacks are occasional, after a while they become inevitable. Eventually they're all you have.

I'm inclined to think the OP has a point.

This thread will tell you everything you need to know... or will it?

Where's @Bean9seventy when you need him?