Franconia Jazz

[kevbass]

Hello all, was tempted by this myself, but have my eye on other things, might be worth a look, seems like quite a nice example to me

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/bass-guitar-1970s-bass-1960s-bass-vintage-bass-retro_W0QQitemZ200157098984QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item200157098984"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/bass-guitar-1970s-ba...tem200157098984[/url]

[steve]

[quote name='kevbass' post='67443' date='Sep 29 2007, 06:23 PM']Hello all, was tempted by this myself, but have my eye on other things, might be worth a look, seems like quite a nice example to me

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/bass-guitar-1970s-bass-1960s-bass-vintage-bass-retro_W0QQitemZ200157098984QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item200157098984"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/bass-guitar-1970s-ba...tem200157098984[/url][/quote]

oh I like that

[Mr. Foxen]

Looks like it will need the neck alighnment sorted out.

[Bassassin]

Guess what - I know about these. I've had hands-on experience with one which looked identical (apart from having proper size tuners & no neck pup cover) and done a bit of research.

There's next-to-no info about the Franconia brand, save for a reference in [i]The Guru's Guitar Guide[/i], which defines it thus:

[quote][i][b]FRANCONIA[/b] - (Japan, 1980-5) UK importer brand name; low/mid quality copies[/i][/quote]

It also gives a guide price of £55 - £105, but the book's from 1990, and there was no "collector" interest in old JapCrap back then.

The bass is a generic 70s style (If not for the book I'd have said that's when it was made) budget Jazz copy, with a few eccentricities. Body is ply construction & pretty heavy, but not back-breaking. It has mahog veneers front & back, and the sunburst is solid black around the edges to disguise the ply construction.

The neck's odd - profile is quite chunky, more like a P than a J, and it appears to be mahogany, with a maple (or similar light wood) board - likely this is why the headstock face is painted black. Truss adjusts at the heel end, and it has a Gibson type nut. I just noticed the Ebay one has head-end adjustment.

Hardware's OK generic budget stuff, except the bridge, which is a trashy two saddle 50s P type, and would probably be the first (maybe only) thing you'd replace. That would be an opportunity to sort out the string alignment on this particular one.

Pickups are typical 70s oriental round-ended oddities, and on the one I worked on were quite stupidly powerful - each putting out about 12k. Oh, it's worth mentioning that the body's properly routed under the scratchplate, too, unlike a lot of cheapos which have an ugly big hole & trench for the neck pup & wiring.

Definitely worth keeping an eye on this one if you're after a 70s Jazz copy, I'd say.


Jon.