Bassassin

This is my first-ever guitar, which I bought second-hand in 1980: What might come as something of a surprise, is that it did not originally look like that. "Surely not!!!", I hear you you squeal in shocked surprise. But no - it's true. It did suffer what can best be described as a mishap, involving some superficial decaptiation, which unfortunately necessitated the mild modifications you can see, in order to rectify the matter. Originally it looked like this, so as you can see it is barely altered from its original design. The bass I've owned for longest is this, which I bought new in 1984, from Allan-Gordon Music in Wathamstow. And this is it, being used in anger by an annoyingly skinny & youthful Moi. Can't say my dress sense has improved greatly, tbh.

Also an SS300, which was Yamaha's 80s take on the Samurai shape - MIJ, in great condition, ridiculously rare & half the price of the Taiwan-made SBV500. Odd. Apropos of nothing, the high-end, through-neck version of this, the SC600, has been on my OHMYGODIWANTTHAT list for many, many years. They don't come up & I wouldn't be able to afford one if it did!

The only non-Status Status I've encountered before is an early 70s Japanese Jazz copy (which oddly, turns up in an old Jedson catalogue) which pre-dates Rob Green's output by about a decade. And lest we forget - his basses were originally called 'Strata' - until Fender noticed & took issue with the first syllable - so neither of these other Status brands are anything to do with Rob. Having had a quick look, these 'Status Series' things do just look like generic 90s-ish budget copies, possibly Korean-made if you're lucky. There's not too much out there but the few pics & mentions all seem to originate from Australia (as does the OP) which suggests it was an Australian importer/distributor using the name.

It is. But £800? See what I mean by silly prices? Really makes me wish I'd bought the one I saw in a local Crack Converters for £150 a few years back. I might've, if it hadn't been the same colour as mine...

Exactly how I've frequently described mine! Had one of these for a while, such a playable, surprisingly well-balanced & great-sounding bass. As well as looking amazing! Getting pretty hard to find now, sometimes very silly prices when they come up, too.

The controls (if I remember!) are separate for each neck, 2x master v & t, & 3-way microswitch pickup selector. Plus a toggle to switch between necks. Always thought co-axial volumes would be a good upgrade, so you could blend the pickups. The necks/scales are identical so it would be easy enough to swap them - fretless on top suits me so I never tried. It's as well-made as you'd expect from a hand-crafted bass, & the fretless neck is especially nice - but it's a slightly cumbersome & very, very heavy lump! It did get me to the point of starting to design what would be my ideal fretted/fretless twin-neck, basically by listing the things I don't much like about this!

I've got this. Bought it for my now-defunct prog band, where fretless would've been nice in parts of a couple of songs. Sadly hasn't been out of its case in several years! It's a 1985 Gordy Blueshift, and was a one-off, as far as I could find out.

Bloody hell! Looks like a horribly modded manufactured neck fitted to a home-bodged body. I'm guessing the neck must have a tenon sitting in a slot in the body, & the screws that actually hold it together are hidden under the neckplate. Nice bridge & tuners though, I guess...

Always liked Antigua, but then, I have no taste. Quite relieved there's no Jazz. And I definitely don't need another Strat. Do I? That's no SnotBurst! This is SnotBurst - or more accurately, SnotGlo.

Yep, it's the same bass as the Ebay one! Yours - MIJ, 1987 - would have been the last Matsumoku version before the factory closed that year. This one's '88 so almost certainly Korean, probably using most of the original hardware/electronics from the Japanese production, with the body & neck being MIK. That would account for minor differences.

That's been up for a while, think it's been discussed here too. Originally made for Matt Pegg, son of Dave (Fairport Convention) - Dave loved his Riverhead Unicorn so much he wrote a song about it!

Bugger! Where's me specs?

Not seen the bass before, I first saw the guitar version reissue a year or two ago. These probably don't have a great deal in common with the original Watkins instruments - I had a Rapier 33 guitar, which had no truss rod, home-made pickups, an odd plastic coating instead of paint & switchgear 'borrowed' from a Morphy-Richards hairdryer. The reissue is £470 - mine was £6 from the car boot! They've made a decent job of replicating the look of the originals - although the 24 fret, block inlay neck on the bass doesn't quite look 'right', to me.

I'd think this young lady not being hampered by a 34" scale & 42mm nut is worth showing to any young bassist! I had an idea someone on here had one! But two, you say? One for me & one for Ms. @MuddBassthen! Sorted!