Bassassin

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1478378998' post='3168780'] They've included message at the bottom where someone says it is not genuine... [/quote] Well they're correct in that part of their assessment. Everything else is random rubbish they just made up. Why would someone do that?

As far as I know, these were Fujigen builds, I think Roland promoted their various guitar synth controllers as a collaboration with Greco, a brand exclusively built by Fujigen at that point. I did think they were sort of cool back in the day, and in a way I still do... Not at £600, though.

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1478154426' post='3167113'] 2- it has to be original; unique to you, no spouts of the old mantra "Leo got it right" [/quote] Unless you're talking about the original Boroadcaster/Tele, Leo pinched it off Bigsby & just simplified it a bit: As far as different designs go, I like the old Yamaha SB/SG and their variations & derivatives. Elegant & functional, to my eyes - if I was designing a 4-inline I'd rip that off.

[quote name='AndyTravis' timestamp='1478133705' post='3167101'] Ugliest headstock ever. But, I would. [/quote] In with a shout but Lindert would have it with one arm tied behind its back: That Laurus flappy paddle is a great way to ruin an otherwise awesome-looking bass - but I'm not sure it's really a headstock...

Looking at that's giving me GAS for a FenderBird. Goddamn it!

Interesting. Old 70s/early 80s one-off or bitsa, and that would make it pretty much a cert that the pickups will be DiMarzios. Betweem them, the Schaller 3D bridge & the Ibanez Hercules tuners, it's worth more than £100 in parts. Buy it!

Depends. My favourite basses are mostly 70s & 80s MIJ relics and I love their decades of wear & history, so if I occasionally add a few new knocks & scratches that just add to the provenance. These are the ones that get out of the house most often and see the most use. However, I have a few I've had from new, and one or two older instruments that have survived the decades unscathed - I [i]really[/i] don't like the idea of these getting damaged. I have a 1981 Ibanez RS924 Roadster in near-new condition, and it occurs to me it hasn't been out of its case in about three years! Things like this make me seriously question the point of owning some of these instruments - but the alternative is to sell them to people who will probably beat the hell out of them!

[quote name='MoJo' timestamp='1477660389' post='3163672'] Any idea what it might be worth Jon (other than being useful to start a bonfire) ? [/quote] In fairness, like most 70s copies its value is more curiosity than monetary! There are collectors of old Italian guitars but I suspect (like with MIJ stuff) there's more interest in original condition, branded instruments. These aren't common enough for there to be a recognisable resale value, but I always look at things from the perspective of what I'd hope to get for one if selling it - and I'd say probably anything between £100 & £150 would be a result. That said, I am a bit out of the loop these days!

From the long-lost era of glued-on maple fretboards! That aside, the body does look like a proper thin nitro finish rarther than the thick poly (usually over ply or butcher block) most old copies had. Don't make it pukka though.

I'd say (based on what little I can see) it might be an Italian-made Melody, probably mid 70s. Some pics [url="http://www.fetishguitars.com/castelfidardo-recanati/melody/melody-solidbodies/"]halfway down this page[/url]. If it has a 3-piece neck & the same skinny neckplate then that's an ID as far as I can tell. The same truss adjusters were used on East German-built Musima P copies from the early 80s, but these tended to have nasty ply bodies.

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1477569002' post='3163018'] I was tempted, but I know I'd only get 2/3 of the way through the process... [/quote] That's the glaring flaw in the plan. It's happened to me, probably about 30 times now. [quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1477569263' post='3163020'] Yeah I bought and sold mine for about £20! [/quote] Shame you didn't sell it to me. I'd have cleaned it, polished the frets, re-strung it, all the while feeling smug about the massive profit I'd make. Then I'd look at it occasionally, maybe play it a bit, thinking "I really should sell that".

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1477316383' post='3161337'] There's a white Aria Pro II Laser Heritage in Cash Generators in Coventry city centre for £80. if I hadn't just bought a bass I'd have snapped it up. Looked in pretty good condition [/quote] Bargain. I'd buy it, give it a wipe and flip it. Like a proper gyppo.

I spotted this a few days ago - it does look like it would be very nice after a bit of fettling. Kind of nice that there are still a few neglected, badly set-up survivors of the 70s out there, reminding us why "JapCrap" once wasn't quite as ironic as it is now...

If it's got proper routing for the neck pickup - none. If not, probably black would work best.

A third option (which might not be practical since I presume it's a carbon graphite neck) might be to modify the heel by undercutting the fretboard & creating an overhang for the additional fret(s).

Those with long memories might remember these on Ebay probably 10+ years ago, think they were less than £200 new. I do like the body but that tort's pretty horrid. Wants a maple board too, IMO.

£150. Which is £100 too much considering the issues. I took the neck out of the clamp to give myself room to work on the body routing & was somewhat dismayed to find the neck also has a slight twist, which wasn't at all apparent before I glued it. I'm hoping this is a consequence of the off-centre routing & extreme tension it's been subjected to. Hopefully it will relax a bit now the rod's slack. If I can make a player out of it I quite like the idea of throwing some decent pickups & electronics into it. If the neck turns out to be a bust I can probably pick up a cheap s/h 24 fret one on here or off Ebay, & lop the headstock off...

Got my replacement today - excellent! So having got a nice new one, I felt I could have a go at seeing if it's possible to clean up the old one. It appears that what's happened is a soft coating on top of rigid plastic is what's gone sticky. Using acetone, I was able to remove the sticky stuff without causing damage to the hard plastic underneath. I didn't have time to do the entire thing but I've successfully cleaned the smooth part opposite the lever. I think it'll be quite time-consuming and tricky to get all of it off cleanly and I think I'll try scraping as much off as I can first before hitting it with industrial-strength solvent again.

So - following on from [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/292915-whats-this-bass/"]this thread[/url], after Anzoid decided he wasn't up for it, he sent me a link to the sale and I decided to take a punt of my own. It arrived this morning, and here it is, the Crack Converters Headless: [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/Strip%20Repair/ccheadlessfront_zpswlhqr1mi.jpg.html"][/url] Nice, ain't it? Well, I thought so, I'm a sucker for an interesting & unusual looking bass, and being From The 80s, can't quite get over the headless thing. Oh, and it was cheap, practically a giveaway compared to the Lauruses & Marleauxes(?) it [s]robs[/s] borrows its styling from. So it's just as well it has all that going for it, because what turned up this morning, lovingly wrapped in a bin bag, is an unplayable pile of scrap. Oh, where to start? A picture's worth a thousand words, apparently: [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/Strip%20Repair/bridgegap_zpsmpjjmy8d.jpg.html"][/url] You're looking at two problems here. First, the bridge/tailpiece should be attached with two rows of 3 screws, to anchor it securely to the body. Here it's just got 3 small screws in front of the saddles to hold it on, and string tension is actually pulling the tailpiece off the bass. Problem two is that the routing behind that big gap, in the back of the body, is about 1.5 mm too shallow for the bridge to sit flush anyway. This angulation of the bridge pulls the whole assembly upwards, raising the string height. I assume the previous custodian of this instrument was unfamiliar with the finer details (or indeed the most basic) of bass guitar setup because they have chosen, as they so frequently do, to attempt to rectify this by cranking & cranking at the truss rod, until this happened: [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/Strip%20Repair/necksplit_zpsb6zw7fyt.jpg.html"][/url] Oh dear. It's actually something of a relief that the design of the string retainer means that it's actually holding the end of the fretboard in place, or I think it would've been much, much worse. So first things first, off with its neck and off with its string retainer. And look what I found: [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/Strip%20Repair/truss01_zpswaw4iplf.jpg.html"][/url] [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/Strip%20Repair/truss02_zpsl1cjlnxe.jpg.html"][/url] Oh dear, oh dear... Anyway - I am now the proud owner of a bunch of parts and a [i]slight[/i] sensation of GAS remorse. Fortunately I have some skills at my disposal - basically I can bodge stuff pretty well - so I have every confidence that this will be a solid, playable bass in a few days.The neck's going to be spending the night like this: [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Crack%20Converters%20Headless/Strip%20Repair/clamped_zpskk0gvbdj.jpg.html"][/url] My main task will be hand-routing the rear of the body so the tailpiece sits square and replacing the frankly inadequate string retainer & tailpiece screws with the correct quanities & sizes to actually do the job. It's been interesting getting this intimately acqualinted with a new bass quite so quickly. This thing is a mass of contradictions. Apart from the ludicrous truss channel routing, the actual timber parts are surprisingly good - frets are well-fitted & even, the truss rod is a 2-way unit which seems smooth & functional, the quality of materials is nice for what's very clearly a budget instrument, and the hardware's solid & functional - if incredibly & (imo) unnecessarily over-engineered. It's surprisingly heavy but a lot of that weight's in the massive tailpiece, which is a curious concept in itself, using plain-ended strings anchored in winding cams inside its body. It's hard to describe so I'll take a few pics later. Anyway, you lot can laugh at my impulsiveness & folly while I go & whittle out some crude routing in my lovely new bass... Jon.

A worthy necrothread disinterrment insofar as I don't think I've looked at his site since the thread was new. I stand by my 2010 comments on his vintage MIJ prices though - £600 for an Aria RSB is .

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1476461968' post='3154594'] Interesting "Impact made in Japan" bass [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1970s-Vintage-Impact-Made-in-Japan-short-scale-Solid-Body-Bass-Guitar-/302100760146?hash=item46569bc652:g:P5kAAOSw8w1X-WMx"]http://www.ebay.co.u...5kAAOSw8w1X-WMx[/url] [/quote] Never seen an "Impact" branded one before, but these are pretty common either branded Jedson or unbranded. Can't help thinking [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Jedson-Bass-/262647293944"]£190's a bit overpriced...[/url]

Well, there's a little bit of wear - and then there's this: [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Ibanez%20SR500/sr500original02_zpsww0scrli.jpg.html"][/url] Think I did the right thing...

This second thread was a good reminder to blast an email to Strings & Things about my own stickiness problem - awesome customer service, mailed them a couple of pics and they're posting me a replacement free of charge. Looks like they don't require the originals returned either, so no problem if you need to keep using it.

[quote name='Paulhauser' timestamp='1476453169' post='3154473'] Go for Grangurs 740. That bass blows any SR500 out of the water. I had a 500 and while I liked it, these older MIJ Ibanez basses are the real deal (have two MIJ Prestiges myself) [/quote] Actually I'd probably agree - my previous SRs were fretted & fretless MIJ SR800s, early 90s Fujigen builds, and both gorgeous, immaculately put-together basses. I'm more of a fan of the P/J setup than the Barts in the 500. [quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1476450179' post='3154430'] Seeing Jon's SR there, who would ever want the brown one? I think I'd have gone for a satin or matt finish, but hey! It's looking great.[/quote] I had no idea it would turn out so shiny - the tin describes it as satin so that's what I expected. Very happy though, I like shiny things!

Certainly have. I've had a couple of Ibby SRs previously & had GAS for another, so picked up a very cheap beater SR500, which looked like this: The old finish came off very easily. It's soft mahogany underneath & it was a good opportunity to practice steaming out the numerous dents & gouges in the wood - which went surprisingly well. This was my first go at an oil refin and I'm made up with the result: This was done with Colron natural Danish Oil, applied with a microfibre cloth. Lost count of the coats, but 20+, with a final sand back with very fine paper before the final coat. The finished bass looks so much better than with the original brown slop, and it's far more hard-wearing.