Bassassin

Aria Diamond - Matsumoku bolt neck: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320498460896"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=320498460896[/url] Horrid-looking replacement pups which are probably those cheap single coil copies of the old Hofner Staple things. J.

A naughty direct link should work: There's a Rickenfakers FB group, set up by our very own Hooky6stringbass: [url="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=78514186083"]http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=78514186083[/url] Big gallery of pics there & I'm starting to be convinced Hooky6string's owned all of them at one point or another... J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='773581' date='Mar 13 2010, 01:20 PM']Is this "Yoshi" bass Matsumoku? Is neck through and seems to have mystery switches. Doesn't look worth £280 to me, unless it's something special that I haven't recognised. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/YOSHI-Bass-Made-in-Japan_W0QQitemZ180478595750QQcategoryZ4713QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BIEW%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D8%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8465310829701741283"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/YOSHI-Bass-Made-in-J...310829701741283[/url][/quote] I quite like that. Nothing says "Matsumoku" about it to me, never heard of Yoshi before (outside of Nintendo games) and I'm pretty sure I've not seen that same bass with a different brand. Them there mystery switches will probably be series/parallel for each pup like on passive Arias. The same seller had this up a couple of months ago for a lot more so maybe he'll keep dropping it if it doesn't shift. OK - some wild speculation based on JapCrap geek trivia. There's an Aria sub-brand called Shiro which takes its name from Shiro Arai, president of Aria guitars. Yoshi just happens to be the first name of Yoshi Hoshino, president of Hoshino Gakki, owners of the Ibanez brand. Hoshino also have a brand called Starfield - which is a literal translation of Hoshino. Makes you think. Or makes you want to smother me whilst I'm sleeping, for being sad enough to know this stuff. J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='773406' date='Mar 13 2010, 09:26 AM']How the something can a bass have eight bids, but still be on at £26? I mean, I make a lot of lowball bids, so far none of which have won. But, I'm lowballing something worth £200 with a £100 bid or so. What are people thinking when they lowball a Fender bass in good nick with a bid of £8.27 or so? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FENDER-JAGUAR-BASS_W0QQitemZ290412932886QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item439df5af16"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FENDER-JAGUAR-BASS_W...=item439df5af16[/url][/quote] I honestly think its a "I might get really lucky & blag this for a tenner" mentality. I've currently got a guitar on and it's had 6 bids since Thursday (excluding one I cancelled) and it's currently at the heady heights of £7. I've been known to lowball something that I see with a really bad/inaccurate/misspelled title, because those parts of a listing can't be edited once an item has bids, and a hard-to-find listing's a good listing if you're a gyppo like me. It's worked a few times too. Jon.

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='773060' date='Mar 12 2010, 06:56 PM']I thought those old motorcycles were collectable.[/quote] Damn right: J.

Where are these pics then, Mr Falcon? J.

Ah well, it's still unsigned & off to BassKS now anyway. J.

If that's the one you've had a punt on, you've got nowt to moan about if you end up getting it for £64! And if you do, I guarantee I'll buy it off you for what you paid for it. J.

[quote name='throwoff' post='772976' date='Mar 12 2010, 05:23 PM']rubbish! I'm sorry but this is not a 'sum of parts' instrument its a cheap instrument with a cheap mod. The sum of its parts = 2 and both are low cost and of poor quality[/quote] Agreed. I know this, you know this & chances are 99% of people who'd scoured Ebay for basses at any point would know very well what this thing is and what he was up to. However the world is full of gullible, easily impressed and let's be honest, downright dim people who go through life seeing and believing what they choose to see & believe. I for one feel absolutely no duty or obligation to try & protect them from themselves. J.

It's lovely - you really don't see too much TallyCrap, in fact this is only the second Gherson Jazz I remember seeing in many years of daily Ebay-scouring. I'd strongly encourage you to go for it - you won't see another for a long time. Jon.

I say good luck to him, nothing fundamentally wrong with trying to turn a profit. To be honest if anyone goes for this, more fool them - [i]caveat emptor[/i] and that. J.

With the exception of Rickenfakers & Aria SBs it's really looking like JapCrap basses aren't shifting very quickly at present. The Westy (not the £375 one!) & Vantage are quite perplexing - both of those brands, with their Matsumoku heritage usually do very well. The same thing doesn't seem to be true of guitars though - a Westbury Standard will easily fetch £200 - £250, which is well up on what they were getting a little while ago. Good if you're looking for Jap bass bargains & makes me glad I'm only selling guitars at the moment... J.

[quote name='steviedee' post='772765' date='Mar 12 2010, 01:42 PM']Hey Jon those pick TRCs look great really well done I dunno if you make them for other folk but I'd certainly buy one! On the Baltic prog front go for it, I've had not real dealings with them but apparently the folk are really nice , no money in it of course but apparently cheap flights are just about to be available from Edinburgh.[/quote] That was the idea - I'd be happy to knock one up for you. How about a straight swap for the Rick one... I'll run the Baltic fest idea past the guys - I know 3 out of 4 of us will be well up for it. We've only played outside of the UK once before, which was Prague in 2006, it was an absolute blast & two of the best gigs we've done. I'd love to do the same sort of thing again, particularly in front of an audience who might actually appreciate what we do. J.

[quote name='bartelby' post='772727' date='Mar 12 2010, 01:14 PM']It was advertised here too: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=80211&hl="]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=80211&hl=[/url][/quote] Ah - I missed that while I was off double-ending on holiday! J.

Take one £70 Wesley acrylic 5er, four or five blue LEDs, a battery pack & a micro-switch... [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250593393393"][i]...et voila![/i][/url] Jon.

[quote name='steviedee' post='772127' date='Mar 11 2010, 09:22 PM']Cheers Jon that's great thanks for the info mate, really useful to know a bit more about the bass. I had it on quite good authority before I went to see the bass that it was a great copy. I have to admit I know nothing about them and got most of the info from this thread and your posts, so cheers! I'm pretty sure it's a real Ric TRC, do people buy them? I'd really like to get my hands on an Ibanez TRC. As for playing in Edinburgh are you talking about Abel Ganz we don't do that many gigs but would love to play Edinburgh, our next gig is in Vilnius at the Baltic prog rock festival, though some of the lads are doing an acoustic set at the Ferry. My rockabilly band The Chihuahuas are meant to be playing some new trad/roots music venue in Edinburgh though at some point though.[/quote] Rick TRCs - if they are genuine - are very sought after, because Rickenbacker won't sell them. Presumably to prevent naughty people from sticking them on copies! So yes - these bits of plastic can sell for £100 or more. The best way to find out if it's original would be to take some good, clear pics of it & ask the very knowledgeable experts who frequent [url="http://www.rickresource.com"]http://www.rickresource.com[/url] forums - they'll probably even be able to tell you what era it's from. Just don't tell them it was on a Faker! You'd be very lucky to find an original Ibanez cover to replace it but I can knock up a facsimile made from 4mm acrylic - I've made several for my own basses & a guitar: [attachment=44662:4trc.jpg] The two with logos simply have a printed card insert stuck behind them - primitive but functional since I currently haven't found a workable (and cheap) way of applying an image to the back of the trc itself. These also have rounded & polished edges, just cos I like it... The other two have straight-cut frosted edges and are simply painted a solid colour on the back. As far as I know the original Ibby item would have been 2 or 3-ply scratchplate plastic, with the logo engraved through the top layer. I can't (yet!) do that but it would be easy enough to make a card insert with the correct Ibanez logo, under a clear trc. I've also go some mirrored acrylic that I've not yet tried working with - should be good for Pickguardian-type pickup rings... Anyway - gigs, I checked out the Baltic prog fest site & it seems they're still accepting demos. Wonder if they have room for two Scottish bands? J.

Surprised that Vantage hasn't shifted with a £135 BIN... J.

[quote name='steviedee' post='771317' date='Mar 11 2010, 10:11 AM']Just some more info about my newly purchased Rickenfaker. You might not be able to see the details from the pics, I'll post some more: It's a neck through bass and has checkerboard binding with a gap at the bridge, full length sparkly inlays, there are holes where a thumbrest used to be, and stereo outs marked 'stereosound' and 'standard'. The bloke I bought it from got it ten years ago and that owner had swapped the badge from ibanez to a real ric badge, I think they both worked in music shops at the time so getting ric spares was a possibility. It's a good quality instrument and I believe seller certainly thinks its an ibby and wasn't try to pass it off as something it wasn't. Obviously I'd like it to be an ibanez cos they seem to be the most expensive . I'm sure I'll totally love it and wont give a monkeys what make it is! Any info appreciated though, Jon appears to have the knowledge! Stevie here is the original thread [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=80430&st=0&gopid=771304&#entry771304"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...mp;#entry771304[/url][/quote] Definitely an Ibby from that description Stevie - checked binding & full-width sparklies only appear on Ibanez & Greco (both made by Fujigen), and Grecos tend to stay in Japan. Interesting that it's got "proper" Rick type pickups though, I've only ever seen Ibbys with the full width inlays and big Gibson-style mudbuckers, like this thing on Ebay now: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Custom-Made-Bass-Guitar-RARE-Looks-1950-60s_W0QQitemZ350325319182"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Custom-Made-Bass-Gui...emZ350325319182[/url] Later Ibby Fakers (to give it it's proper name, it's an Ibanez 2388B/DX) had accurate pickups but they also did away with the FW sparklies at the same time. Pretty cool if this is some sort of hybrid/transitional with the best of both worlds. If that's a real Rick TRC then you'd probably be able to get a good proportion of your money back by flogging it on. And you could probably find some twat to make you an Ibanez-logo replacement for a couple of quid... BTW Stevie, do you guys ever play through in Edinburgh? Jon.

[quote name='PaulWarning' post='771814' date='Mar 11 2010, 04:47 PM']I've got an 1981 professional II that I'm fond of, made in Japan, with Dimarzio's, made at the same factory as Tokai's I believe, but I may be wrong, again[/quote] More likely Matsumoku but Tokai has been "fingered", although no-one seems to know what models were made where. We only know about Mat because some conveniently say so on the neck plate. TBH by the time Hondo were getting into the 80s, quality of the better-end models was good wherever they were from because Korean factories were chucking out some quality stuff by then. J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='771789' date='Mar 11 2010, 04:34 PM']It's gone up quite a bit now, but another one has been listed. And there's someone selling a Westone Rail over in the basses for sale forum. I was thinking very, very, seriously about this: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Westone-Thunder-1A-bass-guitar_W0QQitemZ180479402531QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item2a05692223"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Westone-Thunder-1A-b...=item2a05692223[/url] I'd already checked where the seller's house was in relation to the 127 bus stop. But I won't be bidding now I have my Rickenfaker. Though, I'm a bit worried about the bid I still have outstanding on another Westone. It is quite low though, so I don't think I have anything to worry about. I.e. if I win I can probably sell it on for a profit [/quote] If push comes to shove I'll give you £50 over what you paid for the Cimar. Or maybe £40... J.

[quote name='Stylon Pilson' post='771860' date='Mar 11 2010, 05:26 PM']Oh man, I'd love that bass. I'd replace the bridge with a badass, replace the tuners with lightweight ones. Maybe defret it. I'd definitely give it a purple sparkle finish and a mirror pickguard. Then, and only then, would it be awesome. S.P.[/quote] I can be a bit anal about non-reversible mods & keeping things original, but I'm not convinced sitting in its case for 20 years is better than the above suggestion! It must be really bored. And is there some sort of big deal with keeping the vintage filth on these things? Oh, that's 58-year-old skin flakes & navel fluff you're looking at - that's the mojo. Someone give it a good wipe. Jon.

No-one's signed it yet! J.

Here's the original ad - sold for £580 back in February. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FENDER-JAZZ-BASS-GEDDY-LEE-BLUE-CUSTOM-NEW-UNPLAYED_W0QQitemZ120523901893"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FENDER-JAZZ-BASS-GED...emZ120523901893[/url] Personally I think it's bad form to gyppo-flip an Ebay purchase while the listing you bought it from's still linked from your feedback - always wait the 3 months for it to be auto-deleted. I'd also have thought £580 was a bit dear for what is basically a bitsa with a Geddy neck, but whatever... Jon.