Bassassin

Don't know. Have read the odd rumour - he's retired, he's quit, he's divorced from the (possibly former) Mrs Hall (they are/were co-owners) and is out of the door. Maybe some truth - a little revolution seems to be going on - intonatable bridges, 20th century truss rods. If there's suddenly a budget range of official Made In China Ricks, then that'll be a confirmed yes!

I assume the seller meant £195!

All Fakers, all the time! I do have a twin-rod neckthrough Matsumoku copy but it's always been borderline unplayable because of the dreaded banana-neck syndrome that these are susceptible to. Lovely looking bass but the epitome of a wall-hanger. My other two MIJs are a through-neck Shaftesbury (probably - no trc when I got it) and bolt-neck Kasuga, both of which have single standard rods and rock-solid necks, which have needed no adjustment in years. Very good point about replaceability though - do the post-4003 basses have this? I knew it was the case with the old style rods. Pickup positioning on the Cisneros is interesting, and more in keeping with most modern 2-pup basses. Wonder how it'll sound? Expect most players would remove at least one of the covers though. I really like the cut-down pickguard, I've always thought the standard shape looks like an afterthought and jars with the design of the rest of the bass.

Serious question Paul - how so? I never understood why they retained the twin rod system after phasing out those strips of bent mild steel they'd used in lieu of proper truss rods up until the 4003 was introduced. Clearly dual rods can be used to correct neck twist, but the opposite argument is that removing the massive amounts of timber necessary to accomodate them makes the neck inherently weaker and more flexible - and likely more prone to twisting & instability through unequal string tension. I've never owned a real Rick but I'd speculate that adjusting the truss rods - a basic job on other basses - becomes way more complex/hit & miss when you have to balance tension of rods against each other as well as the pull from the strings. To me the various non-standard changes on the Cisneros bass are a massive leap forwards for Rickenbacker - finally dragging them into the mid 20th century!

It does resemble a bitsa made from generic shop parts & cheapo hardware, with an over-ambitious relic 'n filth job. I think it's vile.

That's some sort of Holy Trinity, right there. Much as I love the styling & sound of the classic SBs, I don't get on with the parallel, wide-at-the-top necks, so the SB-Rs/Elites are the ones I'm drawn to. Don't think I've seen a 60, 80 & 150 together before - SB-R150s seem to be incredibly rare. I have a post-Matsumoku SB-ELT, basically the same as the SB-R80, but I still sort of hanker after a "real" one...

When I was starting out, if you were gigging it was either one of these or an HH VS 100w combo. I had the HH because the front panel lit up green. No other reason.

Still there & always worth a look if you're passing. That's where my No. 1 Jazz came from - 1980 CSL Japanese copy, best neck ever - £60.

Cheers for those - was looking at Druminator when you posted the second link, so went for both. A lot of drums for a paltry £14!

Dragging this back on-topic, and leaving aside stuff like the cool green inlays and nice minimal redesigned scratchplate - this is the interesting bit of this new Rick: Rickenbacker have threatened to produce a redesigned bridge/tailpiece for years - could this finally be it? The roller saddles seem to be the same principle as the Schaller 3D.

It's a cheap & nasty copy with a fake sticker, wherever it was made. Maple neck with a separate glued-on fretboard?

I sort of think this is more interesting that the usual garden shed wonky chop job - the shape's Overwater-ish but not the same, it's more a reverse Explorer. Would be intrigued to know if this is through-neck. Had a go at enhancing & upscaling the logo - can't make out the lettering too well apart from the R & W, I assume it's initials, the actual symbol's very neat and detailed, which makes me think this is a decal rather than hand-drawn onto the bass.

Have you thought of putting one together to your preference/specifications? Precisions are wonderfully simple basses and you could have any combination of components & aesthetics you wanted. As you play a Jazz normally, you might prefer a J-width neck. You could choose pickups & electronics to go for a specific sound, maybe even go for a P/J setup to broaden options. Any finish you want, blocks or dots, maple or rosewood fretboard. IMO £500 is a good budget for a decent parts build - and the process itself can be fun, educational and satisfying.

That'll likely be Avon, Columbus or Grant, body's ply, necks are decent, pickups aren't great. Like you say, sensible start price,

That's the low B sitting on the outside of the saddle if you look closely. Bridge is a Schaller 3D & it looks like there's scope to move the G saddle inboard, if you needed to.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-string-electric-bass-guitar/283450360393 Inclined to think this is a one-off home build, but aside from the wonky/fugly headstock, this looks competently done. That enormous pickup's quite incredible! There's a logo of some sort on the headstock - anyone recognise it or able to decipher it?

The other school of thought is that Eastwood are overpriced dodgy knock-off merchants.

You don't give a lot of info about the bass but realistically unless it's a rare vintage instrument it would likely be easier to find one closer to home. A few things to be aware of when importing - firstly - CITES. If it has a rosewood fretboard, it'll be subject to the currently complicated & expensive import regs for endangered hardwood species - both buyer & seller need to obtain and pay for the correct clearance paperwork, otherwise it will be confiscated and destroyed by customs. Second thing - import duties. I don't know what importing a fairly high-value instrument from Mexico is likely to cost, but considering I recently got stung for £21 for importing my partner's birthday present from Japan (a fluffy toy tardigrade, if you must know!) then expect it to hurt a bit. Have to say, I'm intrigued though - any chance of a link to the sale?

That's much more like it - LEDs everywhere and 2xP. I want one of those!

Looks 70s or early 80s to me - old enough to hail from an era when MIJ stuff wasn't too highly regarded. Certainly pre-dates Kris Novoselic smashing his to bits! Got a vague idea there are repro scratchplates out there, although I might be thinking of the Custom Agent - which was Ibanez/Antoria's LP with Black Eagle-esque styling.

Definitely a Black Eagle neck, probably the Antoria version as it's UK. IIRC these had a black headstock face with a decal logo, so it's just been sanded back. It's pretty uncommon to see these headstocks in an unbroken state - considering original Black Eagles are quite scarce, the neck alone on this is probably worth a few quid. Looks like this has been some sort of custom build done around the Antoria/Ibanez neck - the body looks well-crafted & professionally finished but I don't think it's from a donor bass. Hardware looks decent, if unusual - don't know if the Shadow humbucker is by the same company that does piezos & preamps today though. Sort of hope some geek picks this up for a Black Eagle resto project.

This is very interesting - it's not a Ripper copy, it's a G3, and I've absolutely never seen one before. Without seeing under the scratchplate, tbh I'm leaning towards thinking it's a (fairly common) standard Grabber copy that's been modded to G3 spec with the scratchplate & pickups. That said, the pickups are interesting because they're neither real, nor copies of G3 units by the looks, instead they're very close, if not identical to the transparent covered single-coil types fitted to Marauder guitar copies made by Chushin Gakki - the factory which made Maya. If it's a factory G3 copy then I'm surprised at never having come across one before - Chushin were incredibly prolific and sold under dozens of different names. Highly curious.

There were good Avons & not-so-good ones. That's a good one. And a potential bargain.

"Canglewood" is awesome. Still doesn't quite measure up to "Squizz", though.