Bassassin

No-name 70s JapCrap EB copy, doesn't look like a particularly good one, and is in a pretty abused state. Would probably fetch £120 on Ebay with enough flannel & flattering pics. Not entirely sure why being played by someone from a minor British punk band 30+ years ago suddenly makes it worth "£400 - £500". Bizarre. Jon.

[quote name='OldGit' post='901189' date='Jul 21 2010, 07:13 PM']Jon No one will think any the less of a JV jazz for having screw holes where a proper Fender pickup cover was fitted. It's not like sticking an extra thumb rest on or strap peg in the wrong place or routing it for a different bridge. In fact sell it with the covers and it will probably be worth £20 more. Oh, PS: Nice fix idea too.[/quote] I trust you noticed the " "? Thing is, KevinJazzBass asked a specific question about value, and like it or not, "collecty" people are very anal about such things & screwholes, covers, non-original parts and all that sort of thing will devalue it. That's just a symptom of the fact that these were sold as cheapos back in the day & most have been modded, trashed or worse by now. On the subject, I'm inclined to think the black undrilled scratchplate wasn't original - I think JV Jazzes would have come with drilled plates & undrilled bodies. Obviously I haven't seen 'em all (and Js seem much less common than Ps) so there might be exceptions. J.

Take off your drilled scratchplate & countersink the screwholes from the back. Then get some suitably small countersunk-headed machine screws & nuts, and attach the pup cover from behind, with the nuts on the front. This is how thumbrests were sometimes attached on JapCrap copies. You'll have to take off your strings & thread them under the cover to put it all back together. Alternatively if you don't give a sh!t about the value of your bass, do this: [quote name='OldGit' post='901019' date='Jul 21 2010, 03:53 PM']Just screw it on and don't worry.[/quote] Jon.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='899843' date='Jul 20 2010, 11:37 AM']Oh my god you encyclopaedic freak. And only £137? I could actually have one! Thank you![/quote] I'll have you know I consider that a compliment of the highest order. If I spot one I'll give you a shout. J.

[quote name='Dave Vader' post='899697' date='Jul 20 2010, 08:28 AM']Thanks Jon, I may nervously wander over there and say it came out of a box of parts from a long-lost/dead uncle or something then.[/quote] Or the ever popular "my mate bought this Faker - sorry, I meant my[i] former[/i] mate!" J.

It's one of these: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Arbiter-Bass-Guitar-1970-Excellent-Condition-Retro-/230496108668"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Arbiter-Bass-Guitar-...o-/230496108668[/url] JapCrap copy of the Kalamazoo mentioned earlier. There was a current auction for one as well but can't find it right now. If it turns up I'll post a link. Jon.

Looking at the pics, I'm 99.9% sure it's shonky. A 70s Rick plexi would be screened on the back, and would probably also have the model number of whatever instrument it was purloined from. The screwholes look countersunk & I've never noticed this on a real one - although I guess that could have been done later. I'm not a huge Rick expert (most of what I know derives from what you don't find on Fakers!) so my small margin of doubt would be that maybe this is from an extremely early Rick (50s/60s) and the back-printed sticker pre-dates the screenprinted trcs I've seen. But I doubt it. Rickresource is cool - just don't tell them it's off a Faker you own! Jon.

[quote name='SS73' post='898452' date='Jul 18 2010, 10:41 PM']Is that the bass in your avatar, it has the neck pup in the position of a pre 74?, nice glo though.[/quote] That looks like a 60s type scratchplate - as well as having the 1/2" gap, it goes right up to the bridge pup surround. Jon.

Jedsons weren't all sh!te by a long way. Things like this were definitely entry-level tat but you'll also find some quite sexy early Matsumoku stuff wearing a Jedson badge, such as (guitar content warning) this: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Jedson-Les-paul-copy-1970s-Vintage-MIJ-/120596488289"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Jedson-Les-paul-copy...J-/120596488289[/url] I've seen some nice Mat Jazz copies badged as Jedson too, and their acoustics can fetch some quite startling money. The Jedson brand disappeared in the early 70s after J.E. Dallas & Sons (see what they did there?) merged into Dallas-Arbiter. I think the Arbiter brand broadly has a slightly better reputation too. J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='897503' date='Jul 17 2010, 07:07 PM']Wow! I saw that when it was listed, and would never have expected it to sell for that little.[/quote] Me neither. I just assumed it'd go for £200+, so I didn't bother watching the auction. J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='897080' date='Jul 17 2010, 08:44 AM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RARE-BLACK-WESTONE-THUNDER-1A-ELECTRIC-BASS-GUITAR-82-/250667714237?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3a5cf5c6bd"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RARE-BLACK-WESTONE-T...=item3a5cf5c6bd[/url] Thunder 1A bass, [size=3]£350 + £14.99 p&p[/size] It's "rare", donchaknow. Form an orderly queue.[/quote] After a [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rare-1983-Westone-Thunder-II-Passive-Bass-Pearl-Silver-/320559190035"]through-neck Thunder II in a genuinely uncommon finish[/url] just sold for a massive £112, this is getting into self-harmingly delusional territory! [quote name='pete.young' post='897462' date='Jul 17 2010, 06:02 PM']This looks very Japanese to me, but I'm not an expert by any means. Unbranded Les Paul copy, looks vaguely Antoria-like to me. Anyone know what it really is? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/vintage-bass-guitar-/220636502301?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item335ef5d91d"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/vintage-bass-guitar-...=item335ef5d91d[/url][/quote] I can tell you it's not an Antoria but at this point neither I nor anyone else can tell you what it actually is. These basses, and the guitar version of the same thing, plus a hollowbody bass, an SG-shaped bass & guitar, and a violin bass all from the same source are one of the current ongoing mysteries of JapCrap. They are pretty decent quality and are from the very early 70s, or very late 60s, at a push. They all share a few odd features, for example the shield-shaped neckplate, plus metal pickup rings. Arch-top basses have the carved wooden height-adjustable bridge you can see on this one, and necks are made from strip ply under the paint. Most of these turn up unbranded but they appear in the wild from time to time with importer names like Jedson & Zenta, which offer no clue to their origin. I have an SG guitar from this range hanging on my wall, and I actually had an identical LP bass to the one for sale here when I was 16 - so I'd really, really like to find out a bit more about them! £200 start is a bit steep though, particularly when the seller's too lazy to even bung a set of matching knobs on it. J.

[quote name='tauzero' post='893896' date='Jul 13 2010, 04:31 PM']That's the one, perhaps with a quick check of the telly schedules to make sure it's not competing with something of significance.[/quote] Quite. My last auction finishing during the World Cup final last week possibly wasn't the best example of forward planning. J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='895945' date='Jul 15 2010, 08:27 PM']The seller of this says s/he was told that this is Japanese. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-precision-good-copy-Japanese-/330451608720?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item4cf0736490"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-precision-goo...=item4cf0736490[/url][/quote]This is pretty much a new bass, still has the plastic on the scratchplate, and regrettably Japan stopped producing budget no-name Fender clones some 33 years ago. So unless it gets delivered in a DeLorean, I call bullsh!t on that one. The BIN on that "Antoria"'s probably a bit much for a refin with non-original parts. Oh, and nothing to confirm the suggestion it's an Antoria in the first place. J.

I do like the look of the Rickrays, particularly the white/black binding one. If they did a red/black one I'd have trouble saying no. Jon.

Blimey - that's a [i]gorgeous[/i] bit of flame! :brow: J.

If you're talking Ebay, rather than BassChat/Scumtree/local rag then £250 - £300 is entirely realistic for the B2A. It's an early one in an uncommon colour so this will help - they're getting into the "rare & collectable" category for some people. I'm not a huge MIJ Fender expert but the E-serial & the 80s all black/no scratchplate look might well go in its favour - they're not exactly 10-a-penny. £350-£400, maybe. Having had a couple of slightly disappointing sales recently I'm inclined to think there's a bit of post-budget belt-tightening in the market at the moment. If it's not urgent to sell them it might be worth hanging fire for a month or two to see if it picks up - plus there's usually an autumn lull between summer (holidays) and winter (Xmas) when people have a bit more bass-money, in my experience. Jon.

[quote name='tauzero' post='894667' date='Jul 14 2010, 01:19 PM']Gone now, did you succumb? [/quote] Not me, squire. Luke? J.

[quote name='benebass' post='893097' date='Jul 12 2010, 07:38 PM']Have you ever bought anything from that eBay shop based in Hong Kong? There are some decent prices on there, but I'm a bit wary of buying guitar parts from the far east. Cheers, B.[/quote] I've not used that particular one as far as I remember but I've had a good few far-eastern bits & pieces over the years - pretty good quality stuff, delivery sometimes quicker than UK sellers & obviously, great prices. I'm sure there are exceptions but on the whole most of these places have massive positive feedback which I'd say is a reasonable reflection. Top tip for your warped scratchplate - take it off & stick it on a dead-flat surface (kitchen worktop for example) then blast it with a hairdryer on full heat until the plastic goes soft. Then stick a heavy, flat object of your choice on top of it & leave until cold. Presto - no more warping. Jon.

Best way to sell on Ebay - do a good enough searchable title & you'll get hundreds of watchers thinking they might, just maybe, blag it for peanuts. They never do, of course but it doesn't matter all the time half a dozen are serious enough to actually want to buy what you're flogging. Jon.

[quote name='silddx' post='892178' date='Jul 11 2010, 07:14 PM']A rather strange statement that. What do you mean by it? That he's not very technical? Accomplished? Poor technique?[/quote] I thought that. I'm not a massive Muse fan but he's always struck me as competent, very consistent & a pretty inventive player, and I've never noticed anything to criticise about his technique. Jon.

I'm right sad, me - I do like those stars 'n' planets inlays! I was actually slightly tempted by a butchered & bastardized one of these in my local Crack Converters a year or so ago - someone had bodged a strange-looking tort scratchplate onto it. Luckily I saw sense & ran away. Jon.