steviedee

30 minutes ago, chris_b said:

Phone Paul at Wal and ask him what he recommends.

I’ll phone him Monday. I might be able to have the electrics removed as the bass is otherwise excellent. Apparently a straightforward job but I’m not keen on doing it but I use a local luthier who is great and I’d probably get him to take them out for me. The cost of sending the electrics is pretty reasonable and 2 grand insurance will cover them going missing. 

I’m in Glasgow so pretty far, also just not feasible too take a holiday really.

Looks like UPS with £2000 insurance next day delivery which hopefully means less time getting shipped for pillar to post.

Do you book them direct or via interparcel?

Hi Folks I want to send my Wal down to Surrey for a service. What is the best courier, I don’t mind paying a premium for a reliable service.

Just an update on this got the Jazz back from the luthier. He set it up and the action etc is spot on. He had to take a part of of the pickups and fix it was a little bit worried it  would be completely sealed but it wasn't.

The bass is in great condition and the luthier told me it was a very well made instrument. Mahogany as Bassassasin thought. Plays really well if anything the action is now too low but very pleased!

33 minutes ago, BassBus said:

If you can get yourself to Edinburgh have a word with Chris McIntyre.

https://www.mcintyreguitars.com/

Will do I work in Edinburgh so handy. I actually have a very good luthier I use but he just wasn't keen on doing this! 

53 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

What bass are you having doing? Presuming it's a bolt on? If it's only a fingerboard, as opposed to a whole neck, I can't imagine it being silly money. As I say though, make sure it's not just being sprayed, it needs to be radiused and polished.

It's a good copy of a famous bass! Bolt on and decent quality and I had it professionally defretted and added set of Barts. I've spent more than it's worth in monetary terms but I like it! 

That bass looks fantastic I should add!

54 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

When you say epoxied... are you looking at boat epoxy like Jaco, or polyester like Pedulla? If it's the latter (which I actually think is better), then people like Bow Finishes, Sims etc... can sort you out.

I've tried to find some examples of the type of finish you can expect with poly -

As you can see, they look identical (and sound pretty much exactly the same as the epoxy equivalents) to the HG Thor necks - which seems to be the benchmark for epoxy necks.

Make sure you post the before and after if you have it done!

Hi Chaps that looks ideal to be honest I only knew about epoxy but polyester looks great. I suppose the only caveat would be the cost, its not a particularly expensive bass. But I'll drop them a line ! 

I’m looking to have the neck of one of my fretless basses epoxied (?) . I would love to do it myself but alas I am hopeless!

Scotland preferably but could post the neck I suppose?

Advice gratefully received!

1 hour ago, Wilco said:

Was that the semi hollow one? Luvverly!

Yes indeed I’m very pleased with it!

Just bought the Cazpar 4p fretless that was for sale in the forum. Knocked out by it, amazing bass and my first short scale!

I love that bass.

9 hours ago, Bassassin said:

Update o'clock:

Posted the pics on my fave MIJ FB group and after lots of (occasionally heated & fractious) discussion, it's been established that the serial number & neckplate style is a dead-on match for Tokai. This is from a 1980 JB-65N:

This seems to be the standard format Tokai used on their replica-level Fender copies & it's interesting to find that they were presumably building slightly more modestly-specced off-brand instruments simultaneously.

There aren't any other 100% match components as far as I can see, although the tuners (which I'd say have distinctively large backplates) are quite similar. Here's the link to the full listing:

https://reverb.com/item/3703632-1980-tokai-jazz-sound-bass-very-rare-natural-finish-birdseye-maple-neck-custom-shop-quality

so @steviedee, looks like you got a vintage Tokai for £75. Not jealous or anything...

 

 

 

Wow that's great thanks so much for looking into it. I'm totally over the moon about it I was humming an hawing on whether to to get it down to the guitar tech for a set up but I definitely will now. Thanks again!

Well it’s cleaned up rather well and looks really quite good and not heavy but I thought I had a spare set of strings knocking about but I don’t so I can’t give it a go which is annoying!

6 hours ago, Bassassin said:

Good to see some pics - that's interesting, a couple of things I wouldn't expect on an MIJ bass of this era. It's definitely a bit different to SH73's Jazz.

First - the neckplate - not seen one like this on a 70s MIJ before, s/n looks sequential & a low number. The body looks like mahogany, from the grain, the natural ones are usually sen ash on this sort of thing.

Did a bit of searching for Yasuki & was interested to see that many of the results are guitars with built-in effects. These are pretty common branded as Fresher, and this is a brand strongly associated with Chushin Gakki.

Looks like a one-piece neck with an unbound fretboard. Quite unusual too.

If it's OK, I might steal your pics & put them on the FB Vintage MIJ page I use, see if anyone there knows about Yasuki.

Thanks again for the info and by all means use the pics. I googled Yasuki and noticed the built in effects guitars. I’m now checking out Chushin Gakki!

I just picked up what I take to be a 70s/80s Japanese Jazz. It’s badged as Yasuki which I can find almost zero information on. I dropped Bassassin a mail before I bought it just for some tips and he pointed me to SH73’s post about his unbranded Jazz. This bass has similar rounded pickups, it’s a dark natural colour and has a serial number on the neckplate. I plugged it in and other than the action being terrible and the strings very old, it’s sounded like a Jazz. It’s heavy but not outrageously so.

I noticed with the truss rod is at the base of the neck but unlike SH73’s bass I cant see it unless I take off the scratchplate, maybe not the original? I don’t know much about Jazz basses never mind old Japanese ones.

It was very cheap but is filthy and one of the scratchplate screws is completely unscrewable so I’ll have to work out how to  get it out!

Any info would be much appreciated!

Sold a compressor to Bas, very smooth transaction. Lots of comms and general bass related chat. Excellent guy.

Well everyone loving the Helix so far, the sounds are excellent but I'm just knocked out by the ease of use. Not doing anything wacky simply just assigning sounds to switches and using the amp models etc but in the limited time I've had to play with it I've created some really usable presets. I can easily see it replacing my current set up and there is the added bonus of being useful for the guitar.

Updated the firmware, I'll deffo have questions. The amp sims sound excellent to me. Initially it will be getting to know the interface, then building a preset, organising your sounds and then onto more complex things like the dual signal path. But great and seems a real quality thing.

Thanks guys looks great even packaging is nice.

Picking up my Helix LT this evening..... quite excited.... sad I know!

I've just preordered a Helix LT! Really looking forward to getting it!