Bassassin

Interesting way of running a "make me an offer" auction. Shame best offer prices go undisclosed, but the pics are awful, bass looks a bit rough anyway, seller comes across as (and I may be wrong here) someone who picked this up for £30 at his local car boot, knows nothing about instruments and has Googled it & looked at Ebay sold listings. What "lesser versions" does he imagine he's referring to? About £150 - £175's worth, imo. Jon. Edit - he's previously failed to sell this at £275: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ibanez-Blazer-Bass-made-in-Japan-collectors-item-CAN-POST-OFFERS-INVITED-/271432810199

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1399147055' post='2441569'] [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Westone-Thunder-lll-Fretless-Electric-Bass-Guitar-1987-Very-Good-Condit-/301173170545?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item461f51e171"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item461f51e171[/url] Very nice, and more interesting as a fretless. That's quite a high price though, will it actually sell at that? [/quote] Beautiful example, but I'd think that's £150 or so over the odds. Westones are not quite worth Aria SB money yet! J.

Should point out this is a "licensed by Steinberger" bridge from the Hohner B2 series & other Cort-made headless basses, not an actual US Steiny bridge! Trying to ignore this - I don't need any more bits for theoretical projects I'll never actually do! Jon.

Aria STB-GT: [sharedmedia=core:attachments:71585] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:34467] Basically a poor man's Ray with a Jazz-ish neck, P-shaped body & 2-band EQ. These tend to go for around £120, think they were/are around £200 new. There was a blue one for sale here for ages, don't know if it's still up or not. Jon.

That's the thing. Should be a big string retainer block with it too: Schaller 460, apparently. J.

Always liked the guitars but remember thinking the bass was hideous when I saw one in a shop. That was a good few years ago & funnily enough, I really like the look of this. I'm somewhat relieved I don't have £650 to blow! Jon.

Actually - having another look, I'm pretty sure the bridge is an old Schaller 2-point roller bridge. You hardly ever see these (don't think they've made them for years) and might well be worth a couple of bob in its own right. J.

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1398891766' post='2438827'] Norlin were probably worried that those guys were making Les Pauls better than they were at that point in time.... [/quote] Well - Tokai certainly were! J.

[quote name='allighatt0r' timestamp='1398869871' post='2438478'] An Avon Rose Morris with what looks to be a dimarzio model one added right up against the bridge... [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Avon-Rose-Morris-Vintage-Bass-MIJ-/281323397948"]http://www.ebay.co.u...J-/281323397948[/url] [/quote] Looks like it, but the seller's saying no signal from the bridge pup. J.

Headstock shape wrong. No country of origin, & presumably no s/n to ID it with. Looks like a dodgy defret (pretty sure I've never seen a lined fretless maple board Fender before) and I doubt massively it's ever been near a "dealership". And even if it has, shop assistants are seldom experts. Shonky, bodged-up (check out the oversize nut with bits of snot-rag stuck under the strings) piece of tat. Jon.

[quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1398715906' post='2436957'] I assumed the white stripes comment here was because there were two of them, rather than indicating the drummer wasn't very good, which is how I would normally read that comparison. [/quote] I was wondering more about why a tight & competent duo would be compared to a pretty much inept one. J.

What TheGreek said. You won't lose money if you re-sell the MiM. Jon.

Didn't do anything much for me, I quite liked the staccato unison intro to one of the songs but it didn't sustain my interest beyond that. The problem for me is that I don't really get the point of going to such lengths to make a bass sound like an overdriven guitar, when simply using an overdriven guitar would be a lot simpler - and to be entirely honest, work better. I thought the drummer was pretty good, so not really getting the White Stripes comparisons! Jon.

Hope it never happens, I was never a fan but I kinda like Noel & would like to hope he has a bit of pride & integrity alongside his razor wit & negligible songwriting skills! Liam & the other original members were a bunch of neanderthal knuckledraggers who would have struggled to get a gig in their local boozer if not for Noel. Jon.

Correct explanation for the bridge cover, but the pickup cover was originally intended as a hand rest - the idea being that the side of the palm lies on the cover, fingers anchor on the thumb rest (or "tug bar" in its original position) and strings are plucked with the thumb. This was because it was assumed most electric bassists would be coming from the double bass - so I wonder who originated "conventional" fingerstyle technique? Jon.

[quote name='Si600' timestamp='1398498037' post='2434633'] Is the seller our own BigRedX? [/quote] Be surprised if it's not - he does like the occasional unconventional bass. Jon.

[quote name='Meddle' timestamp='1398465926' post='2434538'] I never understand those Lawsuit basses that copy the bass and neck perfectly from the original designs but substitute the original headstock design with a gimpy alternative with terrible tuners. Why do that? Throw your heart and soul into 90% of the instrument, cheap out on the bit that holds it all in tune. [/quote] Well, to be pedantic, they're not "lawsuit" basses - there never was a lawsuit - probably because John Hall wasn't in the instrument business back then. However, there was a threat of legal action, made by Gibson's then parent company Norlin, against the US distributors of Ibanez, Elger, taking issue over the "open book" headstock proifile used on Ibanez Gibson copies up until 1976. No legal action was taken because the threat came a year after Ibanez headstock shapes had been changed to a non-infringing design. However, the upshot of that was that other US & UK importers & distributors followed suit with their subsequent orders, so as not to be on the receiving end of actual litigation. Hence the gimpy headstock shapes. Regarding the tuners - properly tightened & lubricated, the closed-back Gotohs with the cast buttons (as seen on this Columbus) are actually not bad - they also turn up on British basses of the same era, like Shergold Marathons. Usually on the MIJ copies they are on the more budget-oriented examples, such as Columbus, but higher-end copies from most major Japanese factories used good-quality open-back tuners. J.

[quote name='Ktmman' timestamp='1398410484' post='2433752'] , THESE ARE AN ABSOLUTE FORTUNE NEW SO GRABA BARGAIN!! On what planet ? [/quote] On Planet 1977, when £86 was a lot of money. A [i][b]lot[/b][/i]. Jon.

Shot? Should've been burnt. Jon.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1398272428' post='2432354'] I've never heard of a Vega bass before. Based on what I see in this listing, I don't think I've been missing anything. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Vega-power-bass-guitar-1978-made-in-japan-/261460975840?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3ce049e0e0"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item3ce049e0e0[/url] [/quote] Generic MIJ P copy, probably nothing much wrong with it beyond filth, water damage & missing saddles. Never heard of "Vega" either, and pretty sure the seller just making up random crap about a Martin connection. Which isn't a good way to sell an item. J.

My hovercraft is full of eels! J.

Dodgy comedy translation aside, that's a really striking-looking and interestingly put together bass, imo. Most of these old Eastern Bloc things tend to look like agricultural folk-art, but I really like that. Jon.