Bassassin

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=220161104279"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=220161104279[/url]

4 1/2 hours to go on a 70s Jazz copy, and (for some reason) a bunch of probably broken last-gen games consoles. Currently at a tenner.

No use to me because it's pick-up only from down in that London.

Can't see what the bass is, but it looks like an early 70s job with small chrome pups. I've seen these branded CMI, Eros MkII, Cimar etc.

Seller is zero-feedback, but as it's pick-up only, less chance of a scam.

Jon.

Black Eagle? Rare as the proverbial, particularly the Ibanez branded ones, as Antorias were more common over here.

Still - £500 start, [i]and[/i] a reserve? Stupidly expensive, for what is basically a vulgar yee-haw Jazz copy. And that bit that's always broken off the headstocks of Black Eagles is broken off this one!

Still watchin' though, to see what happens. Doubt anyone will bid.

J.

I go every year, have done since the first one - it's become like a bloody ritual now!

I always take a few quid, hoping for a mega bargain, & always come home with just a carrier bag (usually a big black Marshall one!) full of leaflets & freebie tat.

Doubt this year will be any different - but I'll go anyway.

Jon.

A tidy looking Satellite copy here:

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=230178780393"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=230178780393[/url]

Those tuners'd have to go, mind.

J.

Agree with OTPJ - & not only are brand names not necessarily best - there's a fair chance that they were made in the same factory as the cheapos. And it was ever thus - that rather lovely Ibanez 2369 B-WH in your sig pic was built at the same factory that a few years later was turning out MIJ Fenders & Squiers.

The real problem with cheapos is quality control - if you're lucky, you'll get one with a lovely fret job, and built from well-seasoned quality timber, if you're not, it'll buzz all the way up a neck made from a bit of driftwood, that'll look like a banana this time next year!

Jon.

I was at Glasgow & Newcastle - onstage at 7.45, off again at about 10.55. They play a very long set (about 2h 45 excluding the break) so there's no support.

If the venue's saying doors at 7.30, they may start a bit later - why not phone the venue to see if they know what time the band will be on stage?

Jon.

Current Ricks have a push/pull pot wired to bypass the cap, and so should be easily capable of that sound.

Having said that, that's a fairly standard Rick-with-pick tone to my ears - and my Japcrap Rickenbugger copy sounds just like that - well, it does with new strings on!

As far as I know, Chris Squire Ricks were a very limited edition, are as rare as the proverbial & cost a fortune. They have a vintage-style toaster pup in the neck position (actually a guitar pickup) as opposed to the Hi-Gain on the standard 4003, but the bass in the vid is almost certainly just on the bridge pickup.

Nice tone - no comment on the playing...

Jon.

Think I'd be put off by the $90 postage to the UK, and by the customs charge it'll attract if it goes over £18.

Also, it's not Japanese, I don't think. I've seen a few guitars & basses with this maple board/mahogany neck/pointy black trc combination (I actually had a thinline Tele copy like this) and they're not-very-good Korean knockoffs. I'd bet a kidney the body's plywood under the solid-black-at-the-edges sunburst, too.

Sorry to pee on your fireworks, Kev, but there are loads of better vintage P copies than this around.

Jon.

Hondos are OK if you pick them up cheap, I suppose. They look the part but are generally a bit cheap & nasty compared to most other 70s copies. Made from plywood in Korea, at a time when the Korean industry was about 10 years behind the Japanese in terms of quality.

No idea what his reserve is, but considering how cheaply Rick copies are going at the moment, it might be worth a look - although trying to sell it by showing a picture of a real Rick is a [b]seriously[/b] bad idea!

J.

And look (or in Ebayspeak, "L@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"):

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=270173494161"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=270173494161[/url]

A Hondo. Which, if we remove the "d", becomes an anagram of "OH NO".


And one of those freaky Italian-made Shaftesbury 4005/360 hybrids:

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=110176352228"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=110176352228[/url]

And that is all.

J.

I think the problem is that people are stupid, and Ebay purchasers doubly so.

I think if I were you I'd bite the bullet & list the two different models separately. I'd also just show a picture of a single one, and just send out the colours randomly - I doubt if people are too bothered what colour they get.

Jon.

[quote name='nick' post='67305' date='Sep 29 2007, 11:05 AM'][i]And, a real rarity, from the same seller, a Jolana D, made in Czechoslovakia in about 1984/85:

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Jolana-D-Bass_W0QQitemZ250170264692QQ"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Jolana-D-Bass_W0QQitemZ250170264692QQ[/url]

If I had the readies right now, I'd bite his arm off for that.

J.
[/i]

Me too!
That's a nice bass[/quote]

Sold for £170, delivered.

I am crying inside.

J.

I bought 3 sets from a US Ebay shop a couple of years back - worked out about £12 a set, so the mercenary part of me isn't too bothered about no UK distribution.

Still got 2 sets left anyway!

Jon.

Beedster - just don't shake the guy's hand:



But do be sure & ask him if it was Sid Viscous who sanded down the paddle!

Jon.

Built it himself? What, with that CNC machine in his shed?

If no-one else takes the fretless Grabber-alike off your hands, give me a shout!

btw whereabouts on Planet Earth are you?

Jon.

I saw them at the SECC last night - I thought they were excellent, and I really liked the setlist - a lot of less "obvious" songs this time round, plenty from [i]Snakes & Arrows[/i] (best album they've made in years, & gets better with each listen), a few seldom-heard gems from the 70s - and the first time in about 25 years Geddy's been seen onstage with a Rickenbacker!

[attachment=2624:ged_rick.jpg]

Seeing them again in Newcastle tomorrow night.

Jon.

I did have one of these basses - and was quite surprised at how good it was for the money. The one I had was a fretless, and because of a slight neck problem (a small an mount of curvature at the 2nd "fret" position made it buzz a bit when playing those notes) was auctioned on Ebay starting at 99p.

Construction was solid if not perfect, finish good (mine was natural, decent lacquered finish) and the electronics were actually very good for the money - it sounded lovely plugged in, with a good range of tonal variety. Considering it's a medium-scale bass with a not particularly big body, it was quite acceptable acoustically, too.

Quality control is always going to be hit or miss with these ultra-budget instruments, and the most likely thing to screw up a cheap bass is a poor fret job - which obviously wasn't an issue with mine. That said, even though I didn't pay anything like £60 for mine, I was impressed, it struck me as being worth the money, and I'd pick up another if I got the urge for an acoustic. I have actually been quite tempted by the pink ones!

Jon.

I take it, for the purposes of this thread, when we say "Jap bass" what we mean is Japanese [b]Fender[/b] bass?

Only askin' like, from the perspective that the interesting Japanese basses are the ones that [i]don't[/i] have "Fender" on them, on the whole.

Jon.

Not done a scratchplate yet, but I was rather pleased with my Rick-alike TRC for my Kasuga Rick copy:





4mm acrylic sheet, drew the shape with a fine-point marker onto the protective film & cut out the rough shape with a jigsaw. Then I filed to an accurate shape, removed the film and rounded the top edges with successively smoother grades of sandpaper. Screwholes were drilled ([i]very[/i] carefully - acrylic's quite brittle) with a Dremel type hand tool, and the surface abrasions polished out with metal polish. The logo's just printed onto some thin mirror-finish card.

I'm quite into the idea of making custom scratchplates for some of my odder planks, so I'm considering investing in one of these:

[url="http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=20397&ts=00878"]http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.js...97&ts=00878[/url]

And this place does generously sized (29x44) 3-ply pearl & plain blanks for not a lot of money:

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ELECTRIC-GUITAR-SCRATCHPLATE-PICKGUARD-3PLY-UNCUT_W0QQitemZ160163411412"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ELECTRIC-GUITAR-SCRA...emZ160163411412[/url]

I'm visualising my Yamaha SBV500 with a red or blue pearl plate. :wub:

Burpster - your Blazer looks stunning!


Jon.

Kawai was its own brand, with its own factory, in fact they are (they still do keyboards) a long-established instrument manufacturer - started in the 1920s & moved into guitar manufacture when they acquired the ubiquitous Teisco brand in the 60s.

Anyway - early 80s for sure, not made by Matsumoku (unless Kawai were outsourcing production) and probably pretty damn good. This is proper vintage JapCrap, not a cheap rubbish starter bass, and if the seller's accurate in his description, then this one will want looking after to keep it in good nick - so tell your girl to be nice to it, Movwkd!

Oh, and she might be amused to know that Kawai translates as "cute".

Jon.

Try asking on the [url="http://www.matsumoku.org"]http://www.matsumoku.org[/url] forums - someone might be able to point you in the right direction, or might even have a spare couple lying around.

Jon.

Quite agree with Mr , the. Looks great!

I'd gig with that - well I would if I wasn't an utterly arse fretless player.

Applique'd wrapping paper, eh? Hmmm.....

Jon.

Very nice piece of vintage JapCrap! Unusual to see maple with black blocks on a sunburst - & it looks great.

Schaller 3D looks good on a J & it's an excellent bridge too - got one on my 1980 CSL Jazz.

Jon.

Guess what - I know about these. I've had hands-on experience with one which looked identical (apart from having proper size tuners & no neck pup cover) and done a bit of research.

There's next-to-no info about the Franconia brand, save for a reference in [i]The Guru's Guitar Guide[/i], which defines it thus:

[quote][i][b]FRANCONIA[/b] - (Japan, 1980-5) UK importer brand name; low/mid quality copies[/i][/quote]

It also gives a guide price of £55 - £105, but the book's from 1990, and there was no "collector" interest in old JapCrap back then.

The bass is a generic 70s style (If not for the book I'd have said that's when it was made) budget Jazz copy, with a few eccentricities. Body is ply construction & pretty heavy, but not back-breaking. It has mahog veneers front & back, and the sunburst is solid black around the edges to disguise the ply construction.

The neck's odd - profile is quite chunky, more like a P than a J, and it appears to be mahogany, with a maple (or similar light wood) board - likely this is why the headstock face is painted black. Truss adjusts at the heel end, and it has a Gibson type nut. I just noticed the Ebay one has head-end adjustment.

Hardware's OK generic budget stuff, except the bridge, which is a trashy two saddle 50s P type, and would probably be the first (maybe only) thing you'd replace. That would be an opportunity to sort out the string alignment on this particular one.

Pickups are typical 70s oriental round-ended oddities, and on the one I worked on were quite stupidly powerful - each putting out about 12k. Oh, it's worth mentioning that the body's properly routed under the scratchplate, too, unlike a lot of cheapos which have an ugly big hole & trench for the neck pup & wiring.

Definitely worth keeping an eye on this one if you're after a 70s Jazz copy, I'd say.


Jon.

Like buses, these things - here's the Ibby 2388DX (DX designates a through-neck) from earlier in the week, back for another shot:

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250170267288"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=250170267288[/url]

And, a real rarity, from the same seller, a Jolana D, made in Czechoslovakia in about 1984/85:

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Jolana-D-Bass_W0QQitemZ250170264692QQ"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Jolana-D-Bass_W0QQitemZ250170264692QQ[/url]

If I had the readies right now, I'd bite his arm off for that.

J.