NBD but can't say I'm too happy

[kodiakblair]

Guitar player friend messaged me on Xmas Day, said he'd got his hands on a mutual friend's bass 🙂

 

Seeing as our pal hung himself in 1999, I was both glad and surprised to hear a bit of his gear was still about. Was even more surprised when I was told it should be with me 😲 

Got another message yesterday telling me to collect it 🙂

 

Old Japanese Gibson copy, think it may be a Sakai Mokko. @Bassassin care to give an opinion ?  Neck is straight but it's missing a fret. No sound bar a loud hum, pickup selector switch is goosed, I see one failed solder joint in the cavity. Won't be doing any fault finding, it's easier to replace the electrics. Can't see the pickups failing but I've a replacement set in a drawer.

 

Nice wee fixer up job but I'd rather my pal was still with us 🙁

 

[ezbass]

11 minutes ago, kodiakblair said:

Nice wee fixer up job but I'd rather my pal was still with us 🙁

Mixed emotions with that one for you certainly. However, if it makes you think of him every time you play it (hopefully, of good times), maybe that’s not a bad thing.

[tauzero]

Looking at just the repairs side, rather than the emotional attachments, is it worth just re-making the solder joint and seeing if that sorts anything out?

 

Shouldn't matter about the ninth fret, you shouldn't be all the way up there anyway.

 

You don't have your pal but at least you have something to remember him by.

[kodiakblair]

3 hours ago, tauzero said:

is it worth just re-making the solder joint and seeing if that sorts anything out?

There's that much corrosion at the selector switch the casing has a fur coat 😀 Could just be the switch but there's a stray Vol pot ground too, might as well replace the lot.

 

3 hours ago, tauzero said:

Shouldn't matter about the ninth fret, you shouldn't be all the way up there anyway.

Nope, anywhere near that high and I get a nosebleed 🤣

[binky_bass]

Take the 22nd fret out and smash it into the missing 9th fret slot. Problem solved. Well, that problem anyway! 

[ezbass]

2 hours ago, binky_bass said:

Take the 22nd fret out and smash it into the missing 9th fret slot. Problem solved. Well, that problem anyway! 

That was my thinking too.

[kodiakblair]

4 hours ago, binky_bass said:

Well, that problem anyway! 

There are others, nut is broken and it's been shimmed with cardboard 😎

[Bassassin]

22 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

Guitar player friend messaged me on Xmas Day, said he'd got his hands on a mutual friend's bass 🙂

 

Seeing as our pal hung himself in 1999, I was both glad and surprised to hear a bit of his gear was still about. Was even more surprised when I was told it should be with me 😲 

Got another message yesterday telling me to collect it 🙂

 

Old Japanese Gibson copy, think it may be a Sakai Mokko. @Bassassin care to give an opinion ?  Neck is straight but it's missing a fret. No sound bar a loud hum, pickup selector switch is goosed, I see one failed solder joint in the cavity. Won't be doing any fault finding, it's easier to replace the electrics. Can't see the pickups failing but I've a replacement set in a drawer.

 

Nice wee fixer up job but I'd rather my pal was still with us 🙁

 

 

Very sad about your friend, but nice to have a memento like this.

 

So yeah - these are thought/assumed to have been made by Sakai Mokko but like most things vintage MIJ, particularly regarding those manufacturers active in the 60s & fading away in the early 70s (which is when these were from) it's unclear & sometimes contradictory.

 

These turn up with a million different names (& no names like yours, & my guitar version) one of which is Sakai, although there's reason to believe Sakai Mokko the manufacturer was gone by '71-ish which about when these first emerged. Like other 60s brands that became well-known domestically (like Teisco & Guyatone) the name may have just become a headstock brand - there's reason to think this as the Sakai name appears on mid 70s instruments known to have come from Moridaira. That's further complicated by the fact Moridaira also operated as an importer/distributor and even used their own Morris house-brand on instruments that are assumed to be from Sakai Mokko.

 

It's very confusing. 

 

And I can make it even more so, if you want. Or even if you don't...

 

Look - it's Sunday, I have important things to put off so you should probably make yourself a brew & strap in...

 

That cool/weird German-carved SG body isn't exclusive to these - it also turns up on a late 60s thing called an Excetro - made by Teisco Gen Gakki. TGG was set up mid-60s as a manufacturing subsidiary of Teisco to make necks/bodies, but after Kawai bought Teisco in 1967, TGG continued independently as an OEM manufacturer

 

TGG went bust around 1970, so what looks very much like the same body on a different instrument from a different source could be for one of two reasons. Or three. Or random combinations of the three. Or something else altogether that I don't know about.

 

Leaving aside the fourth (and arguably most likely) reason, No.1 is salvage. In the febrile 60s & 70s Japanese guitar industry, manufacturers came & went all the time, and those that went bust would typically have quantities of unfinished components lying around, which would simply get sold off. So a year or so later an existing or new manufacturer - maybe Sakai, or Moridaira, or whoever - sticks out a bunch of SG-ish guitars built on old Teisco Gen Gakki bodies. Or reason 2 - someone liked it & made a straight copy, or perhaps the TGG fire-sale included all the templates & tooling for making this design, which it almost certainly would have.

 

"But Jon - what's Reason Three?" I hear you implore, half insane with facination & curiosity! Or rather I don't - because you've gone to do something interesting that Normal People do, and it's just the endless, relentless, maddening voices in my head again, isn't it? Fair enough, at least now they're curious about this, & not the usual thing. You have no idea how wearing it can be when all you hear is KILL, KILL, KILL. And even when you do as you're told, one's never enough. Ten's never enough.

 

Oh - where was I? I didn't say that out loud, did I? Right - anyway - possibility No. 3, Matsumoto Gakki Seizou Kumiai - the manufacturers' collective with their parts-book system of ordering, where customers could choose components & have instruments assembled to their spec. Not so likely IMO as they'd need to have a huge stock of these bodies, considering these SG types were around for maybe 4 years, sold all around the world with a plethora of brands and 50+ years later, still turn up regularly.

 

And that's it really. You won't get drivel like this off AI, I can tell ya.

 

Pickups in the bass are Maxon bass humbuckers - they may have a serial on the back to give a date for the bass, if it's pre '72 they won't as it looks like Maxon introduced seials at some point in '72.

 

The knackered nut's an easy fix as there's a zero-fret, meaning it's just a string guide, and I'd recommend not just whacking the 22nd fret into the empty slot - necks taper & unless you cut it to length you'll make a mess of that nice fretboard binding, and have the mother of all rough fret-ends to boot! Wonder how much a tech would charge to stick in a replacement & give the remainder a dress/polish?

 

[kodiakblair]

2 hours ago, Bassassin said:

Wonder how much a tech would charge to stick in a replacement & give the remainder a dress/polish?

 

I'll be about £5 for a pre-cut pack of 24 but I'm pretty sure I can scrounge a 2" offcut from Mark at Bonnywood.

 

Was fixing a butchered Concord started me off building and repairing basses 🙂

 

[binky_bass]

2 hours ago, Bassassin said:

 

Very sad about your friend, but nice to have a memento like this.

 

So yeah - these are thought/assumed to have been made by Sakai Mokko but like most things vintage MIJ, particularly regarding those manufacturers active in the 60s & fading away in the early 70s (which is when these were from) it's unclear & sometimes contradictory.

 

These turn up with a million different names (& no names like yours, & my guitar version) one of which is Sakai, although there's reason to believe Sakai Mokko the manufacturer was gone by '71-ish which about when these first emerged. Like other 60s brands that became well-known domestically (like Teisco & Guyatone) the name may have just become a headstock brand - there's reason to think this as the Sakai name appears on mid 70s instruments known to have come from Moridaira. That's further complicated by the fact Moridaira also operated as an importer/distributor and even used their own Morris house-brand on instruments that are assumed to be from Sakai Mokko.

 

It's very confusing. 

 

And I can make it even more so, if you want. Or even if you don't...

 

Look - it's Sunday, I have important things to put off so you should probably make yourself a brew & strap in...

 

That cool/weird German-carved SG body isn't exclusive to these - it also turns up on a late 60s thing called an Excetro - made by Teisco Gen Gakki. TGG was set up mid-60s as a manufacturing subsidiary of Teisco to make necks/bodies, but after Kawai bought Teisco in 1967, TGG continued independently as an OEM manufacturer

 

TGG went bust around 1970, so what looks very much like the same body on a different instrument from a different source could be for one of two reasons. Or three. Or random combinations of the three. Or something else altogether that I don't know about.

 

Leaving aside the fourth (and arguably most likely) reason, No.1 is salvage. In the febrile 60s & 70s Japanese guitar industry, manufacturers came & went all the time, and those that went bust would typically have quantities of unfinished components lying around, which would simply get sold off. So a year or so later an existing or new manufacturer - maybe Sakai, or Moridaira, or whoever - sticks out a bunch of SG-ish guitars built on old Teisco Gen Gakki bodies. Or reason 2 - someone liked it & made a straight copy, or perhaps the TGG fire-sale included all the templates & tooling for making this design, which it almost certainly would have.

 

"But Jon - what's Reason Three?" I hear you implore, half insane with facination & curiosity! Or rather I don't - because you've gone to do something interesting that Normal People do, and it's just the endless, relentless, maddening voices in my head again, isn't it? Fair enough, at least now they're curious about this, & not the usual thing. You have no idea how wearing it can be when all you hear is KILL, KILL, KILL. And even when you do as you're told, one's never enough. Ten's never enough.

 

Oh - where was I? I didn't say that out loud, did I? Right - anyway - possibility No. 3, Matsumoto Gakki Seizou Kumiai - the manufacturers' collective with their parts-book system of ordering, where customers could choose components & have instruments assembled to their spec. Not so likely IMO as they'd need to have a huge stock of these bodies, considering these SG types were around for maybe 4 years, sold all around the world with a plethora of brands and 50+ years later, still turn up regularly.

 

And that's it really. You won't get drivel like this off AI, I can tell ya.

 

Pickups in the bass are Maxon bass humbuckers - they may have a serial on the back to give a date for the bass, if it's pre '72 they won't as it looks like Maxon introduced seials at some point in '72.

 

The knackered nut's an easy fix as there's a zero-fret, meaning it's just a string guide, and I'd recommend not just whacking the 22nd fret into the empty slot - necks taper & unless you cut it to length you'll make a mess of that nice fretboard binding, and have the mother of all rough fret-ends to boot! Wonder how much a tech would charge to stick in a replacement & give the remainder a dress/polish?

 

You could at least attempt to provide some useful details... 😆