Bassassin

They are - a drummer mate I occasionally jam with has one lying around at his place - I stopped bothering to take my own bass after I played it. Awesome bargains for the 50-odd quid they go for.

Happy to (sometimes, at least) do wot it says on the tin! All a matter of personal taste - and I'm entirely aware of the fact I possess none. No offence intended!

My two bob's worth: would buy & regularly wear a £10 (+ p&p) t-shirt. Would need to be black. Would not be seen dead, ever, in something as spectacularly naff as an embroidered polio shirt, regardless of the superlativity (is that a word?) of its quality. So yeah, sell me a cheapshit BC t-shirt & I'll be happy.

I think someone's '90s Harley chop wants its paintjob back. Happily, a spot of acetone should get that mess off the bass in a jiffy.

If you're OK with Jazz neck dimensions you won't go far wrong with a Squier VMJ, nice used ones turn up for around £150 - £200. Still kicking myself for selling mine.

Just make sure you don't take it back to the wood - pretty unlikely unless you go mad with a belt sander though. The finish will easily T-Cut back to factory-standard gloss if you want to sell later.

Odd. The ST300 is a guitar, so despite the fact BC is an enormous suppository of information and knowledge about most things under the sun, asking about it here isn't the most obvious choice. For the benefit of the most recent enquirer, the best place to ask will be one of the vintage Ibanez FB groups: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ibanezvintageguitars/ The 50s 60s and 70s Ibanez Fan and Collectors Club

AKA So-Called Ruler Of The United States (SCROTUS)

Good advice. We'll erect a lamp post in her name.

What about felch? Can we still say felch? Edit - yep, we can say felch.

Don't know a lot about Orville, (or Gibson, for that matter) so I did a bit of reading! Orville was a Japan-market brand & seemingly a collaboration between Gibson & Yamano Gakki (distributor/retailer) from the off. So pretty much the same deal as Fender Japan, which was set up between Fender & Kanda Shokai. Didn't know Orville was Japan-only, although plenty of Japanese domestic-brand isntruments end up being unofficially exported - Greco being a good example. Regarding Fender Japan, I *think* Squiers were always intended for export while initially MIJ Fenders were home-market only. I also think I'm correct that JV Squiers & Fenders were the same apart from the branding - the earliest Squiers having the big Fender/small Squier logo to differentiate them from home-market Fender JVs. Export MIJ Fenders might've started when Fender changed ownership in the mid 80s but I'm not certain. This is both off-topic & dull as ditchwater so I'll STFU now.

What's interesting is that Orville was an official Gibson brand - high-end Epiphones, if you like. Seems a lot of people don't associate Gibson & Orville. As far as I know Orvilles stopped production in the late 90s & I guess Gibson attempted to fill that hole in their range with "affordable" USA Gibsons. Which, as I understand it, are a bit rubbish.

If that was true Rickenbacker should've folded 40 years ago. Ricks have always fallen to bits if you look at them funny. Maybe Trump will succeed where John Hall's bloodyminded incompetence has failed. Probably because Fenders were designed to be mass-produced inexpensively & they've sensibly decided to maximise the cheap & cheerful end of their product range for the last 35 years or so. Can't help thinking their cleverest trick might have been to persuade some people it's worth paying £3000+ for a bass/guitar that's fundamentally identical to a £200 one with Squier on the end.

Not massively over the odds but IMO it would need to be as-new to justify that. They go for a fair range of prices but as I said, £150 is pretty much the median. Ebay sold listings.

Great basses with excellent build quality - as has been mentioned, hefty, and with a slight neck-divey tendency, but a bona fide 80s MIJ classic. Don't pay £200+ Ebay BIN wishful thinking prices - because these were built like tanks & good players out of the box, there are still loads around. Sensible prices have sat around the £150 mark for years & that's still pretty much what you should pay. Badly listed Ebay auctions often go for a fair bit less.

Hipster gouging at its finest - can anyone top this for audacity? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roadworn-Jazz-Bass-Guitar-Daphne-Blue-Recaster-Aged-Nitro-Relic-Finish-Surfer/123146018856 In fairness you do get a wanky relic refin and cheapo Wilkinson pickups & bridge. Or you can pick up one that hasn't been butchered for around the £50 mark, if plywood starter basses are your thing. Completed listings for Peavey Milestones

Tuners & that truss adjustment aren't something you'd find on any 70s MIJ bass. Looks recent to me.

Wondered that myself. Hardly the busiest of threads lately, though - Ebay's not the marketplace it once was for interesting Japanalia.

Most interesting thing to me is the cast brass bridge, which is from a 1980-ish Kasuga, probably a Scorpion. Shame it ended up on this generic whatever-it-is. Worth noting the pickup's not original either - the screw tabs are too small for the scratchplate. Wouldn't be surprised if that came from the same bass as the bridge. So - bitsa with headstock overpainted - could be anything.

Thanks for the Reverb link, will bookmark that, lots of interesting info - really like the pink one on Ebay! Re: the Romaxe, a bit more info turns up if you search for Emex guitar - seems Matt Bellamy from Muse played these a while back. Digging a bit more, Emex was Europeam Music Express, from the Czech Republic and these were apparently designed by Jerry Auerswald - who was the designer behind Prince's "symbol" guitar. I'm even more jealous now!

My first question would be - is the lettering on the headstock definitely original? I'd guess the seller described it as a Borisov because it looks like that's the only known Soviet-era Belarusian guitar manufacturer. Like most Cold War era Eastern European stuff, there's not too much info and not many examples - most of the Borisovs do look a lot earlier in design than yours, I'd assume 70s, and heavily influenced by 60s design. Your bass is interesting in that it's a pretty blatant copy of a mid-80s Ibanez Roadstar so that probably dates it to around '84-'85. I'd send pics & info to Cheesyguitars.com, they have a specific section for unidentified instruments & that's probably your best bet for finding an ID. Don't be surprised if you come away with GAS for more Soviet-era oddities, though!

That's fair enough, this is BassChat, the clue's in the name etc. So why is any off-topic discussion hosted here, what with the Internet being big & full of variety? Thing is, BC is an established community, many of us have been hanging around here for a really long time (I remember it when it was all just trees BassWorld) - and that inevitably means we're going to want to discuss things beyond string gauges and the evils of plectrum use - well, sometimes. Seems odd - and I have to say, a little patronising - that discussion of some incredibly important everyday things should be absolutely off-limits. Maybe I'm perverse (actually - no "maybe" about it, but obviously that's not something I can talk about ) but I'd like to see some of you lot off the leash. 😈 Not sure about these new emoticons, tbh. 💀

Where do you find this stuff? 😀 This is what you'd get if Ibanez Roadstars were made in a lumber mill in Minsk - it's even got the heart-shaped tuners! Awesome, that is.

I B T L ...if you keep this up! 😀 On a serious note, I would be very much in favour of an unmoderated (or less-moderated) area - we live in very interesting times and there are enough off-limits discussions on BC for it to be a bit frustrating at times. A forum I was a regular on a few years back had a similar area for no-holds-barred discussion and that seemed to work OK there, despite a broad spectrum of political & social perspectives & attitudes from forum users. I'd propose an experiment - "The BC Basement" - where pretty much anything goes, for regular members (based on post count and/or length of forum membership, perhaps) & access given by mods/admin.