Bassassin

I saw that & thought £380 is not at all bad for a JV - until I realised it was in Japan. Jon.

Just like a metaphor for the General Election - there is a third way. If you don't mind drilling 3 new holes in your bass, I wholeheartedly recommend the Schaller 3D. It's high-mass cast brass, as compact as the original bridge (so you can still put ashtrays on) the saddles are low-profile to compensate for the thicker baseplate - which is radiused to match the fretboard. The saddles cannot move sideways, as the baseplate has sides to keep them in place, and they fit closely together - and of course the string spacing is adjustable due to the use of roller saddles. Plus it's a great-looking & beautifully made bridge. Even fitting it to a Fender type bass isn't at all a daunting task, as there are two guide screwholes which match 2 of the original holes, allowing you to screw the baseplate down and mark/drill the new holes with absolute precision. These sell for about £20 - £25 on here and on Fleabay, so sell your clunky great Badass & buy two! Jon.

[quote name='pete.young' post='825416' date='May 2 2010, 11:51 AM']Oops, not sure what came over me. Precision, Jazz, they're all the same thing really! Point still stands that this is a decent looking bass, if it goes for the current bid.[/quote] It is - and it won't! If I thought there was any chance of this going for under a ton I'd be all over it. And I will be if there is! J.

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='824628' date='May 1 2010, 10:09 AM']Unless you have original spares (which wouldn't surprise me ) or your own electroplater I think there's too much rust and pitting there to bring it back Jon.[/quote] Most of the chrome's history, but the whole thing could still be improved massively over what it is now - like I said, if it was £15... [quote name='BottomEndian' post='824635' date='May 1 2010, 10:20 AM']I was just about to mention the fact that the G-string's completely unplayable at the dusty end... but then I realised that there isn't a dusty "end" as such. [/quote] Like I said, [i]exactly[/i] like my old one! Easy fix if you know what you're doing - but I didn't have a clue back then. Bollocks, I'd just burn it. J.

This one's already been put forward for well-deserved ridicule here: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=85900"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=85900[/url] Comedy firewood. Jon.

[quote name='grumble' post='824531' date='May 1 2010, 01:20 AM']It still is awful, 99 beer tokens for something pulled from a skip (where it belongs) is extracting the urine.[/quote] Well - truth is I'd happily pay £15 for that at the car boot, scrub it up nice, make it playable (I can do that these days!) and Ebay it. It would probably fetch £70 - £80 in good order. Or I could burn it, as catharsis. J.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='824316' date='Apr 30 2010, 07:08 PM']And back on-topic: [url="http://cgi.ebay.de/Vintage-Jolana-D-Bass-1986-el-bass-neck-through-/280499626853?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Gitarren&hash=item414f14a365"]http://cgi.ebay.de/Vintage-Jolana-D-Bass-1...=item414f14a365[/url] I wonder if Czech listings on Deutsche eBay get pulled as quickly ...[/quote] I have a degree of GAS for one of these... Good reason for a trip to Prague! [quote name='Happy Jack' post='824321' date='Apr 30 2010, 07:12 PM']And while we're at it: [url="http://cgi.ebay.de/70s-IBANEZ-PICKUP-COVER-for-4001-COPY-BASS-/120562265337?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Gitarren&hash=item1c12122cf9"]http://cgi.ebay.de/70s-IBANEZ-PICKUP-COVER...=item1c12122cf9[/url] Bwahahahahahaha![/quote] Ibanez [i]mein arsch[/i]! And I think we can stay on topic henceforth. Maybe. J.

[quote name='Hot Tub' post='822785' date='Apr 29 2010, 10:25 AM']I set it by playing normally, turn gain up until clip light just starts to flash, turn gain down slightly, turn master up to achieve desired volume/structural damage. [/quote] This - I have millions of different basses so I adjust the gain to suit the output of whichever bass I'm using. Master volume takes care of The Loud and if I want any overdrive I stomp on that thing with the flashing lights that's on the floor. Jon.

[quote name='FlatEric' post='823981' date='Apr 30 2010, 01:00 PM']Jon, thanks for your efforts. Top man, as always. I have come across this, which looks very tasty! Same sort of pup layout/distance from bridge as an Odyssey I have and that's one of my favourites. Bet this would growl!! Cheers. [/quote] Oh, I like that a lot! Always had a bit of GAS for a nice through neck JapCrap with 2x P pups. I doubt it would be subtle! J.

That - absolutely identical in every way, bar the filth & grime, was my first bass. It cost £59 brand new from Unisound/Melbourne Pianos in Chatham High Street, in June 1978. It was [i]awful[/i]. Jon.

Bloody hell, my back's gone just looking at it! Jon.

[quote name='Soloshchenko' post='823467' date='Apr 29 2010, 10:00 PM']CMI ones are nice. Heres one I picked up for £400 on here. Sounds really genuine. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=82308&hl=cmi"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=82308&hl=cmi[/url] I agree though, with £750 you should just wait and get the real thing.[/quote] The trouble with brands like CMI is that they were importers, not manufacturers. That goes for about 95% of the common 70s brands in the UK. CMI (which was Jim Marshall's guitar sub-brand, Cleartone Musical Instruments) sourced their basses from presumably whoever was doing the best deal at the time, hence their Rick copies aren't all from the same factory. What's good about JapCrap Rick copies is that in my experience, none of them were [i]actual[/i] crap. All the Jap factories were capable of manufacturing to a very high standard but would build to budget too - Rick copies always tended to be at the higher end of the range. J.

[quote name='Alien' post='823600' date='Apr 30 2010, 12:26 AM']Unlike plywood though, all the laminates go in the same direction. It allows cheaper slab sawn timber to be used instead of more stable (but much more expensive) quarter sawn wood. It is pretty effective too - the same approach was used on the Kubicki Factor basses, and they hardly qualify as cheap crap! A[/quote] Cheers for that - I knew it had been used on a high-end bass but couldn't remember what. J.

I have the 5er - it's very well-made and generally a very nice bass - weighs a ton, though. Describing it as a beginner's bass is probably underselling it a little bit. Besides, the bloke out of Cradle Of Filth used to play one! Jon.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='823292' date='Apr 29 2010, 07:01 PM']I quite like the stripey neck on that one.[/quote] These all have that sort of neck - it's basically plywood, although it's sometimes dignified by the name "strip mahogany"! Very common neck construction on early JapCrap too, which is probably where the Taiwanese manufacturers got the idea. Unlikely to warp or twist in a hurry. J.

[quote name='FlatEric' post='822970' date='Apr 29 2010, 01:04 PM']WOW! What a difference![/quote] [quote name='tazza1' post='823195' date='Apr 29 2010, 05:13 PM']Wow! That's a fantastic job![/quote] Cheers gents - really just elbow-grease to get the chrome (and the rest of it) shiny, assisted by lashings of T-Cut on the more stubborn regions - like the entire body! On the whole I've found JapCrap chrome to be very good quality & hard-wearing, particularly on alloy components so like this, on most of the instruments I've dealt with it's just been dirty. The pup in the neck position is a parts-box replacement, just a bog-standard humbucker with a parts-box chrome cover stuck on it. Had them both for about 5 years - it pays to never throw anything away! The bridge position is the original from the neck in the "before" pic - it just sits better in the bridge route & I doubt it will make much odds sound-wise. Speaking of which - I don't have the faintest idea how to wire a rotary switch to do the same thing as a 3-way toggle - so until I can find out I think I'll have to wire it like a Jazz (2xV, 1xT) so at least I can find out what it sounds like! J.

I think this is one of the ones from a couple of years ago so he probably bought it in good faith. He describes it as "Crafted In Japan", if I remember rightly those had CIJ transfers stuck on the neck. FWIW CIJ only appears on post-Fujigen Japanese Fenders, the ones made by Iida & Tokai. Jon.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='822711' date='Apr 29 2010, 09:21 AM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140403325388"]70s Ibanez Artist Bass[/url] Yeah, I'd like this, and have bid £305 on it. But, fundamentally even though I'd like to have this, not quite enough (not yet anyhow) to pay the £500 or so it may well go for. Over to you Flat Eric? PS: If anyone's wondering why I'm being open about my bid amount in front of potential competitors, just say that I wouldn't be if I thought I had a realistic chance of winning Edit: These had an ebony neck?[/quote] Loads of these turning up at the moment - fingers crossed for you Ross. And speaking of Ibanez - well, sort of - I got a PM question & heads-up about this: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ibanez-bass-guitar-/310216051066"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ibanez-bass-guitar-/310216051066[/url] Which is a very, very fake fake. J.

Fret pliers are one of the few affordable luthier tools! [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Guitar-Fret-Tool-Puller-Nipper-Plier-Pincer-Forcep-NEW-/150438169000"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Guitar-Fret-Tool-Pul...W-/150438169000[/url] I've also read it's a good idea to tape the board either side of each fret - the idea being that any splinters or chips will stick to the tape & be easy to glue back in place. Jon.

Re: Rickresource - what Musky said! Best place in the world for finding out anything you want to know about Rickenbackers. Sign up for the forum - that's probably the best place to buy one. J.

The main differences between the Rick 4001 & 4003 are the truss rods - older 4001s have a pretty primitive & fairly delicate system of adjustment, and breakages (neck cracking & fretboard delamination, mostly) occur when you try & adjust them like normal rods. The design harks back to the late 50s/early 60s when bass strings were typically low-tension flats, and a lot of Rick fans would recommend that you don't use rounds on a 4001. 4003s have more robust neck construction and conventional truss rods, specifically to address this problem, and can be used with any type of strings - it was really just a replacement for the 4001 with a beefed-up neck. Ibanez Fakers (or more specifically, Fujigen ones, because that was the factory which made 'em) will typically sell for £500-ish on Ebay - imo £750 goes beyond wishful, right into the realms of fantasy! Ibbys come in neck-through & bolt-on varieties (as do most JapCrap copies) and there were a few different versions in the 6 or 7 years they were made. I said in an earlier post that they were the least accurate Fakers, and this is true of the early (and most common) versions, but in a really good way: [attachment=48534:marek2.jpg] I think these were probably the earliest Japanese 4001 copies - the checked binding & full-width sparkly inlays are pre '73 design features on real Ricks, and the Gibson-type pickups suggest a parts-box approach. The same bass was sold in the US branded as Electra, and as Greco in Japan, and like most 70s JapCrap, probably under a bunch of other names too. The design of these was updated around 1975/6 to have more accurate hardware & standard inlays, but they kept the checked binding. The most accurate 4001 copy was Matsumoku's neck-through offering, and you need to be a real Rick anorak to tell the difference: [attachment=48537:matsubody.jpg] The dark fretboard, pearly inlays & knob position dots are the only clues visible in this pic. These are incredibly thin & light, have two truss rods, stereo outs, and even have better-than-the-real-thing copies of the "wavy" Grover tuners used on early 70s 4001s. The one in the picture had been badged as a Rick (with a real 70s plexi trc) and masquerading as the real thing in Florida for a few decades before it came my way. These were commonly sold as Univox & Electra (again!) in the US, over here they'd be Aria, Aria Pro II, Arbiter & Kimbara, amongst others. Both these & the Ibby/Fujigen were sold as Greco, they turn up very occasionally at silly import prices. All the neck-through copies are prone to a design flaw very accurately copied from the original. The pickup position at the very end of the neck, coupled with a thin body, means the neck/body junction is a natural weak point, and years of string tension can basically lead to warping at this point - which results in an unadjustably high action. Both of the basses I've shown pics of have this problem, and I've seen it on real Ricks too. This certainly doesn't happen on all of them, but is a common enough issue. It's probably worth mentioning that the bolt-neck Fakers don't suffer from this, it's always possible to shim the necks on these. The Jap copies don't have the same truss problems as real 4001s, being constructed with conventional truss rods, and assembled with modern adhesives. J.