Help identify a bass...

[Ramirez]

My brother found a bass dumped in a skip and salvaged it... most probably a cheap copy, but I'd like to find out what it is. Some points:

 

*It's a Candy Apple Red-ish PJ bass (typical Precision body/white scratchplate) with a matching headstock. The headstock logo is "Guitar Workshop" with "Bristol, England" in smaller writing underneath. My searches inevitable just brings up guitar workshops in Bristol, and no mention of a Guitar Workshop brand.

 

*It has a 3-way pickup selector switch then the usual volume and tone, which I think is a bit unusual (am I right that PJs are usually Vol/Vol/Tone?)

 

*Annoyingly, the neck has to be completely removed to access the truss rod adjustment.

 

*It seems solid, and is very heavy (11/12lb perhaps) with a chunky bridge.

 

*Inside the neck pocket on the body are two engraved numbers, one above the other - 061082 and 020620. Apart from the headstock name, these are the only markings I can find.

 

 

A quick check reveals that both pickups are working, the pickup selector is a bit intermittent, and the tone control doesn't work. All easy fixes. Machine heads don't feel great either.

 

I'll get some photos up soon, but if anyone can shed any light on this I'd be most grateful!

 

Aled

[Hellzero]

Hard to tell without any photo as it could be anything from an old Japanese brand to a cheap Korean bass, or a full assembly...

Edited November 17, 2025 by Hellzero

[Jsmith1969]

I'm a bit late but Guitar Workshop was a small/medium music shop in St Michael's Hill (number 159 IIRC but I could easily be wrong), Redland, Bristol. I used to frequent there in the 1980s but I'm not sure if it was a chain or a single shop. They sold a range of new instruments from cheap (like the guitar I bought - the headstock snapped after about 2-3 years and I didn't even gig with it - not GW branded BTW) to expensive and out of the price range of a 16-year-old FE college student with big dreams and a terminal shortness of cash.

 

Wow, that was 40 years ago and that's all I remember so sorry I can't be of more help.

[Bassassin]

Shame the OP didn't post any pics. However based on the description & name I wonder if it's related to the 'Bass Workshop' instrument which is the B-list star of this thread:

 

 

If you can't be arsed looking - it's a £99 Korean-made through-neck Satellite cheapo from 1980, which someone's painted black & stuck a Letraset 'Custom Build' logo on the end.