Bassassin

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Cort have a deservedly good reputation - never had a Cort Squier, but I've had numerous other brands built by Cort & in general they've been very good. I expect the Squiers are the same. J.

Well, if I really, really wanted a YOB bass - it wouldn't be that one. It's a bit of a bodgefest - and I cannot help wondering why a Mudbucker that's apparently been there since 1969 is so much cleaner & shinier than any other bit of metal on the bass. Jon.

I only have experience of MIK Squier guitars, not basses, but IME it depends on the factory - you can use one of the many online s/n decoders to find who made what. Early MIKs were Young-Chang builds, and were excellent quality, same as their own-brand (& now sought-after) Fenix copies. However there are some nasty Samick-era Squiers with ply bodies & dubious quality control. AFAIK this isn't the case with all Samicks but while I'd happily take a blind punt on a Young-Chang, I'd want a proper look at something from a different maker. Jon.

Never a massive fan, but as many have said, he was a spectacularly gifted musician & composer. This year's death toll's getting harder & harder to get my head around. I would not wish death on anybody - but with so many monumental bastards in the world, why does it seem that only people of true value are being taken? Jon.

[quote name='BottomE' timestamp='1461265501' post='3033178'] Yes, here it is. Sold it to a friend in 1985 and then lost contact with him. Last year he sends a Facebook friend request and asked if i'd like to have my old bass back! Its terrible to play and sounds awful but back in the day i loved it. [/quote] Looks like a cool old P copy to me - can't be sure from the pics but it's either an Italian-made Melody, or a Musima from the old DDR! These were usually pretty well-made, maybe it just needs a good setup & a decent pickup dropped in. J.

I assume most artists who are "tributed" appreciate that trib acts actually help maintain their fanbase & profile, typically in the twilight of the original artist's career. It can hardly be seen as detrimental, however you look at it. Meatloaf though - clealy a glutton for cash [i]and[/i] pies. Jon.

[quote name='Wonky2' timestamp='1461155438' post='3031928'] First amps are interesting one..... I had a huge H and H hw100 combo, as big as a washing machine and has a neon green back lit panel long before trace elliot ever existed Happy days [/quote] HH VS Bassamp! My second amp, in fact. It probably sounded like arse, but the light-up front panel made it awesome to the power of 10! My first amp was a Selmer Treble & Bass 50, flooded to death in our drummer's basement, some time around 1982, I think. As I understand it, these are worth a minor fortune nowadays. J.

[quote name='luckydog' timestamp='1460980638' post='3030309'] P- and J-Bass copies are sometimes referred to as from/before 'the lawsuit years', which AFAIK was sometime in the 70s and concerned some very good guitars from Japan. Some of them go for a decent price now and by accounts play and sound very well. Presumably the lawsuits had some basis, so some form of protection must have existed then I suppose ? LD [/quote] This "lawsuit" thing. What actually happened was that Norlin, the then-parent company of Gibson, decided to commence legal action against Elger Hoshino, the US arm of Hoshino Gakki, owner of the Ibanez brand. This was a response to the use of Gibson's trade dress headstock profile on Ibanez Les Paul copies, and other Gibson-based designs in the Ibanez range. The action commenced in June 1977, and this is the letter sent out to their dealer network at the time: [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Random/lawsuitletter_zpszdod2dkk.jpg.html"][/url] The proposed court case never actually took place, because Hoshino had changed the headstock shape of their range of Gibson copies to a non-infringing design a year earlier, in mid - 1976. The litigation was only aimed at the headstock, as the other design features were presumably regarded as generic. So there are no actual "Lawsuit" guitars - and the only ones that the term can loosely be applied to are pre '76 Ibanez-branded Gibson copies. If you're not going to be quite that pedantic, then "lawsuit era" covers that whole 1970 - 1977-ish period. Although no-one actually got sued, the whole thing stirred up the Japanese & Korean guitar industry, headstock designs were changed across the board (even lowly Hondos) and the "quality" brands ditched their copy ranges overnight. The likes of Ibanez & Aria had been tentatively marketing original designs for a few years already, and these became the mainstay of their output. Even budget brands upped their game and weren't scared of building interesting instruments that weren't US-brand clones. I suppose that was the birth of the "proper" Japanese guitar industry - budget copy manufacture moved to cheaper sources like Korea & Taiwan, and by the early 80s, everyone seemed to be playing MIJ Ibanez, Aria Pro, Yamaha, Washburn etc originals. J.

Mine was a shortscale Jazz-ish thing branded Grant - not mine in the pics but exactly the same: [sharedmedia=core:attachments:53794] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:53795] Had this new from Unisound in Chatham High Street in July 1978 - the £59 it cost was absolutely all I could afford, even with my dad helping out. It was awful and probably held my playing back by a few years. Now long-gone, I think the remains of it were left in the loft of a house I vacated several decades ago. I'd defretted it, resprayed it, messed with the pukups and smashed it off my bedroom walls - and it was still unplayable crap. Much as I appreciate old MIJ stuff, I have absolutely zero nostalgia for this piece of sh!t. And it was plywood, so it wouldn't even have burned well. Jon.

I do like that - too bad it's on such a dull guitar.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1460907907' post='3029683'] Surely, that's why there are CS, MIA, MIM, MIJ, Squiers etc. [/quote] This, precisely. The Squier range was launched to compete directly with the far cheaper but often superior quality MIJ copies in the 80s. The company Fender contracted to do this was Kanda Shokai, owner of the Greco brand, and anecdotally the first run of JV Squiers began life as Grecos. J.

The Fender headstock design (well, the basic P/Strat shape) is "borrowed" in the first place! While it's not a straight copy, it's very heavily influenced by a 1940s Bigsby design:

Fender failed to protect their trademark designs, or "trade dress", which, under US law, meant it passed into the public domain, so now anyone is free to copy those designs. Gibson, on the other hand, took steps to protect their "open book" headstock profile (the so-called lawsuit that never actually happened!) and still retain that as a trademark. For further reading, consult the various R*ck*nb*cker/Faker threads. Jon.

[url="http://www.wdmusic.com/JBLR_1.html"]Kent Armstrong Jazz Lippy[/url] Would appear to be a standard J unit stuck inside a shiny metal choob. No idea what the ones on the Surfcaster are but doubtless they're bog-standard single coils of some sort. J.

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1460381045' post='3025163'] Looks like a Charvel copy. [/quote] It is a "reissue" of the Charvel, hopefully properly licensed & everything. Oddly, I spotted this myself a couple of days ago, and, having a bit of long-term Surfcaster GAS, was quite excited until I saw the £700 price tag. I expect an original MIJ Charvel would probably be a bit less, if one came up. Jon.

The web's full of these lists compiled from older lists off the web and seemingly researched from Ebay listings. Not really very helpful at all, this does the typical thing of conflating brands and factories, and associating territory-specific importer rebrands with specific factories, trading companies or Japan-specific brands - without even pointing out which is which. Most importer brands came from numerous different sources, based on what was the best deal at the time. Any accurate info on this list is rendered indistiguishable from the gobbledygook, unless you already know the facts you're looking for. NB 80s Marlins were never MIJ - they seem to be either low-end Korean or rebadged Musimas from the old DDR! Jon.

Wouldn't pay more than £50 for it - this is post-Matsumoku, Korean made, probably plywood and nowhere near the quality of original MIJ Aria Pros. In actual fact I remember offering a guy at a car boot £30 for one of these, he told me to f*ck off, and I cheerfully did as he requested! Jon.

Home-made Alembic wannabe.

[quote name='wotsy' timestamp='1460238074' post='3024014'] Woah, I've just seen one of theses for sale on Gumtree for £399:99! It's not even got all the original parts. [url="https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/vintage-daion-electric-bass-guitar-70-s-japan-emg-pickups-refurbished-upgraded/1163857108"]https://www.gumtree....aded/1163857108[/url] [/quote] Same one's been on Ebay for over a month. Going nowhere fast - wonder why? [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-DAION-ELECTRIC-BASS-GUITAR-70S-JAPAN-EMG-PICKUPS-REFURBISHED-UPGRADED-/301923655012"]http://www.ebay.co.u...D-/301923655012[/url] J

Here's a pic I bet you thought you'd never see: [url="http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/LanterneRouge/media/Random/lemmy-B20_zpskoqpxe0r.jpg.html"][/url] J.

50 shades of shonky, that is. Seller has no idea what he's [s]talking[/s] lying about, this looks like cheap tat & if this was ever a Squier in the first place, I expect it said "Affinity" on the pointy end! He reckons it's '94-5, do I have to remind you that Fender-logo'd MIJ Squiers - early JVs - were all 1982? And does this look replica quality to you? J.

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1459796015' post='3019779'] Did you mean "naughty-bottomed"? [/quote] Yes. Yes, I do believe I did.

The original Talman guitars from '94 are quite interesting. These hail from an era when manufacturers were experimenting more with non-standard materials like Luthite & Ebonol - back then Talmans (Talmen?) were made from something Ibanez referred to as "Resoncast" - which seems to all intents & purposes to be MDF! Have to admit I like the Kent Armstrong lippys & Fotoflame top! J.

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1459782700' post='3019562'] Thanks for the low down, Jon. It would appear that, all things considered, it has the features I am not keen on - heavy, wide-ish neck, middy aggressive pickups - useful to know should another pop up. Looks the biz, though [/quote] Ironically, I normally prefer a bass that's at least 2 or 3 pounds lighter & has a J-width neck - the pickup's the only thing on this I'd actually choose. And even that's not original. It does look badass though. Did I just actually say "badass"? J.