geoffbyrne Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 (edited) I bought this as being an Antoria. later, research showed that the 6 bolt neck plate and the horizontally-split 2 piece pancake body might be indicative of the construction used by other Japanese factories in the late 60's & early 70's. When I got it it had suffered the dreaded Halfords Spray-can finish. Chemical stripping of this revealed that at least half of the poly had not been removed. Much elbow grease and Tung Oil later, the body below was revealed. I like this neck - it's a shallow 'C', straight and plays very well. The pickup is good, and I fitted different pots. I've done a gig with this bass and it was more than Good Enough. £65 ono Geoff Edited June 17, 2011 by geoffbyrne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Frankly, that's a bargain IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassassin Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 (edited) [quote name='skankdelvar' post='383593' date='Jan 17 2009, 09:49 PM']Frankly, that's a bargain IMO.[/quote] Agreed - if it was a maple board I'd have a hard time resisting, despite the fact I need another P like I need an extra scrotum. The body might be from an early Kay - not a bad thing because the massive slab sarnie bodies on these were the best thing about them. If the neckplate's plain (no MIJ) it probably is a Kay. To be honest Geoff, all the Japanese factories used the sandwich construction technique in their mid-range instruments, you really can't ID a Mori specifically from that. Anyway, the neck's what it says it is - Antoria was built by Fujigen at this point, & the 70s Antorias were identical to their Ibanez counterparts, down to the serial numbers. This is useful because we can ID & date the neck like this: [url="http://www.ibanez.ru/info/catalog/1971/13.jpg"]1971 Ibby catalogue[/url] That's it on the right, later versions had full-size tuners & smaller, white plastic TRCs. You can tell the Antoria had the larger style from the channel size &screwhole positioning so I'd say it's reasonable to infer it's from around '71 or '72. Jon. Edited January 18, 2009 by Bassassin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbyrne Posted January 18, 2009 Author Share Posted January 18, 2009 (edited) [quote name='Bassassin' post='383837' date='Jan 18 2009, 11:30 AM']Agreed - if it was a maple board I'd have a hard time resisting, despite the fact I need another P like I need an extra scrotum. The body might be from an early Kay - not a bad thing because the massive slab sarnie bodies on these were the best thing about them. If the neckplate's plain (no MIJ) it probably is a Kay. To be honest Geoff, all the Japanese factories used the sandwich construction technique in their mid-range instruments, you really can't ID a Mori specifically from that. Anyway, the neck's what it says it is - Antoria was built by Fujigen at this point, & the 70s Antorias were identical to their Ibanez counterparts, down to the serial numbers. This is useful because we can ID & date the neck like this: [url="http://www.ibanez.ru/info/catalog/1971/13.jpg"]1971 Ibby catalogue[/url] That's it on the right, later versions had full-size tuners & smaller, white plastic TRCs. You can tell the Antoria had the larger style from the channel size &screwhole positioning so I'd say it's reasonable to infer it's from around '71 or '72. Jon.[/quote] Thanks for the info, Jon. I was told in the Ibanez forum that the 6-bolt neck plate identified it as Moridaira factory. Any info on that? Apart fro one or two minor dints, the neck is really nice. Geoff Edited January 18, 2009 by geoffbyrne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassassin Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 The 6-bolt plate is not a 100% ID - Moridaira did use them, particularly on early instruments, but you'd need a headstock with a known Mori brand for a full ID. Morris is Moridaira's house brand, and they also built the Japanese Hohners in the late 70s and early 80s, but these confuse the issue by having either plain 4-hole plates, or MIJ-stamped 4-hole plates. It's believed the early Japanese CMIs with 6-hole plates are Moridaira - although that might just be an assumption based on the plate. Moridaira's also annoying for frequently using unbranded/unmarked components. And yes - JapCrap is all this confusing! Mostly... A 6-hole Mori plate will (probably) say MIJ - however, the Kay Precisions like this one: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Kay-P-Bass-Precision-style-guitar-70s-vintage_W0QQitemZ180321547827"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Kay-P-Bass-Precision...emZ180321547827[/url] ...have a blank 6-hole plate. These are very common, and the necks (hefty great things made of strip-ply) are probably their worst feature. These were Taiwanese in origin, don't know what timber was used for the body but they're very, very heavy. The upshot is really that although Moridaira did use the 6-hole plate, other builders did too, & it's likely they weren't the only Jap factory to use them. Really in JapCrap you need a brand with a known provenance (like Antoria, for example) or an exact comparison with a known branded instrument to be 100% certain of ID. J. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbyrne Posted January 18, 2009 Author Share Posted January 18, 2009 [quote name='Bassassin' post='384219' date='Jan 18 2009, 06:21 PM']The 6-bolt plate is not a 100% ID - Moridaira did use them, particularly on early instruments, but you'd need a headstock with a known Mori brand for a full ID. Morris is Moridaira's house brand, and they also built the Japanese Hohners in the late 70s and early 80s, but these confuse the issue by having either plain 4-hole plates, or MIJ-stamped 4-hole plates. It's believed the early Japanese CMIs with 6-hole plates are Moridaira - although that might just be an assumption based on the plate. Moridaira's also annoying for frequently using unbranded/unmarked components. And yes - JapCrap is all this confusing! Mostly... A 6-hole Mori plate will (probably) say MIJ - however, the Kay Precisions like this one: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Kay-P-Bass-Precision-style-guitar-70s-vintage_W0QQitemZ180321547827"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Kay-P-Bass-Precision...emZ180321547827[/url] ...have a blank 6-hole plate. These are very common, and the necks (hefty great things made of strip-ply) are probably their worst feature. These were Taiwanese in origin, don't know what timber was used for the body but they're very, very heavy. The upshot is really that although Moridaira did use the 6-hole plate, other builders did too, & it's likely they weren't the only Jap factory to use them. Really in JapCrap you need a brand with a known provenance (like Antoria, for example) or an exact comparison with a known branded instrument to be 100% certain of ID. J.[/quote] Thanks for that. Now. Anyone like to buy it? Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbyrne Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 A wee Scottish Bump! G. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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