Bassassin

Took me a while! Wanted a Unicorn since the first time I saw one, in 1984 - waaay too much for me to afford back then but I finally got this one from a member on here about 18 months ago! Looks great from a distance but it's had a refinish & needs a bit of fret work. I always fancied a pink one... The SBV500 came from here too, maybe 15 or so years ago - one particular member actually had a collection, not sure how many but for some reason he decided to try & collect every colour & variation - and there are a lot! He ended up with some duplicates, one of which I kindly relieved him of. Calling it a 'Jazz on steroids' is right on the nail, despite looking like a 60s surf bass it's a proper growly rock monster. You probably already know this, but Riverhead 'borrowed' the Unicorn body shape from the early 70s Burns Flyte.

Guilty? As charged, it's a fair cop, I'll come quietly, got me bang to rights etc.

Nah. After I'd been playing a little while I thought it might be a good idea to learn the dots & some theory, so I bought a 'How To Read Music' book. Started working through it, but as my playing involved either copying what people had already played, or creating bass lines for my band's songs (both of which I found easy), there seemed little point in persisting. Never went back to it, although I do wonder if better formal musical knowledge would have been a benefit to my songwriting. Or rather, 'songmakingup'.

Not anything I'm familiar with - from the body & headstock laminations it looks through-neck. As has been said, looks influenced by that 90s style of Ibby Soundgear / Nanyo Bass Collection / Tune Bass Maniac types, although I doubt it's MIJ. The style, build & offset dots have a very Cort-y look to them, quite a lot like the Artisan A4. Wouldn't mind seeing more pics, if there are any.

He's at a Kylie gig. Go figure...

First thought was, oh - it's this: ...only more timid.

Very nice example. Overpriced to the tune of about £1000 though. I mean - these are excellent instruments & the through-neck Thunder IIs & IIIs have appreciated, but Westones were never regarded as sought-after or pro instruments. This is getting on for double what you'd pay for something like an SB1000.

Chickenbacker - highly inaccurate £200 Chinese copy. Probably junk.

Still a lot like this, only with the headstock lopped off! If all goes well there will be a few details to make it more eye-catching - but that's pretty much it.

Getting there - but I'm having to live with the realisation it's always going to look better from the back!

From this: To this... And 5 coats of Danish Oil later... Going to want a few more, but we're getting somewhere.

They definitely look like generic low-end parts. When I got mine I assumed from everything I'd read about crap hardware on Sires that they must've started fitting better components. Bought mine just a few months before the Gen 2s appeared so it's maybe more of a Gen 1.5!

You have to wonder at what point the 'builder' realised he was hopelessly out of his depth. Fwiw looks like those tuners could be dismantled and reassembled as L/H.

Those are the actual tuners fitted as standard to my first gen MM V7! Grover 142 clones with torque screws. I have an Aria STB-GT, doesn't really need new tuners but these are nice...

This seller has 100-odd poorly photographed guitars & basses, many of which have 4-figure price tags. Possibly lazy & delusional but doesn't look like a scammer.

I have a 2000-ish (so modern-ish) MIJ Talbo bass, a reissue of the 80s aluminium oddity. It's an amazing-looking & nice playing thing but the hollow metal body makes it quite resonant and microphonic, making it very prone to feedback in my last noisy rock band, meaning it didn't get out too often.

I have a gen 1 V7 fretless and don't understand the negativity surrounding the tuners - unless earlier ones were different, they're accurate & nice quality Grover 142 clones with adjustable torque. I do wonder if some people have slippage issues and they've not noticed the adjustment screw? No issues with the functionality of the bridge on mine, although I'm slightly (I'm sure needlessly) uncomfortable with the vintage type threaded saddles & flatwounds.

New one on me - had a bit of a dig and it's on page 56 of this 1988 Greco catalogue: https://vintagejapanguitars.com/greco-1989-catalogue/ Should be good quality, at this point Greco was still exclusively MIJ & Fujigen was the factory. Not going to be a particularly common bass so I'd leave it stock, or at least don't do anything irreversible.

Wot - the blue bit? It's a bit of clear blue acrylic rod poked through the hole. So to speak.

After some delays, and stuff getting in the way, it would seem that I have taken something functional but ugly, and repurposed it into something weird and functionless. An improvement? Who am I to judge? Anyway - next, a little bit of fret dressing, then slapping on some Danish Oil. Wonder if I can get the cloth to spontaneously combust this time?

Much as I don't like to have all-time favourites of anything, I'd have to concede that the single biggest influence on the way I ended up playing, and (in the context of his former pop group) how I approach music in general, would be this dude:

Agree about the damage (although if it's only minor fretboard delamination near the nut, it's a really easy fix) but most Fakers don't have their original trc & I wouldn't say it impacts value. Would need to see pics to confirm it's a Kasuga - but imo €600 is a lot for any Faker.

My first amp (1981) was a T&B 50, the snakeskin covered one. Got it from a charity shop for £20, with a matching 2x12 cab. Gigged mine with a home-made 1x15, dunno how it really sounded but it impressed the f*** out of teenage me! It died when our drummer's basement (where we used to practice) flooded. The annoying thing (devastating at the time) was that I'd just left the band but hadn't picked my gear up yet.

I did already know about this - and I envy the lives, free from related mental and emotional scarring, of those who do not.

I've seen them a few times over the years, was a big fan in their very early days and saw them at King Tut's in Glasgow in (I think) 1995, and chatted to Cass for a bit after the gig. Phenomenal player and a thoroughly lovely human being. Back then he was still 'that guy out of Terence Trent D'Arby's band'!