Kawai FIIB (etc)

[Quin]

Bassists of the internet,

I'm struggling to date my kawai f2b and I know I'm not the only one. It has two serial numbers, one on the headstock and one under the neck pickup in the wood. One starts with 80, the other 78. The kawai website says they were sold from 1985 onwards but someone told me he bought his in japan in 1981. Does anyone have any clue when they actually started making them? Or else, can owners of any Kawai 80s models tell me their serial number so I can make a list and perhaps decode that? 
I'd love to see if there is a knowledgeable soul out there with wisdom to share,

 

Have a great day all

[Cato]

24 minutes ago, Quin said:

Bassists of the internet,

I'm struggling to date my kawai f2b and I know I'm not the only one. It has two serial numbers, one on the headstock and one under the neck pickup in the wood. One starts with 80, the other 78. The kawai website says they were sold from 1985 onwards but someone told me he bought his in japan in 1981. Does anyone have any clue when they actually started making them? Or else, can owners of any Kawai 80s models tell me their serial number so I can make a list and perhaps decode that? 
I'd love to see if there is a knowledgeable soul out there with wisdom to share,

 

Have a great day all

 

There's a chap called @Bassassin on here who will almost certainly be able to help, but it would probably help if you could post some pics of the bass.

Edited November 8, 2022 by Cato

[Bassassin]

On 08/11/2022 at 20:35, Cato said:

 

There's a chap called @Bassassin on here who will almost certainly be able to help, but it would probably help if you could post some pics of the bass.

 

There is - would have popped in sooner if I'd had a notification that I'd been tagged here. Will have to have a look at my settings...

 

Anyway, while I don't have any specific knowledge of these, I'd say either date - '78 or '80 - is feasible (I would be inclined to think the headstock number is the dateable one) and they definitely pre-date 1985 whatever the manufacturer thinks now! Very small images but here's a 1980 Kawai catalogue showing the range. It's also understood that that Kawai made Alembic copies for Fernandes, and these appear starting in their 1981 catalogue (p.18). They may have been around earlier but there's a bit of a gap in the fossil catalogue record!

 

Now - about these pics...

[Quin]

Thanks a lot! I saw that catalog too but unfortunately it has no proper date either :/. U did help me out here! Ill post some pics when I'm back home, but don't expect too much from it... someone abused it quite a bit before me, no pickups or electronics and crack in the body wood... welp i had been looking for one for a year and snagged it for €250 like that

[TheGreek]

Though I'm reluctant to recommend it  there's a Kawai Owners group on the Talkbass forum. 

IIRC someone else asked about dating their K11B so that could answer your query.