Bassassin

I still think that [b]IF[/b] it's structurally OK under all the crap, and [b]IF[/b] the electronics are a straightforward fix, then it's just about worth £400. Personally though I wouldn't touch it without having a good, proper look at it. J.

[quote name='SlapbassSteve' timestamp='1389061166' post='2329543'] Weren't Satelite basses made by the same people? Horrible things. Amazed they trade hands for so much money nowadays. [/quote] Satellite was imported by the same company (FCN Music in Tonbridge) but they were Korean-made and a lower priced, even cheaper & nastier range. Columbus was FCN's middle range, with the very nice quality Kimbara brand at the top. J.

What they said! Hoshino Gakki (parent company of Cimar & Ibanez) sourced from several factories, not sure who made Cimar but Ibanez came from Fujigen. The factories supplied stock shots of the instruments so the same pics of the same unbranded instruments turn up in catalogues for various different brands - eg find an old Antoria catalogue and the pictures are the same as Ibanez for the same year. Jon.

Some of the later ones were Japanese-made and very nice - Flat Eric on here has one, I believe. However, a lot of them - most, in fact - were Korean-made in the early/mid 70s, at a time when Korean instrument manufacture was not good at all. With these, expect a ply body, ultra-cheap hardware/electrics and potentially dodgy fret work. These often turn up for well under £100 on Ebay. Any chance you can grab a pic of the one you're interested in? The different models are easy to ID from components & headstock design. Jon.

Dunno where the OP got the idea that Columbus were made by Matsumoku. Ebay experts, perhaps? Anyway, they absolutely weren't. Not sure who did make them - maybe Rokkomann/Maya but definitely not Mat. I've had a few and none of them were ply - bodies tended to be veneered butcher-block - not great quality but a step up from ply. Clear finish ones were decent solid timber. Not great basses but not awful - like most lowish-end 70s JapCrap a decent setup will address most issues - I guess back then most of us just played them straight out of the box. The weedy round-end pickups were another matter - not surprising a good few turn up with DiMarzios fitted. Jon.

[quote name='The Admiral' timestamp='1389032681' post='2329091'] The benefit of 'starter' instruments that are of a quality unimaginable 35 years ago, and Internet based 'monkey see, monkey do' lessons perhaps. [/quote] I think you have a point - usually the songwriting's nowhere near the standard of the musicianship, and a lot of young bands seem to slavishly imitate their heroes rather than take inspiration from them. I wonder if the lower level of technical ability back in the day meant we had to be more creative because we lacked the technique to imitate the bands we wanted to be. J.

[quote name='warwickhunt' timestamp='1388918255' post='2327524'] Doesn't deserve to sell that for the glaringly obvious mistake this time! [/quote] What - that she's still too lazy to post it? That was the only real mistake first time around. Jon.

There were quite a few of these floating round Ebay 5 or so years ago. I like headless basses & looked into these because they do look good. The unintentionally hilariously named Bell & Head are, I think a German brand, and these basses were a lot cheaper new - closer to the €200 mark. From the prices I assume they were Chinese or Taiwanese - made. I never got around to getting hold of one, and now do wish I had - I'd forgotten what great-looking basses they were. Jon.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1389004587' post='2328549'] There is nothing 'not grown up' in being in a band. it's a very normal thing to do. [/quote] That's an entirely reasonable and realistic attitude to have, if you play in a band. Problem is, 99.9% of people who aren't musicians would likely disagree! I doubt I'm alone in having spent the last 20+ years being told by non-muso family, friends, colleagues that I'm perhaps "a bit old for all that", and to be honest, being seen by many of them as something of a joke. Regarding younger bands, playing original material largely on a local circuit we do end up playing with bands many of whom are young enough to be our kids. Mostly this isn't an issue - we've been around long enough to have gained a modicum of local respect - but sometimes it's obvious that expectations aren't high, right up until we play. That's always a nice feeling. Personally I've been consistently amazed & impressed by the technical ability of most of the young bands we play with - by comparison, my generation were really rubbish at that age! J.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1388959769' post='2328240'] There is also this. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-1960s-Kay-K-2B-Electric-Bass-1964-/181292808458?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2a35e4b90a"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item2a35e4b90a[/url] This is much different to the three similar ones on ebay that owe a more than a nod to Teisco. [/quote] To me, this is the only one that looks like it might be anythging to do with Teisco! I don't think so (although lots of Kay sellers claim them to be) but the pickups, inlays, knobs etc are very reminiscent of 60s/70s Teiscos. I don't think it's quite as old as he claims - I'd go for mid 70s, and interestingly there was actually a reissue of this bass a few years back - this one's so clean, that's what I thought it was initially. Shame about the P type bridge cover someone's bunged on. Better with nothing. Jon.

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1388930365' post='2327705'] Electra Les Paul copy bass. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Electra-Bass-Guitar-MIJ-/131085139806?ssPageName=ADME:B:WNARL:GB:1123"]http://www.ebay.co.u...B:WNARL:GB:1123[/url] Anyone know anything about these? It doesn't seem to have the tailpiece and wooden bridge setup that so many of these LP copies do and the headstock looks as though it ought to be familiar. [/quote] I know about Electras and this isn't one. Electra was a US importer brand (actually 2 separate US importers but let's not get bogged down with that) who sourced instruments variously from Fujigen, Matsumoku & Kasuga - none of whom used the small split diamond motif. What they did use was a bloody great big headstock logo saying "Electra", and what Electra didn't do was sell any guitars in the UK. This bass was possibly made by - or at least exported by - a Japanese company called Rokkomann - the exact same bass appears in a Maya guitars catalogue. This one however will have been sold as an unbranded bass, and that's exactly what it is. If it had been branded, it would likely have been as a low-end starter brand like Columbus, Avon, Saxon etc. This exact same bass was sold under those names, so expect a hollow-top plywood body, and weedy single-coil pickups in humbucker cases. Like any cheapo, if you get a good one, they can be nice players (70s Japanese fretwork was typically decent even on low-end stuff) but intonation's going to be hit-or miss with that tinny bridge. A bass like this is a decent buy if you find one at the car boot or in Crack Converters and pay less than £50. Truss rod cover ain't original either. The wood bridge bass you mention is pretty similar to this, the only real difference being that bridge & the fact they have proper humbuckers. They're ply/hollow and also have interesting strip ply necks. These were sold unbranded and also as the Jedson "Jet Bass". J.

I'm not sure what constitutes a mid-life crisis! When what you've done since age 16 is play in original rock bands & ride motorbikes (as I have), and in 2 weeks' time you'll turn 52 (as I will), It's sort of difficult to quantify what element of your behaviour is a pathetic reaction to encroaching decrepitude! I have spent probably the last 10-15 years describing my immature lifestyle and behaviour as a "whole-life crisis", and fortunately I'm still not feeling the draw of either the folk clubs or the Harley dealership. That would worry me, particularly the Harley bit. Jon.

A shim in this instance might be to allow the saddles to be in the middle of their adjustment range rather than at the very bottom. My old SQ Precision had no shim when I got it & had no useable scope for lowering string height, and had about 7mm of potentially hand-gashing screws protruding from the saddles. A shim can be used to induce a specific & fractional curvature or relief at the heel end of the neck, otherwise all it alters is the neck pitch. The angle of the strings relative to the frets stays the same, and is dictated by saddle height & truss adjustment - so a shim won't make any difference to action between the 8th & 15th. Jon.

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1388696883' post='2325088'] Oh dear, l feel like I've wandered along to the waterhole and scared away that wounded wildebeest you'd all planned to have for your tea. [/quote] Not me - just watching with interest, really. I think everyone hopes that a silly bargain will come along & present the opportunity of either cashing in or blagging a desireable bass for not much money. This could have been such a bass but, if I know Ebay, probably would have got quite silly in the last hour or so - which is always fun to watch. Might well be the seller's loss, unless they know what they're doing. J.

Not sure what you'd need to replace on that, tbh apart from the missing ferrule - or why you'd want to. All the hardware would clean up no problem and chances are the apparent lack of output will be wiring. Certainly with older instruments like this that are becoming more & more collectable, originality is paramount if you're interested in resale. It's quite beat-up so will look used, but that doesn't detract from value particularly, and T-Cut will bring back a lot of gloss to the body & neck. I'm pretty confident that unless it needed something time-consuming like a major fret dress, a bass like this would need no more than a weekend's work to get it into good order. J.

The fact he thinks listing it as an "axe" is a relevant search term probably tells us something. I'm not absolutely sure what, though. Jon.

[quote name='Wooks79' timestamp='1388669795' post='2324553'] Is 500 to 700 a sensible expectation for that JV? I personally wouldn't expect that, but I'm not an expert, but now she may be expecting that. [/quote] Cleaned up, electrics sorted, set up and properly advertised, yes. If one in this condition snuck under the radar & ended up in my sweaty palms that's precisely what I'd be hoping to do, and I suspect most of the bidders & interested parties on the one in question had the same ambition! I'm not ashamed to admit I've had some ridiculous bargains from uninformed sellers (including SQ and E serial Squier Precisions), which I've made outrageous profits on. J.

[quote name='chriswareham' timestamp='1388676627' post='2324683'] Seems the (very little) info I could find on the web about Far Eastern made Kay guitars was wrong then! Regarding the quality of the K-20B, it looks pretty crude but a straightforward setup made my one as playable as the brand new Gretsch Electromatic short scale I had until last Summer. I wonder if the differences in humidity and so forth would account for why so many of these Far Eastern budget instruments have a reputation for being in an unplayable state even from new. I know that's why Hammond teamed up with a Japanese consortium to make organs in the Far East, as their US made instruments suffered a similar problem - they would be fine in the typical temperate climates of the US and Europe, but would suffer badly from the humidity in places like Japan. [/quote] You're not necessarily wrong about the Kays - from what I've seen they were made all over the place & just 'cos I haven't seen a MIJ or Teisco-made one doesn't mean they're not out there. I assume the UK market got them a lot later than the US so maybe we got more of the real budget-end ones. Interesting what you say about humidity - that pretty much reflects what I've read about the very early days of Japanese guitar manufacture - while the unseasoned timber used at the time was stable in the home market, early exports were disastrous because necks would twist & warp in different climates. Apparently this is why many manufacturers started making 3-piece quarter-sawn necks, as are very common on Matsumokus & Fujigens from the early/mid 70s. J.

[quote name='chriswareham' timestamp='1388602293' post='2323922'] I've got one of those! As someone points out in the You Tube comments, it's not US made as the guy in the video claims, as the Kay brand name was used in the 1970s for Japanese made basses from Kawai/Teisco. The model he's playing is a K-20B, which is obviously a bit of a Rickenfaker. It's not exactly the finest made bass guitar in the world, but with a decent setup and a set of roundwounds it makes a servicable short scale bass. [/quote] Betafunk's right - these little comedy Rick copies (Rickenjokers?) weren't Teisco/Kawai products, and to be honest I've not yet encountered any confirmed Japanese-made Kays. Kay was originally a fairly respected US-made budget brand, but around 1970-ish ceased manufacture & farmed out production to the cheapest sources. The early 70s ones like this K20B were Taiwanese and the later, better-built ones were from Cort in Korea, including the sexy through-neck doublecuts that every Ebay seller insists are Matsumokus. I have seen East German-made Kay acoustics so presumably production went anywhere cheap! Decent enough budget instruments, though - never had a K20B so I can't vouch for their quality but the old Taiwanese P copies were rock-solid, sound good and can play OK after a proper setup, and the Corts - if you get a good one - are pretty close to late 70s Japanese quality. Back on topic, I still have some GAS for a Jolana D (Rick copy) or a Jolana Disco Bass, a sort of Gibson RD Artist clone, too bad they hardly ever turn up! I was in Berlin a few years back & found an ancient-looking Musima Strat-ish guitar at a flea market. This would have been made in East Germany some time in the 70s, really curious thing it was, quite remeniscent of the object in the first video although maybe not quite as crude! Good sense (and no practical way of getting it home) made me put it down & walk away, but there's a certain fascination about these odd Soviet-era instruments. Possibly closer to agricultural folk-art than anything you could make music with. Jon.

Would've been interesting to see what it did if it had run its course, I suppose. Probably sensible though for the seller (or its actual owner, if they are in fact different people) to get it tidied up & maximise their profit. Either that, or someone made a genuinely silly offer she couldn't refuse. J.