Identification

[Shabbs]

Hi Guys

Can anyone hazard a guess and identify this chap, I can't find anything online at all?

Appreciated.

[url="http://s679.photobucket.com/user/Shabbs_photos/media/Pbass_zps62506c29.jpg.html"][/url]

[Shabbs]

Think I found it, Memphis P bass, MIJ.

[Bassassin]

Sorry, not MIJ, and not Memphis, as that was a US importer/distributor.

What you have was likely sold as a Satellite:

[sharedmedia=core:attachments:53548]

These were Korean-made & from around 1980, there were fretted & fretless versions & also a Strat-shaped guitar with twin humbuckers. I had the fretted version of this bass, very solidly-built, if not quite to contemporary Japanese quality, and weighed like a boat anchor!


[sharedmedia=core:attachments:53512]

Jon.

[Shabbs]

If you look at the bridge Jon, it certainly seems more towards Memphis?

Edited November 19, 2014 by Shabbs

[Bassassin]

Memphis wasn't a manufacturer, it was a brand used by a US importer, much as Satellite was a brand used by UK importer Fletcher, Coppock & Newman Ltd, alongside their Columbus & Kimbara brands. Memphis as a brand would never have been sold in the UK. I wouldn't swear this fretless was definitely a Satellite, though, there were numerous short-run rebrands (plenty of local music shops imported their own ranges back then), and no-name guitars were pretty common too.

These basses would have been sold all around the world with a variety of different rebrands and detail differences. The bridge design on the fretless bass turns up on various string-through basses from both Japanese & Korean manufacturers, however by the time these basses were in the shops (I can remember looking at them in 1980!) Japanese factories had pretty much abandoned the copy market, at least for export. Korean factories were upping their game & jumping on the through-neck bandwagon, which was very popular at the time, and factories like Cor-tek (Cort) produced some great quality original designs based around that template.

There's not as much available history on this period of the Korean industry as there is in Japan, so I've never been able to pin down which factory made these though-neck Satellite/Memphis/Whoever P copies - having owned one myself, I'd certainly like to know.

J.

[Shabbs]

Doesn't look like the Satelite in the picture, body is far better sculpted, picies below:


[URL=http://s679.photobucket.com/user/Shabbs_photos/media/2014-11-19153905_zps20cddcd1.jpg.html][IMG]http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv155/Shabbs_photos/2014-11-19153905_zps20cddcd1.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://s679.photobucket.com/user/Shabbs_photos/media/2014-11-19153849_zpseb9612bb.jpg.html][IMG]http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv155/Shabbs_photos/2014-11-19153849_zpseb9612bb.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://s679.photobucket.com/user/Shabbs_photos/media/2014-11-19153905_zps509210b4.jpg.html][IMG]http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv155/Shabbs_photos/2014-11-19153905_zps509210b4.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://s679.photobucket.com/user/Shabbs_photos/media/2014-11-19153928_zps1a367f82.jpg.html][IMG]http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv155/Shabbs_photos/2014-11-19153928_zps1a367f82.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://s679.photobucket.com/user/Shabbs_photos/media/2014-11-19153916_zpscea46167.jpg.html][IMG]http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv155/Shabbs_photos/2014-11-19153916_zpscea46167.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://s679.photobucket.com/user/Shabbs_photos/media/2014-11-19153858_zps86c93efb.jpg.html][IMG]http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv155/Shabbs_photos/2014-11-19153858_zps86c93efb.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://s679.photobucket.com/user/Shabbs_photos/media/2014-11-19153941_zpsdf15baac.jpg.html][IMG]http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv155/Shabbs_photos/2014-11-19153941_zpsdf15baac.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[Bassassin]

Well, apart from the general (very good) condition, through-stringing & fretless rosewood board, it looks absolutely identical to my old one:

[sharedmedia=core:attachments:53507] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:53508] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:53509] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:53510] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:53511]

It is what it is. Good to get a look at the pots, those "dp" logo units appear in every late 70s/early 80s MIK bass or guitar I've ever seen.

J

[Shabbs]

Great to have a comparison Jon, appreciate the pictures How would you value such an instrument or who perhaps?

[Bassassin]

Value's always really tricky with stuff like this - I can't really compare yours to mine because mine really was a beater, while yours does look in top condition. I bought mine on here about 5 years or so back, paid about £60 because it needed a fair bit of work. Sold it for about the same about a year later, having tidied it up as best I could given some of the issues it had.

Yours being fretless & in good nick should fetch a bit more, but there's really been a downturn in the last few years in the market for MIJ & MIK instruments rom that era - even name brands like Aria Pro & Ibanez are largely fetching a lot less than they did 5 or so years back.

As it stands, a vintage through-neck fretless Precision is a pretty unusual bass, definitely a bit of a head-turner. It'll never make huge money but if I was selling it, I think I'd ask £150, and be prepared to be haggled down a bit.

Good luck!

J.

[Shabbs]

Appreciated Jon.