Bassassin

This is post - Fujigen, made in Korea by Samick, I think. These appeared after the Antoria brand changed hands (as it has a few times) & are decent enough, by all accounts. J.

[quote name='Dave Vader' post='876646' date='Jun 24 2010, 05:31 PM']Now when did Tokai sort out the pickup spacing on these? Thoot looks so much better than mine, which is probably why it's £200 more...[/quote] I'm sure if Tokai had made them in the first place the pickup spacing - and everything else - would have been spot-on from day one! J.

Cheap mudbuckery Tele japes: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bass-Guitar-Fender-Squire-Precision-/170503924985"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bass-Guitar-Fender-S...n-/170503924985[/url] Jon.

[quote name='GaryTheBassMan' post='874311' date='Jun 22 2010, 11:54 AM']Oh man, I wish I had picked up one of those babies for £3!!!! lol Maybe the next time!! [/quote] Just be patient. I've had a Westone Thunder 1 (guitar) for £9, a 1963 Watkins Rapier for about £12, a Tokai-built Hondo Tele & an early 70s MIJ Gibson 335 copy for £30 for both, and plenty more. Car boots are brilliant. J.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='874216' date='Jun 22 2010, 10:29 AM']You sir, are a true gentleman![/quote] Well, one does what one can. And I should point out they weren't actually [i]my[/i] limbs. [quote name='Dom in Somerset' post='874278' date='Jun 22 2010, 11:18 AM']At some point in the 80s K made some P bass coppies that were .....good! My first bass was one , they had a Dimarzio Pick up (if memory serves) ,they were set up nicely , fit and finish was good.They weighed a tun! Obviosly made in a different factory and just badged K.I can't remember what happened to mine , but I've met others who've owned them and they have agreed , yes , they were good![/quote] Kay was originally a US - made brand & "original" Kays are well-respected now & many can fetch a lot of money. At some point in the 60s/70s it just became a generic low-end importer brand, and the name appeared on stuff like the bass in this thread as well as some halfway-accurate Taiwanese copies. I've had a couple of Taiwanese P copies and they were really solid (literally - like you say they weighed a ton!) and good-sounding basses. The necks were a the only letdown - really thick, made from strip-ply and with pretty rough & ready fret jobs. Still OK though considering the budget build (and Taiwan really wasn't respected for guitar-making in the 70s) and easy enough to make playable. Pups on mine weren't DiMarzios but were punchy & powerful anyway. Here's one I had: [attachment=52790:body_f.jpg] A bit later on Kays started being made by Cort in Korea - these were really nice-looking through-neck designs with brass hardware & detailing, & clearly an attempt to move the brand upmarket. There were a few different designs around the same concept but the most common bass was like this: [attachment=52789:fullfrontal.jpg] These are really nice basses if you get a good 'un - the main problem with these is an unadjustably high action due to the low fretboard height & fairly chunky bridge. Again, mine was a really great-sounding bass. J.

[quote name='BigRedX' post='874206' date='Jun 22 2010, 10:18 AM']The owner should have paid you £3.00 to take it off his hands. Unfortunately the cost of disposing of it safely so it can never damage an aspiring bassist again would be considerably more than that...[/quote] If push comes to shove I'll take it off his hands & dispose of it - for a small consideration. I have a lot of experience in handling such hazardous waste and have so far only lost two limbs. It's a small price to pay for the benefit to future generations and society as a whole. J.

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='874144' date='Jun 22 2010, 09:11 AM']The tone.........like dropping pebbles into a biscuit tin.[/quote] That is poetry. Painting with words. Unlike the bass. I'd certainly pay a tenner or thereabouts for something like this, purely to do what I said earlier. Easy money. In fact I have some thing similar (don't get excited, it's just a guitar) in bits in the lab at the moment. All I'm lacking is the intestinal fortitude to actually touch the bloody thing. Guess I just don't need £70 badly enough. J.

[quote name='GaryTheBassMan' post='874053' date='Jun 22 2010, 12:13 AM']Haha I wasn't far off of the actual value of this bass when I bought it then?[/quote] Well, funnily enough if you were to give it a scrub up & fix the bits & pieces wrong with it, if you bunged it on Ebay claiming it was a Teisco (which I'm fairly sure it's not), chances are someone would cough up £70 - odd quid for it. Although six quid's a more realistic price! J.

Cheapo Kay starter thing from the early 70s, probably made in Korea or Taiwan or somewhere they hadn't invented the wheel or discovered fire. Probably has accrued a degree of retroid kitschyness conferred upon it by the passage of time but it's still highly likely that any resemblance to a functioning musical instrument is entirely accidental. Jon.

[quote name='noelk27' post='871921' date='Jun 19 2010, 05:15 PM']Interesting. (But now only "quite interesting" as it's not an official Sting signature piece.) Jon, In theory, just saying, imagine if, etc, I've just been offered one of these (fifteen) basses, pre-owned, what sort of price tag are we talking?[/quote] Considering the new list price was $10000 - odd and there were so few of them made, I can't see the one you've (theoretically) been offered having depreciated a great deal! Possibly the opposite, depending on collector demand. Much better pics of the MC30th here: [url="http://www.ibanezrules.com/namm/2009/mc30th.htm"]http://www.ibanezrules.com/namm/2009/mc30th.htm[/url] Can't help thinking they could've tried a bit harder with those pickup covers... J.

[quote name='Machines' post='871671' date='Jun 19 2010, 01:10 PM']Ibanez should reissue them - i'd be after one if they did.[/quote] They did - there was a 30th Anniversary reissue last year: [url="http://www.ibanezcollectors.com/forum/handcrafted-re-issues/limited-edition-mc30th-musician-bass-reissue-at-namm-%2709/"]http://www.ibanezcollectors.com/forum/hand...-at-namm-%2709/[/url] Not exactly affordable & easy to find though! There weren't any signature basses as such in the Musician era but they did occasionally produce one-offs for particular artists - check this out: [url="http://www.gbase.com/gear/ibanez-stanley-clark-1979"]http://www.gbase.com/gear/ibanez-stanley-clark-1979[/url] :brow: Jon.

[quote name='ukbassboy' post='870676' date='Jun 18 2010, 12:19 PM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ibanez-AEB8E-Electro-Acoustic-Bass-Guitar-Hard-Case-/150455788120?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2307dd2258"]Ibanez[/url] Ibanez AEB8E with a hard case currently only £52. I have this week bought a Crafter 4 string acoustic bass off Ebay found this when searching for a hard case. I bid on it with the aim of using the hardcase and selling the bass on here, unfortunately I missed the bit about pickup only in Bristol. I know, I am retard! I am currently the highest bidder so if you are genuinely interested and don't mind driving to Bristol then PM me and I will tell you my max bid. I reckon that including case its worth over £270 new so a good deal, I just cant drive to Bristol![/quote] You ever noticed that 2/3 of BC's membership appears to be in Bristol? Jon.

Right - these came in two flavours - the original US-built version and a licensed copy by Hondo, built in Korea or possibly Japan. Understandably the Hondo version is much more common (particularly in the UK) and similarly understandably the Hondos are never identified as such in the Ebay listings. And this one's a Hondo. That doesn't make it a bad bass - just one you wouldn't want to pay a lot of money for. I'd say if you're OK with this being a bit of a project, and the price stays south of £150 it's probably worth a punt. Jon.

[quote name='The Twickerman' post='869644' date='Jun 17 2010, 08:12 AM']Is it even real????[/quote] Presumably not - if he had an actual bass to sell, why wouldn't he take some pics - or at least use real Rickenbacker photos? [quote name='Bloodaxe' post='869645' date='Jun 17 2010, 08:13 AM']I reckon the headstock shot is as well, which suggests that there may be a connection between the seller & the artist. They're also selling a 3D rendering of a golf club and a jpeg of a video game - caveat emptor methinks. P.[/quote] The headstock pic isn't from the same digital model as the others, whether it's a render or not - the wings are much darker on the pics of the full bass, & the background's different. It might be the artist, or just some particularly dim scammer who found his site & stole some pics. J.

Had a good few bits & pieces from CH, nothing particularly costly, but they've always been great as far as price & quick delivery's concerned, parts are pretty good quality too. I'd recommend either them or [url="http://www.axesrus.com"]http://www.axesrus.com[/url] Jon.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='869586' date='Jun 17 2010, 12:05 AM']What is the giveaway?[/quote] There are dozens! Pretty much every small detail is a case of almost-but-not-quite right. If anyone's remotely intertested I might do a list tomorrow when I'm a bit less bleary-eyed. EDIT: Actually this is even faker than I thought - with the exception of the headstock shot, all of the pics are renders: [url="http://raykit.co.uk/blog/2009/07/04/3d-bass-guitar/"]http://raykit.co.uk/blog/2009/07/04/3d-bass-guitar/[/url] Bloody hell. J.

This one might deserve a thread of its own: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rickenbacker-4003-Bass-Guitar-hard-case-/200484280773"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rickenbacker-4003-Ba...e-/200484280773[/url] This goes beyond being a Faker - it's a brand-new, full-blown counterfeit, and the first one I've ever seen. Time for Mr Hall to start bulk-buying the adult nappies, I think. J.

[quote name='The Twickerman' post='869055' date='Jun 16 2010, 02:19 PM']Removed.[/quote] Not surprised - I found the link on Rickresource so it would have been slated for termination already. However there's some lovely craftsmanship on Ignac Zaletelj's site, and no signs of shonky Rick copies: [url="http://www.zn-guitars.com/?lang=en"]http://www.zn-guitars.com/?lang=en[/url] I'm having some doubts as to whether this thing was ever anything to do with him. J.

[quote name='japanesevintage' post='869207' date='Jun 16 2010, 04:33 PM']Yet there was... Two 406 mm Short Scale Precision (SPB) and Jazz Bass (SJB), from the domestic line.[/quote] If we're talking Japanese home-market range, we're opening a whole new kettle of worms... [i]Must[/i] organise a field-trip. Who's up for it? J.