Bassassin

I'm going to say Ibanez RS840BK with a replacement neck. It's not an Ibby headstock & it has a rosewood board with what appears to be position dots near the bottom edge - fretless Roadsters were all maple boards with no dots or lines, as far as I know. Control layout appears to be just 4 knobs & 1 toggle, suggesting it's a passive 800 series - but it is hard to see clearly. The black body would've been a standard finish on the 840 too. Jon.

Never played one but it's probably not dissimilar to my Westbury Track 2, same spec, factory & era. In which case, yes on both counts - fairly hefty mahogany body and shallow Precision-width neck. I'd expect it to be pretty neck-divey too. J.

£75 Matsumoku-built Hondo Pro: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hondo-Bass-Guitar-Made-in-Japan-70s-80s-Low-action-/321283739270 Original DiMarzio Model P is long-gone but still a damn good price. J.

Stupidly overpriced, both of them and the descriptions are drivel. These are Korean-made (as were ALL Satellites, no matter what Ebay "experts" pretend) and unfortunately not particularly good. I remember these when they were new, launched in about 1980 and cost £99. Quite fancied one but, little snob that I was, wouldn't have been seen dead playing anything with Satellite on the end! I had curiosity-motivated GAS for one and eventually picked up a fretted, maple-board project example off BCer Geoff Byrne. This is it after a bit of tidying: [sharedmedia=core:attachments:53512] It was monumentally heavy, neck like a club, frets were horrible (ragged ends, uneven height) and the only way to achieve an action you couldn't stick your arm under was to excavate a 5mm+ deep route for the bridge to sit in! Looks like this was necessary due to a very low/thin fretboard, so I'd assume they're all like this. Someone had had a go already so I tidied up the resulting crater a little. Construction in general was pretty shoddy - the body wings were made from lots of what looked like random bits of plank, presumably stained dark so it wasn't too obvious! If you look at the top horn in the pic you can see what looked like a hole drilled through the wood, roughly filled and varnished over! No idea what the wood is, but it ain't mahogany. I wouldn't pay more than £100 for a decent one. Actually, having had one, I wouldn't pay that. J.

That's bloody lovely! Never seen this before - although I know the Vester brand (and their historical run-ins with Fender over their logo & the Fender copies it apeared on) and have some GAS for a Vester Argus. It's good to see a take on a Jazz that's not a slavish copy, Vester had a reputation for decent quality instruments and a Platin I is now on my GAS list! Jon.

Want it. Can't afford it, can't justify it. Serious bargain, though. Is it just the pics or has that had a dubious refin? Jon.

Judging from the 6-bolt neckplate and the fretboard - the only un-repainted bit of it - it's an old Kay KB-24 P copy, and would've looked like this: I've had a couple of these - very solid, very heavy, not exactly sophisticated but perfectly useable & playable P clones. And both of mine sounded great and were very loud! Strip off the rattlecan spray job and there's probably a bit of nice-looking wood underneath. The necks are odd - ply laminate made from hundreds of thin mahogany strips. Quite common on 60s Japanese guitars (although these Kays are early 70s Taiwanese) and make for a very stiff neck. That's a good vintage plank for £30! Jon.

We played our last gig with our current drummer last night so this is a fantasy wish-list for a replacement! Gavin Harrison Mark Brzezicki Danny Carey

Clearly someone's had a go at making a copy of this: This is a guy from a Danish band called D-A-D - this bass is apparently also a 2-string home made job. Looks like it's a cover in front of the neck so it's accessible. Cant see it being particularly comfortable to play, but people sometimes do go to remarkable & impractical lengths to look like an utter gonk. Jon.

From what I know based on old catalogues & other JapCrap geeks, Maya & El Maya were both Rokkoman brands, with El Maya being the high-end copies & original designs. That said, I'm sure I've seen the same original instruments branded both as Maya & El Maya. Apropos of nothing much, am I correct in thinking that Kobe is in the vicinity of two mountains called Rokko & Maya? Maybe I just hallucinated that. I should probably get some sleep. J.

Excellent work - any chance you could translate the gist of the responses for the hard-of-Japanese? I should have mentioned that Rokkomann are still a going concern: [url="http://www.rokkomann.co.jp/"]http://www.rokkomann.co.jp/[/url] I suspect someone there might know if they ever had a factory... J.

[quote name='artisan' timestamp='1387556699' post='2313356'] ....it plays very well,it just looks a c*nt. [/quote] Archetypal spit-coffee-over-keyboard moment! If the refin's poly, chances are acetone won't do anything, but it might be worth a try. If you have a hot air paint stripper, that might soften the refin so it can be peeled off. Might take the original finish off as well so take it easy if you try that. The serial number on the neckplate of 1975 & later Ibanezes consists of a letter followed by 6 numbers. The first 2 numbers are the year so yours should be 78 or 79, which were the years the Siver Series was available. The letter refers to the month (A - January, B - February etc) and the remaining number is production number for the month. Got any pics of the bass? J.

Silver series was a bit later (serial number gives you the year, if it hasn't got one it's pre '75) and it's probable proportions were more accurate. However, I wouldn't write off the original body - copy-era Ibbys are pretty collectable & IMO best left original if possible. How has the body been refinished? If it hasnt been stripped, neat acetone (cheap off Ebay) will quickly remove a lot of shonky refins, and a bit of T-Cut is great for getting a shine back on the thick poly lacquer that's probably underneath. Jon.

We did this quite intensively a few years back - got us to various places around the UK and eventually as far afield as Prague. Unfortunately the live scene up here in Edinburgh was pretty awful at the time so the gigs we were able to offer other bands were pretty hit-or-miss. Unfortunately we'll be drummer-less from January (little sod's emigrating!) otherwise we'd be up for talking about it. Jon.

Maya was a brand owned by Rokkomann, a distributor based in Kobe. Anecdotally they owned their own manufacturing facility which was apparently destroyed in the Hanshin earthquake in 1995. I haven't found any documented confirmation of either the manufacturing plant or its demise but this is the prevailing mythology on the various JapCrap & related forums! Interestingly, if you look at Maya & El Maya branded high-end original designs, they are very unlike anything coming from the better-known factories & I feel this gives some credence to the idea of a Rokkomann factory. That said, it's entirely possible that Rokkomann outsourced to other manufacturers, like Tokai outsourced to Kasuga, but looking at this P copy I see no particular reason to think it's a Fujigen build. I'd say it's a bit of a refurb job anyway - that white/cream pup's not original & the tuners look like cheap recent ones. Seriously doubt very many 70s P copies will have original ashtrays, either. J.

Keeping it to 10 might be tricky. Dennis Dunaway Steven Severin Peter Steele Geddy Lee John Entwhistle JJ Burnel Tony Butler Nick Beggs Mark King Lemmy In no particular order. Jon.

The actual same bass or one like it? Seems to be some debate over whether the bass came from the factory with a lizard! Jon.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1386355177' post='2299295'] I'll look forward to seeing it all nice and sparkly. [/quote] Well - it's suitably sparkly now, however lacking a little structural integrity: New nut from Ebay took a little longer to turn up than I'd hoped and other projects & activities have got in the way, so it's still at the box-of-bits stage. They're very shiny & sometimes remarkably new looking bits, though: Most of it's scrubbed up seriously well - often the plating on these old MIJ instruments isn't the best, but I've had 5-year old basses with more corrosion & wear than a lot of this. The finish on the body's the biggest giveaway of the thing's antiquity - very thin lacquer with loads of chips, scuffs, cracks & wear & tear. By comparison, the neck's almost like new. Speaking of the body, turns out it's a 5-piece sandwich - 2-piece font & 3-piece back. Lazy routing's a bit disappointing but unsurprising on this sort of early pre-replica era copy. The body's very thin as well - 38mm depth. Those odd-looking pups are clearly meant to be hidden under ashtrays, but I think a couple of bits of black scratchplate plastic drilled & cut to size will tidy up the looks, sit flush with the poles & provide a thumb anchor point. Hope they sound OK, though... Anyway, looks like I'll have something to do while everyone else is Christmassing! J.

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1387356536' post='2310938'] Interesting pups Jon? [/quote] They are - seen these before on early Matsumoku J copies, and I suppose reflect the fact they're supposed to be hidden away under ashtrays. Quite a few Japanese J copies had odd-looking pups for the same reason. Anyway these are just plain brown plastic bobbins with a taped-up coil - they do look a bit grim but I'm going to cut & drill a couple of bits of black scratchplate plastic to put on the tops. Should tidy up the looks and make a more useable thumb anchor point. As yet no idea what they sound like as the bass is still in bits, but output is a healthy 7.6k for each. Hope they sound OK because I doubt there are many drop-in alternatives! J.

Shame there's not £200 knocked off the Unicorn! Still be too dear, though. J.

Gittler - I remember these were around back in the 80s. Interesting idea but surely must be weird-feeling/uncomfortable to play. Jon

Never understood the motivation to make a perfectly good instrument look like an abused, neglected, filthy, raddled piece of crap. Even less comprehension of why anyone would want to buy one! Jon.

[quote name='Steff' timestamp='1387162656' post='2308923'] Thanks guys, unfortunately while taking the time to make up my mind someone has bought it. Not surprised really, it was £30 for this one and a no-name precision type of bass... [/quote] Bugger! I think when it's that cheap, it's got to be a matter of buy now, ask questions later. Having recently missed an Atila Balogh Odyssey guitar for £30 on Gumtree, maybe BC needs a "ones that got away" thread"! J.

Looks like we cross-posted, so ta for digging up an old thread I'd completely forgotten about - I think I explained myself somewhat better back then! I'm starting to worry that I might have forgotten more than I ever knew... J.

That's twice what I'd be happy paying. Looks cosmetically tidy apart from a nasty knock on the end, so I wonder why they're trying to flog it as needing restoration? I presume the electronics might be a bit fried. Shame, it's a lovely looking thing. And it's pink! J.