Bassassin

If that was near me, I'd probably be 'round the back of the booze shop in a flash, regardless of the ongoing downsizing. Really silly bargain, someone get it bought, even if you just want to flip it for a few bob. The C prefix on the SN indicates Cort, so it'll likely be very good, if my Cort-built Ibby EDA900 is anything to go on. Jon.

I'm guessing someone doesn't get out much...

Reading through the description, the bass appears to have a massive case of gender dysphoria. Jon.

[quote name='kodiakblair' timestamp='1402524159' post='2474521'] Can't believe he's asking £150 for that Hohner. There was one sold beginning of the month for £64. [url="http://www.ebay.ca/itm/121347417252?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649&clk_rvr_id=648657162201&afsrc=1"]http://www.ebay.ca/i...7162201&afsrc=1[/url] [/quote] http://basschat.co.uk/topic/7473-japcrap-spotting/page__view__findpost__p__2473998 Do try & keep up! J.

Yep - sold the Hohner on Ebay, his listing is the 4th time it's been on this year. I made a couple of quid on the deal, but have done a fair bit of work to it to make it as nice as possible. I didn't buy it to flip, though, I thought it looked interesting & wondered if it was related to the Washburn Force series. Turned out to be an OK but not-fantastic copy. Anyway only sold it as part of my pre-house move clearout, along with a pretty but ratty Satellite LP copy that was my daughter's. Next on Ebay will probably be an MIJ J copy I bought late last year, interesting but the neck's not great. Decent stuff will go on BC, once push comes to shove... J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1402475938' post='2473815'] The same seller has some 1980s Hohners for sale. [/quote] The same seller has a 1980s Hohner he bought from me for £64 and listed starting at £150 on the day he got it! Cheeky git, but at least he took his own pics! J

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1402441840' post='2473655'] We discussed Lincoln basses on here some years ago. Looks nice, but not worth £500 I think. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Rare-Bass-Guitar-/301211595720?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item46219c33c8"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item46219c33c8[/url] [/quote] Very ambitious! Yep, these turn up with a few different names, (Asama's pretty common) and seem to be variations on a design made by Kawai, who I somehow pinned down as a manufacturer for Fernandes - who also had a version or two of this. Lincolns all seem to be in the UK, making his US brand claim as probable as his Matsumoku assertion. But - it's stripy, it MUST be a Matsumoku! Oh - and while we're on the subject of wildly ambitious pricing: [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kapa-Electric-Bass-Guitar-Japan-/251555552366"]http://www.ebay.co.u...n-/251555552366[/url] I do like the offset position markers, but that aside unbranded & Jedson-branded versions of this don't tend to fetch more than £70 - £100 or so on a good day. J

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1402480565' post='2473903'] If you genuinely believe that music is a gift from God then in learning more about it and becoming better at it are you not respecting the gift given to you? Surely rejecting the gift is more of a problem? Your own posts show that you do not put music above God in any way. [/quote] Been trying to think of a way to phrase my thoughts, and this comes pretty close. Personally I'm agnostic, leaning heavily towards atheism, but I've been through some serious stuff recently which led to a lot of soul-searching & and I'd say a much closer relationship with spirituality - which I don't as yet fully understand. However - your music is a part of you, it's part of the person God, as I'm sure you see Him, created, and as such surely your faith underpins your music. I think you should try and see the two things as part of a whole, and not seperate entities. It concerns me that you're making a decision that might have deeper implications than you presently realise in other areas of your life, including your relationship with God. I can't accept that your God would want you to abandon something so integral to you as a person, and to make yourself desperately unhappy as a result. Jon.

[quote name='UglyDog' timestamp='1402425397' post='2473429'] May I be the first to say "phwoarr"? Phwoarr. Thank you. [/quote] I'll second that man's "phwoarr". Gorgeous, gorgeous neck. Jon.

As far as I've been able to make out, Custom was a European brand - probably Netherlands - from the 70s. I picked up a Custom brand Les Paul Junior copy at my local car boot a few years back, all the references to the brand I could find (not many) were sites & people from Holland. Most names on 70s MIJ instruments were importer/distributors & music shops' own brands, so it's highly unlikely Custom was ever officially imported into the UK. I'm guessing the bass in question is the one that surfaced on the Rickenfakers FB group - in which case I'm 99.9% sure it was made by Kasuga Gakki, who imo were one of the best Japanese factories of the 70s. I have a Kasuga bolt-neck Faker (The Rickenbugger) and it's a beautiful & exceptionally well-crafted instrument. Jon.

DiMarzio pole pieces have imperial-sized hex sockets (3/32) and I would expect the thread is also imperial. Unfortunately I seriously doubt they're interchangeable with metric Schaller poles. Jon.

That's interesting & rather cool at the same time. But why are these old MIJ neckthroughs always a: fitted with a Precision pickup and b: collection only? Reading throught the guff I wrote about Asama, and the other brands the same instruments sometimes appeared with, I seem to remember that I subsequently discovered a circuitous route to reach the conclusion that some of them were made by Kawai. Perhaps. J.

Excellent - I'll be picking that up. Jon.

[quote name='wotsy' timestamp='1402022148' post='2469312'] Grabber copy by Avon: [url="http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/151318704525?nav=SEARCH"]http://m.ebay.co.uk/...4525?nav=SEARCH[/url] [/quote] I had one of these, with the logo sensibly scraped off. Very, very accurate copy, sounded pretty decent too. Mine could've done with some fret fettling, which was a little beyond the scope of my abilities at the time. J.

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1401805241' post='2467044'] What about Lemmy? He has a naturally raw voice, and even if you only count from Motörhead onwards, you're still talking 1975. [/quote] This. And I don't think you can have a discussion involving Venom without mentioning the immense debt they owed Motorhead. Jon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squier#Korean_Squiers 87-88, then. I have a Fenix Strat, cost a whole £35 from my local car boot, Fender headstock, same E-serial. Lovely player, probably the nicest Strat I've played. J.

Yep - through-neck ET288 - definitely a little more rare & exclusive than the 280! What's annoying is that the Matsumoku.org site seems to be down at the moment. I did want to check Wunjo's claim that it's 1971 - the Mat site has a catalogue scan featuring this bass, which I think is 1975, which is a more realistic date. Matsumoku instruments prior to 1976 don't have date-related serials, in the case of through or set necks they don't have any, so the only way to establish a date is from literature like catalogues. A bit of digging suggests they were mid/late 70s, later ones should have an SN. Anyway, that's irrelevant to the price - while I might wince at the price tag, this is one seriously rare bass (certainly in the UK) and you might have quite a wait, or search, for another if you pass this one up. However, I would haggle, and haggle hard - when they turn up overseas they're nothing like that sort of money, so it might be worth pointing out to the shop that you'd pay less to buy one from the US & import it! Anyway, found a TB thread about them lots of pics & a bit of info there: [url="http://www.talkbass.com/threads/neck-through-epiphone-newport-embassy-coronet.596452/"]http://www.talkbass....coronet.596452/[/url] J.

The link won't work for me - but I'd think the ballpark for a decent mid-70s Matsumoku Epi ET280 should realistically be about £200 or so. They'e not that rare (The Aria version with the 4-a-side head's a lot scarcer) and they do come up on Ebay/Gumtree from time to time, and I think a few have floated around BC over the years. Can you post a different link, or maybe just the pics? I think the ET288 is a neck-through (owes a little bit to Matsumoku's Rickenfakers, I think) and would probably command a few more quid than a 280. However, considering the condition you've described, £800's wildly over the odds and probably about twice what it's worth. Jon.

Young Chang was the Korean factory which Fender used when they transferred the bulk of Squier production from Japan to Korea, which was, I think, around 1988. Fenixes with the Fender headstock were an excercise in naughtiness by Young Chang, when they basically badged up Squier production with their own brand name - so this bass & other Fenixes with a Fender headstock are late 80s or maybe just early 90s. When Fender got wind of the Fenix brand & its similarities to their own product, they transferred production elsewhere & prevented Young Chang (presumably with lawsuit threats) from using the Fender headstock design. If the bass has a serial it should be consistent with MIK Squier serials from the same era, as far as I know. Jon.

[quote name='lemmywinks' timestamp='1401559424' post='2464781'] Can we still call you a Scot? [/quote] Go on, then - it's not actually an insult, just wildly inaccurate! J. Edit - just had a thought - does Alan at ACG make ScotGrot?

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1401488223' post='2464271'] Pancake bodies are a 'Norlin' trait that typify Gibson Lesters from the '70s I think. The late '60s stuff was made more like the earlier Les Pauls. [/quote] Cheers for the info - makes sense that it was Norlin era, in retrospect. J.

Re the entire "JapCrap" issue - I've been contacted by a BC mod regarding this, and there is no problem with continuing to use the title. No-one has been upset by it enough to protest in the 7 years the thread's been alive & active and realistically that's enough to conclude that the context is fully understood by everybody who reads the thread, and it really isn't an issue here. For me, it's just a joke title, not a crusade, and I'd be willing to change it if there seemed to be a massive degree of genuine antipathy towards it - but there doesn't so I won't. And I'm not the kind of person who feels that just because Americans want/believe something, then I should feel pressured to comply. That's the sort of thinking that could make a British Prime Minister lie to their electorate, and end up becoming an untried war criminal, isn't it? This thread exists for the purpose of discussing Ebay, Gumtree & other listings of vintage (and later) Japanese, Korean etc basses that might be interesting to people with a mindset that goes beyond 60-year old American designs. I think perhaps the discussion on political correctness and the right to take offence and demand censorship on behalf of people who probably don't know they're supposed to be offended should take place in Off Topic. That might be interesting. Meanwhile - Kawai Aquarius? You don't see many of them - although I did miss out on a completely white-painted (including the fretboard) one about 5 years ago. Still, I managed to find a Kawai Sleekline, which made me feel a bit better... J.

Late to the party but I'm afraid I'm here to pop everyone's balloons. Unfortunately this isn't a Japanese bass - Kays of this era were Taiwanese, there are plenty of well-preserved examples with a heel-sticker with the model number (KB-24) and "Made In Taiwan". The good news is that there are quite nice ones of these - I've had two, both of them had pretty decent-sounding pickups, one of them had a really good neck with a quality fret-job. Like all low-end basses, quality control was an issue & occasionally a decent one slipped through without anyone noticing. Geoff's right about Moridaira using the 6-bolt plate, and like most of the construction techniques on this Kay (pancake body, "strip mahogany" neck etc) it's copied from early MIJ construction. Quite a few Japanese factories used the split-body, including Fujigen, and this technique itself was "borrowed" from Gibson, who used it on LPs from (I think) the late 60s. Jon.

Looks like a Thunder I, but still a deal. J.