Bassassin

Missed this thread at the time but I've had a few Satellites over the years and done a bit of research about them. Satellite was FCN music's low-end brand, they also owned the mid-range Columbus and the high-quality Kimbara brands. As far as I can tell all Satellites were Korean-made, at a time whan Korean quality was universally poor. I've owned a Satellite Jazz, Precision, Geoff Byrne's old neck-through P and two Les Pauls (there may be others I've forgotten) and they were all poorly made & finished and most had issues which compromised their useability. Out of that lot the bolt-neck P was a nice, playable bass, and one of the LPs was OK - apart from the dreadful pickups - but both suffered from extremely shoddy construction. Like all cheapos, I'm sure there were a few good ones, but back in the 70s/early 80s when these were around, quality control at this end of the market was practically non-existent. Satellite as a brand has a poor reputation which in my experience is pretty much justified. I'd say walk away from anything priced over £50, and be very, very sceptical about what's left! Jon.

[quote name='ash' timestamp='1393502867' post='2381048'] Well he contacted me and said 'cash and pickup only sorry' so unless anyone here fancies picking it up for me from Glasgow and posting it to Lancaster I'll pay them for it........ [/quote] Amazed it's still there! If you get it, will you have a go at fixing the broken bit of headstock? It should look like this: Looks like it should be straightforward enough - a donor Fender-shape head would provide the missing bit. Still tempted by this myself - but I'd never play it, I'd just gyppo-flip it for profit, because I'm a bad person. J.

Pretty sure it's not a Kasuga - I'd expect checked binding & a toaster style neck pup with some very fancy routing. As with a lot of these, it's easier to say what it's not than what it is - so this definitely isn't either a Matsumoku or a Fujigen build. I've said in the past that the problem with 70s copies is that a lot of them do tend to look very similar and there are a lot of Fakers at the higher end of the food chain (solid timber bodies, through-neck construction, accurate hardware & pups) where it's really hard to identify them. Basses branded Shaftesbury, CMI, Cimar, Fresher, Maya, Arbiter etc all fall into this category & so far I'm at a loss to say which factories actually made them. Jon.

Antoria Black Eagle - with an Ibanez logo on it this is pretty much the Holy Grail of 70s JapCrap basses, and you could expect to get £500-odd for it, even with the broken headstock & general dilapidation. With an Antoria logo (it's otherwise completely identical) it would fetch a little bit less, but this is still ridiculous bargain of the decade. I'm in the unfortunate position where I really do need to downsize the hoard of basses & guitars I'm sitting on, so I passed this up a couple of days ago when it first appeared. I would imagine it's now long-gone, but I'm sure you'll see it on Ebay very soon. Jon.

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1393445791' post='2380482'] Quest bass - anyone know anything about these? Looks like a Washburn Force 4 with a Westone Spectrum neck. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291089571490?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649"]http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1423.l2649[/url] [/quote] Well - Quest is a Vantage sub-brand, and early Vantages (and Quests) were Matsumoku-built. There's a Quest catalogue [url="http://www.matsumoku.org/models/vantage/catalogs/atak-manhattan/catalog_th.html"]here[/url] and this looks like it [i]might[/i] be the model Q-B, although it's kinda hard to tell! If anyone wants to sell me a Manhattan M-3BZ I'd be very willing to re-engage with my "problem"... J.

Stunning. Can't help wondering if the timber provides enough straight grain to be strong enough for a neck, though. Jon.

[quote name='noelk27' timestamp='1393375722' post='2379627'] Safer to just offer them crack. It's less addictive! [/quote]Quite correct, although I seem to be doing OK with my own dependency issues. I walked away from that Black Eagle (which was still available when I enquired) with only some minor shaking and only a brief panic attack. It's important to remember no addiction is ever beaten, and recovery lasts a lifetime. J.

Tell me about it. Within collecting distance for me but unsurprisingly it's all over the web (someone on FB gave me a heads-up yesterday) and is bound to be long gone by the time I get organised. Still, as I said, I need to be shifting stuff rather than buying more. Anyone want some JapCrap? J.

Too late again. That Pantera was gorgeous for £130, I would have had no choice... Probably a good thing I missed it - I seriously, urgently, need to downsize. J.

[quote name='Musky' timestamp='1393230485' post='2377476'] Pictures are fine Jon, as is discussion of fakes. It's just links to any ads that are banned. [/quote] Thanks - suddenly got cold feet over all the hot JH action I missed while I was gone! Here it is, then: [sharedmedia=core:attachments:35315] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:35316] J.

Sorry Eric, sadly I missed it too. Seiwas were made by Chushin, weren't they? Chushin's come up on the Facebook JapCrap guitars group & I couldn't remember if they made Seiwa. J.

Genuine fake knockoffs of the 4004LK do exist: [i]*pics deleted for fear of The Wrath Of Hall*[/i] That turned up on Fleabay about 5 years back, around the time those rather sexy Bach copies were around. It was brand new & not all that dear. Jon.

Doubt it's JapCrap, looks too recent. Still probably worth £50-odd for the case & parts, even if the bass turned out to be junk. Jon.

Sweet - I had 2 SR800s at one point, and have residual GAS for another. You won't be surprised to hear that one was in my watched items! I think it's a great colour! Jon.

Same person's also selling a Vintage brand fretless - looks like the back of neck pic is of that bass. Got his pics mixed up, I suppose. Jon.

Fretted/fretless headless twin neck makes sense to me. Sadly £800 doesn't! Jon.

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1393098245' post='2376238'] Satellite P Basses often come up on eBay though prices can vary considerably... [/quote] Usually highly overpriced, should be avoided at any price. Badly built early Korean-made driftwood tat. Jon.

Wish I could help but I'm not too clued up on acoustics. "Yama" isn't ringing a bell, but in addition to Yamaha there was also Yamaki (related to Daion) and Yamato (prob. an importer rebrand) so it's not impossible it could be related somehow to one of these brands. It's equally possible that it was an importer trying to use a familiar-sounding name for a product - same as the Isonez, IBZ & Gerrinez brands and (perhaps more even more obvious) Founder & Fresher! Just guesswork, so hopefully Noel will be along with some proper facts! Anyway it's a very pretty box, and £60 for a decent guitar is a steal, whoever made it. Jon.

It's said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and having skimmed this thread I'm now quite content to accept that the incompetence that I put into my bass gets turned into music by the fairies. Jon.

Nicest looking bit of plywood I've seen in a long time - possibly ever! Most old Eastern European stuff is as crude & weird as that other bass, but I really like this! £328 is a bit steep, though. Jon.

This is a 60s era Japanese bass, it has specific hardware (pickup & tuners) which I've seen used on Teisco & Kawai instruments. It's not consistent with any Teiscos listed [url="http://www.mark-cole.co.uk/teisco/"]here[/url] but it is similar to several & this is far from an exhaustive resource. Musky might be right about Guyatone, who were a major Japanese manufacturer of the same era. The name on the headstock probably won't link it to any particular manufacturer - a huge proportion of what was exported from Japan was sold under importer/distributors' own brands. Try asking on the forum at [url="http://www.vintaxe.com/phpBB3/"]Vintaxe.com[/url] - either the Japanese or Unknown Origin boards - chances are someone will have seen this bass before. Jon.

[quote name='MB1' timestamp='1392486780' post='2369357'] MB1. I have a feeling it will be remaining Local. [/quote] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/229533-aria-pro-2-sb-special-2-mij-1982/page__view__findpost__p__2366064"]It'd be nice to think the first person to ask might get first refusal...[/url] J.

I killed a couple of my early starter basses but the only properly worn-out one is my Aria RSB Deluxe 2. Bought new in 1984, my only gigging/recording bass up until 2000, permanently strung with Roto Swing Bass, so the frets were ground to nothing by 1986! Retired when the neck developed a twist so bad it now resembles an Archimedes Screw - I've been looking for a replacement neck for 14 years now, would love to revive it. The body's still in great cosmetic condition, just a couple of knocks & a bit of corrosion/wear on the bridge & pups. Jon.

Captain Predictable to the rescue! Of very little, as the question's already answered - generic 70s J pups typical of Japanese and Korean copies from that era. I assume they made these round-ended because it was quicker & easier to do the crude round-ended routes they got fitted in. Also all the J copies back then had ashtrays, so they weren't really designed to be seen. Never seen 3-wire examples of these, but I have seen this on other old MIJ single coils, extra wires are additional grounds. Doubt if these will turn out to be twin coil but I wouldn't rule it out - they won't be potted so the covers should come off with a bit of careful encouragement. Jon.