Bassassin

Yes, just trying to clarify. That's why I think it's probably '09.

Cort manufacture in Indonesia, which I think is what the IC prefix implies. Not sure they have their original Cor-Tek Korean facitlity any more following the massive controversy about working conditions there. 80s/90s Korean Corts have a C-prefix.

First concert - Rock Against Racism, Victoria Park, 1978 - Tom Robinson Band, The Clash, X-Ray Spex, Steel Pulse Last concert - The Aristocrats, Edinburgh, Jan 2020 Best concert - Tool, London Astoria 1997, only UK date of the Aenima tour. First time seeing them and my tiny mind was beyond blown. Worst concert - Lamb Of God - seen them twice supporting bands they're not fit to wash the pants of. Utterly dire. Loudest concert - Motorhead, Hammy Odeon, Bomber tour 1980. So loud the songs were indistiguishable from one another. Seen the most - Rush - 14 times between 1981 & 2013. Most surprising - Marillion, Hammy Odeon, '84. Really wasn't a fan, got dragged along by someone who was. Became a massive, drooling fanboy. Next concert - Fish, Edinburgh, March. Wish I would have seen - Skids with Stuart Adamson, original 70s Alice Cooper band, Rush pre-synths & haircuts...

That would be Cort in Korea in the 80s/90s. This is Indonesian, (hence the IC prefix, I presume) and I'm wondering if the prefix is 09 - looks like there's a bit of damage to the bottom of the second digit.

@phil.c60 I'd say join the FB Rickenfakers group, Fakers are bought & sold regularly there, prices are often less eye-watering than elsewhere & Mr Hall has so far left the group to its own devices. Lefties are really rare, but do turn up - that's where the Kasuga pics came from. Different matter for the modern Chinese copies, which are far more available in l/h but they're not accurate at all, and really only have a cosmetic resemblance to actual Ricks.

That Fifth Order Of Angels show is a bootleg of a radio broadcast that's been doing the rounds for a long time, I think it's broadly seen as the best quality early Rush recording. Not heard it for years but I do remember being amazed to hear bits of what became By-Tor & The Snow Dog in the middle of Working Man! Particularly considering Peart had only been in the band for a couple of weeks. Will have a listen to the '76 recording, don't think I've heard that one.

@Frank Blank Regarding a book, I don't think - at this stage, at least - it would be possible to write anything definitive, because what's known about vintage MIJ stuff has huge gaps filled in with largely speculative info. Because of the nature of the industry, unfortunately a lot of it will probably stay that way. Also - I have to say, trying to find consensus among the various people studying & discussing this stuff online would probably be harder, more problematic and more divisive than Br*x*t! @phil.c60 You wanna see some Brazilian porn, do you? Oh I bet you do... Meet the Giannini AE10B: But compare these two catalogue shots: I've actually dug out a lot of pics of these old Brazilian beauties - they're understandably pretty common south of the Panama Canal - and they all feature very dark, typically unvarnished fretboards with shiny shell inlays, and tend to have a fairly big gap between bridge & pickup. And the manufacturer's at pains to point something out on the trc: I'm inclined to think they used a sneaky pic of an MIJ (Chushin) Faker for the first catalogue pic - after all, they all look the same don't they? And who's going to notice? Apart from some sad sod with way too much space in his head and time on his hands, in 40-odd years' time. Anyway, that's enough Braziliana - although it doesn't actually end there - Giannini weren't alone, so if you ask nicely, I might show you a Finch one day. When I think you're ready. Back in the day, there wasn't any litigation against Rick copies - in fact despite the "lawsuit" guff that gets bandied about, there wasn't any litigation against anyone, just a mistimed threat that never came to anything. Which leads quite neatly to your second point - they sort of did. There weren't many well-known brands making copies in the 70s who didn't also have their own original ranges, and some, like Ibanez and Aria Pro II made the transition to high-end, pro-level original instruments incredibly successfully. Most people probably won't know that Ibanez' prestigious Artist range first appeared in 1973: Interesting choice of bridge on the bass...

Actually, I've always wanted to write a book. I have tried to get something started a few times, but so far I'm struggling to find a cohesive narrative combining Japanese basses & guitars of the 70s and 80s (with a focus on the Rickenbacker bass copy) with graphic sex, violence, and Lovecraft-esque eldritch horror. Art can be such a struggle... It appears that Chushin was one of Japan's biggest guitar manufacturers of the 70s era, and their instruments were sold worldwide with a plethora of different brands - in the UK, common names like Columbus, Avon, Grant, CMI, Saxon, Sumbro, Grantson etc were all predominantly Chushin builds. With most brands being importer names, the best way to pinpoint who made what is to tie a manufacturer to a single brand (eg it's known that all 70s MIJ Ibanez was made by Fujigen Gakki) so when the identical instrument turns up with a different name, you know who made it. With Chushin, the exclusive brands were Maya and El Maya, which were owned by a Japanese trading co/exporter called Rokkomann. This pic is the nearest thing to proof that basses like yours were Chushin: The biggest problem with positive ID is the number of different factories making instruments during the 70s copy era. Most people with a bit of an interest will have heard of Matsumoku & Fujigen but there were literally dozens - possibly into the hundreds - of manufacturers, from big mass-producers to little backstreet woodshops, all making good copies of Fenders, Gibsons, Rickenbackers etc. Many of these will have been short-lived & disappeared without a trace. Very few records were kept, either by manufactures or importers, so what we know comes mostly from surviving catalogues and examples, plus a bit of testimony from people who worked in the industry at the time. With Rick copies it's sometimes easier to know who didn't make a bass, rather than who did. Instruments made by Fujigen, Matsumoku, Kasuga and Yamaki all have particular build traits and combinations of details & hardware that make them easy to ID but there are a lot of Fakers where it's educated guesswork, and a few where it's anyone's guess! Even with the Chushin/Shaftesbury type there are a couple of quirks & variations which make it a bit less certain - fretboards & inlays vary, some are unvarnished and have real MOP inlays, some have translucent plastic scratchplates while others are solid white. This may not indicate different manufacturers, as details sometimes change over the years. And some might be made in Brazil - but that's a completely different can of worms...

As far as we know, no Korean manufacturer built a through-neck Faker in the 70s. However there's a theory amongst some vintage MIJ enthusiasts that some Japanese manufacturers had instruments shipped to Korea for assembly, as some sort of export duty loophole. Apparently Chushin (who I believe made this bass) had a Korean operation.

Me neither. I find the thread Mr Raymondo's referencing both baffling and terrifying in equal measure...

Odd s/n. Be inclined to think it's 1984 though. @Bass Fumbler - similarities to Ibanez are purely intentional - Cimar was owned by Hoshino Gakki, which was the parent company of Ibanez. From around 1980 there were attempts to bring the ranges closer together resulting in later Cimars being badges as "Cimar By Ibanez". The very first Ibanez Blazer (which had a different headstock & pickup to the common P-type blazers) was the same bass as the Cimar Stinger. Anyway - here's an interesting German page about Cimar basses, which, for everyone's convenience, and assuming their German is as bad as mine, I've linked through Google Translate Cimar Basses Looks like the bass is a model 2210.

No reason not to post it here @MB1. He's not trying to sell it. Hi @RichardD22 - that's a common, very good quality mid-70s Japanese-made 4001 copy. These were sold under various brands, and badged as Shaftesbury are the most common through-neck Rick copy in the UK. They also appear here badged as CMI, Cimar and JHS. It's not 100% clear who made them but generally it's thought to be Chushin Gakki, one of the biggest Japanese manufacturers of the 70s & 80s. Shame about the mods, but it would be pretty straightforward to return it to standard with replacement scratchplate & pickups. Recommend you join the Rickenfakers FB group for info, unbiased chat & contacts. Interesting that it looks like the original bridge pickup's been moved to the neck position - there might be a code stamped underneath which can tell you its date of manufacture, and therefore an accurate age for the bass. Apropos of nothing - the replacement bridge pickup looks like an early 70s Maxon bass humbucker. Cool old unit probably taken from an MIJ EB-0 or EB-3 copy.

Awful news. Big MV fan and have seen him play a few times and been suitably impressed. Hoping he can make a full recovery.

Want.

How does this sort of thing happen? Do these people get a bit of wood & blindfold themselves before they start sawing and hacking or what?

Mats have some easy to spot details - slightly translucent pickguard with control position dots, Grover copy tuners, very dark fretboard wood and a small "staple" style bridge pickup, like the OP's bass. Also helps that I've got both a Matsumoku and a Shafty myself!

In fairness, the likes of this will have zero impact on sales of Ritter originals.

Like I said, Matsumokus are easy to ID - and yours isn't one! However that's not bad news. Yours was almost certainly sold branded Shaftesbury, and these really are great basses, and aren't prone to some of the structural issues fairly common to Matsumokus. Apart from the single truss rod and the type of tuners, they're very accurate, and very well made. It's not completely clear who made these but it's probable that it was Chushin Gakki, one of the less well known names, but actually one of the biggest Japanese manufacturers during the 70s & 80s.

Seen these turn up on Ebay a couple of times & they sort of look like they were aiming for something similar to the 80s Roadster/Roadstar 2 ranges mashed up with a bit of ATK. Looks like these were around for a couple of years in the mid '00s when they weren't making ATKs, although it's hard to be sure from the few available catalogue scans. There are some in the '05 blurb: No model number on the Ebay one but it looks closest to the RD900, so a pretty high-spec version. Would think it's probably quite a lot of bass for not too much money, by the looks.

Not sure what's going on with that squared-off neck pocket route either - inclined to think neck & body aren't related. Apart from the colour, the best bit is the machined alloy volume control knob - aficionados and restorers of 60s MIJ guitars would pony up a tenner for that.

They are, aren't they? Assumed when I first saw this they'd be copies but what looks like Grover logos suggest otherwise. If this hadn't had the frets ripped out it'd be worth the asking price for the tuners & MIJ Antoria neck alone. Wish people wouldn't do that.

I expect it's a bit sh!tter than a Ritter. ...Sorry...

Couple of oldies but goodies. First edition Hohner B2A, 1984, owned from new: Cort Space B2 - bought from a BCer about 8 years ago, original black finish was badly worn so I removed it using a heat gun & was pleasantly surprised to find a satin poly sealing coat underneath. Want to pop some different pickups in at some point. And this one's a no-brand Crack Converters special I picked up because I liked the sort of Marleaux/Laurus-y styling, and it was dirt cheap. Unfortunately quite cheaply-made too, despite appearances it's not through-neck, it took a lot of work to make it play nicely and unfortunately the tuning system is over-engineered, poorly thought out and barely fit for pupose. Looks smashin' though, but sadly no use as a wall-hanger because paradoxically, it lacks a head to hang it by. So off it went. Future headless ambitions include a Riverhead Unicorn (had GAS since the 80s when I couldn't afford one), Hohner Jack (the J/J version) Westone Super Headless (when one turns up at the car boot for £30) Status S2/S2000 (see previous entry) - and probably more realistically, a conversion of a sort-of Rickenfaker I've had kicking around for years, which has one of the ugliest & most incongruous headstocks I've seen.