Bassassin

I know a bit about old MIJ stuff, this is 60s which is a bit before the eras I know. Will have a dig around & see what I can find out. Pics of details like neckplate & tuners might give clues. With something like this it'll be a manufacturer rather than a brand name we'll be looking for.

Probably the best place to ask is the Tokai Registry forum: http://www.tokaiforum.com/ They're mostly concerned with the vintage Japanese Hamamatsu factory output, but likely someone will know about the more recent stuff too.

Having seen the pics - @itu nailed it, it's a Musima! So, early/mid 80s, pre-unification East Germany. A slightly more interesting/cool P copy than I expected. Seen loads of these either unbranded or rebranded, but never seen one with a Musima logo before. Would have saved a bit of time & head-scratching if I had! Still have no idea why the Musima logo reads "WL" though...

That scrubbed up nice!

While you're all bickering over semantics, let's agree it reads 'WL', because it does. Interesting design, intended to read the same inverted, & just happens to be embossed on a component that can be fitted inverted.

QED.

Eastwood only make copies. The whole flaw in the notion of a BC Eastwood bass is the idea that a bunch of us would agree to (and be prepared to cough up for) a specific copy that no-one else makes already, and that Eastwood would agree to/get away with making. IMO a collaborative original design is a more interesting idea, and might be achievable. Doubt Eastwood would be interested, so we'd probably be better off talking to people like Retrovibe or Chowny.

Nah, never seen that before & it's not the sort of thing I'd expect on 70s or 80s MIJ. Not ringing any bells at all, I'm afraid.

There are a thousand shonky Chinese knockoffs of this out there already. All Eastwood would do is order a bunch of these with their logo on. And quadruple the price.

In my experience, it's five, if the weight's anything to go by...

That's a stunner!

Bought an Armstrong Aria Pro II pickup from Dan, great deal, near-instantaneous dielivery, and very friendly & helpful, he even sent me a link for the correct flat-blade switch for my Aria restoration. Couldn't be happier with the purchase - thanks Dan!

He's a member of prog band Frost*, along with various other time-served UK prog scene luminaries. On the whole I prefer his playing to his brother's these days.

Agree about the sound. Certainly doesn't sound like much else, but never found a tone I was that happy with. The single passive soapbar's never going to sound that inspiring, but you can get some interesting combinations with the piezo - but interesting's not necessarily good or useable! Always found it very comfortable & playable though.

That's how they're designed to be strung - I think it's the 29 wraps around the post compromising the string line!

It's got something - but I'd like to see a thinline version, with the Rossmeisl batwing scratchplate, Rick cat-eye f-hole, checked binding, Rick full-width inlays & a (sorry @stewblack!) Tele headstock! Don't want much, do I?

The Lost Art Of Trimming Strings! Not quite as bad as it looks - these have reverse-geared tuners, apparently to maintain a straight line over the nut.

Briefly back in the uncomfortable bright light of the overworld, having spent the last 6 months in my spacious, fully equipped subterranean bunker & control centre (from which I have absolutely no intention of orchestrating a campaign of global domination, oh no), and it pains me to have to tell you that I don't know nuffink about these, due primarily to the geographical gulf between Italia & Japan. Looks tidy & cheap though, I'd probably pick it up just for fun at that price. For info & date etc have a look at fetishguitars.com - lots of old Eko stuff on there.

Depends how mad you want to go. Ibanez' own EDA900 (based on the rather more exotic Affirma) has a similar skinny neck to the SRs, but with its piezo/passive soapbar, luthite body and erm, interesting styling, couldn't sound or look more different. Pretty hard to find these days, think they were discontinued in 2005. You're not having mine.

Really don't know - the obvious upgrage would be Rick pickups & harness but as @Skybone says, a neck toaster or Hi-Gain probably won't drop straight in. I think you'd need to route a bit for a Rick bridge unit, certainly if you wanted the big chrome surround & all that. Bridge is an issue too if you want to use a Rick type. On yours, the saddles are in the place where the mute assembly is on a real one, meaning you'd have to move the entire unit towards the pickup to get it to intonate. You'd also have to route under the bridge as they're not a flush fit. You wouldn't have that problem with a Hipshot (much better bridge anyway) but it would still have to be further forward. I think if it was mine & it played & sounded good as it is, I'd probably leave it!

Nice gift! Never played one but these are, as I understand it, pretty good stuff as far as modern copies are concerned. I think I remember the Bass Centre got the standard C&D letter from Mr Hall, meaning they weren't around for too long. Certainly looks nice, proper through neck etc. For me the only letdown visually is that they use the same wrong-looking hardware & pickups as all the cheap Chickenbackers. Seems to be the case with most Fakers, not sure why.