Bassassin

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.

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.

Nice - this is a Fujigen Gakki bass, same as the early Ibanez Rick copies, apart from the more individual finish. I know a guy in the US who collects Electra copies & he has at least one the same as this, so I'm 99.9% sure it is an Electra. Very unusual to see one over here - Electras were never officially imported into the UK.

Don't think it's a Rick bridge, unfortunately - yours has chrome saddles, they're always unplated alloy on the real deal. The other way to tell is the holes the strings pass through behind the saddles - they're oval on real ones, round on copies. Irrelevant, really - the copy bridges are functionally identical - and actually seem a lot less prone to bending under string tension (the dreaded "tail-lift") than the real thing!

Jon.

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.