Bassassin

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.

Here's a bolt neck Ibby 2388 with an interesting Badass mod, over in the Land Of The Free: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230175149727"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=230175149727[/url] J.

The "too good to be true" thing does happen - a week or two ago a 1977 Ibanez Les Paul Custom copy, left handed (incredibly rare) one owner from new, not played in 20+ years, original case - appeared on my local Gumtree for £50. These things will see the better side of £500 on Ebay these days. I missed it by about 5 minutes. Jon

Just purchased a cheap but delightful bass ("Flying" brand Warwick Fortress Flashback lookey-likey) from Five-string, AKA Greg. Very happy with the bass, the transaction, post charges, packing & delivery time. Buy from this gentleman with confidence! Jon.

[quote name='dangerboy' post='65407' date='Sep 25 2007, 04:01 PM']Guaranteed not be pulled[/quote] Sadly not true, Dangerboy - if Rickenbacker became aware of it, BC would get threats of legal action. I [i]think[/i] they might ask you nicely to take it away. J.

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='63728' date='Sep 21 2007, 06:09 PM']How long till this gets pulled? He even says 'NOT Rickenbacker' in the title. Now that is a quick way for the Rik Police to get on your case! [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IBANEZ-NOT-RICKENBACKER_W0QQitemZ250167630686QQihZ015QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IBANEZ-NOT-RICKENBAC...1QQcmdZViewItem[/url][/quote] Last time I noticed this listing it had about an hour and a half left to run & had reached £450. Now it's pulled. The same thing happened to one last week - looks like a new tactic to rub the seller's nose in it. What lovely people. J.

If it was the other way 'round (fretted 4 & lined fretless 5) - and with the fretless at the top - I'd be interested. Guess I'll just have to build one myself... :ph34r: Jon.

[quote name='nick' post='64455' date='Sep 23 2007, 07:29 PM']Yes that's mine. A lovely guitar, but running out of space. Plus, I'm a bassplayer. I understood that [i]Kasuga manufactured guitars for Tokai[/i] as well as other suppliers(?) That is according to several sources including vintageguitar.com, & even the Tokai forum.[/quote] Yes - they did - some Tokai branded guitars were built by Kasuga, in the Kasuga factory. This is plainly quantifiably different - but all's fair in love, war & Fleabay! And I take it you're a happy boy with the final price? J.

[quote name='slaphappygarry' post='64388' date='Sep 23 2007, 03:27 PM']Your not pushing it enough jon G[/quote] Sorry Garry! I'll try harder! J.

[quote name='nick' post='64424' date='Sep 23 2007, 05:31 PM']That's quite true actually. That Rick copy did go quite cheap, considering prices seen in the past months for similar basses. You could have ended up with a matching pair of Kasugas there! Talking of which my Kasuga ES-175 ends today, though I'm not too unhappy with it's current price...[/quote] That Rickalike wasn't a Kasuga - everything about it (apart from the dual rods) says Matsumoku to me. Blimey - didn't know that was your ES-175! Not a bad price atm, still time for some eleventh-hour Ebay madness. And you do know that Kasugas [i]weren't[/i] made in the Tokai factory, don't you? J.

Nice - but being a lefty & a bit on the dear side (considering the twin truss Rick copy sold for £170 yesterday - ) means it probably won't sell. Maybe it's the time of year - but JapCrap isn't selling the way it was a couple of months back. Jon.

[quote name='bnt' post='64317' date='Sep 23 2007, 12:02 PM']In my experience, you can roughly generalise Rush fans in to two categories: those who think Rush stopped doing anything worthwhile in 1981 (with [i]Exit Stage Left[/i]), and those who think they've been doing good stuff all along...[/quote] That's so very true - I'd put myself firmly in the latter camp too - although I've always felt their output was incredibly uneven - the fact they've always experimented stylistically means they miss the mark a lot, to my ears. However, their moments of brilliance are transcendent, and outweigh everything that doesn't quite work. I think [i]Snakes & Arrows[/i] is generally excellent - the best work they've done in many years, by a long way, and the tour setlist is great from a fan's perspective - lots of new material & lots of stuff they've seldom played live before. Very confident & forward-looking for a band that's been around for 33 years. Your comments about the TNMS forum are spot on. It's largely populated by middle-aged (hark at me! ) heavy rock fans with the same taste & attitude now that they probably had when they were at school. They felt betrayed the first time Rush experimented with a reggae feel (that little break in [i]Spirit Of Radio[/i], probably ) and it's all been downhill from there... J.

That's an Aria Pro II PB-1500 our Russ is playing. Fine player, he was. The Armoury Show were one of the great "should have been" bands from the 80s, for me. I saw them once, at the old Town & Country Club (now Kentish Town Forum) - if I remember right, he played that Aria Pro & a Status. The [i]Waiting For The Floods[/i] album (the only album The Armoury Show made) is great - although the production sounds horribly squeaky & overprocessed these days! Webb was in The Skids prior to TAS - he played on [i]The Absolute Game[/i] and [i]Joy[/i]. He wasn't involved in the recent Skids 30th anniversary reunion thing - in fact I think I remember reading somewhere that he's involved in videogame design these days. John McGeoch's death was tragic - such an inventive & original player. Jon.

I don't know what model the bridge is, but the saddles at least, look identical to those on my 1990-ish Ibanez SR800: Possibly Ibanez might be a source for spares? Jon.

F*ck's sake. Why not just chuck the bloody thing in the road & let a bus go over it, & be done with it? F*ckwits. Jon.

[quote name='beerdragon' post='63965' date='Sep 22 2007, 11:03 AM']Why am i seeing black bars instead of a set list. but its ok in the reply [/quote] Spoiler tags - highlight them & you'll see it OK. J.

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=140159458511"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=140159458511[/url] The Aria STB-GTs attracted a bit of GAS & drool back in the BW days, and I snagged a 4-string version of this bass a few months back. The pics on the listing really don't do it justice, they really are gorgeous - bookmatched flamed top, bound body, maple board & pearl block inlays. Decent hardware & an active circuit too. I think list is about £250 - £300 for this. I'm half-tempted myself, but for the fact I have no use for another 5er! Jon.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='63918' date='Sep 22 2007, 08:47 AM']Pics to follow next week. First refusal - I wouldn't have it any other way. Do you ever find yourself in London, Jon?[/quote] It's been known - born & bred in Kent, me. :ph34r: J.

Let me be the first to say - you lucky, lucky barsteward! Some of us had to [b]pay[/b] for our tickets!! Anyway, as Rush play a marathon 3-hour set on this tour (not bad for old codgers in their 50s) I thought it would be an idea to post the entire set list that they've being playing to date: [i]The black bars are spoiler tags, for the sake of anyone who doesn't want to see the setlist before the gig - click & drag to highlight them & you'll be able to read the text.[/i] [spoiler]Set 1: Video Intro 01. Limelight 02. Digital Man 03. Entre Nous 04. Mission 05. Freewill 06. The Main Monkey Business 07. The Larger Bowl 08. Secret Touch 09. Circumstances 10. Between The Wheels 11. Dreamline Intermission Set 2: Video Intro 12. Far Cry 13. Workin' Them Angels 14. Armor And Sword 15. Spindrift 16. The Way The Wind Blows 17. Subdivisions 18. Natural Science 19. Witch Hunt 20. Malignant Narcissism 21. Drum Solo 22. Hope 23. Summertime Blues [i]or[/i] Distant Early Warning 24. The Spirit Of Radio 25. Tom Sawyer Encore: 26. One Little Victory 27. A Passage to Bangkok 28. YYZ[/spoiler] So, you've got a bit of homework to do! And when you get to meet old Bignose, give him the address of this place & suggest he pops 'round! Jon.