Bassassin

Hi Chris, just checked out the site and it's a good start. I'll get some pics & info together of my 3 (Kasuga bolt-neck, Matsumoku-made through-neck/dual truss, & unknown (possibly originally a Shaftesbury) through-neck. I've also got numerous 70s catalogues which feature pics & model numbers (including the Hondo) so if I can get my laptop to talk to my ancient scanner, I can get these to you as well. BTW the Hondo's Korean, not Japanese. Jon.

Well, that ain't something you see every day... Functionless but demonstrating some rudimentary creativity I suppose - and don't mourn the donor bass, it was one of those Taiwanese Kay P copies from the 70s - not exactly a classic. Jon.

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-icon-distressed-bass-guitar-/151246137787"]http://www.ebay.co.u...r-/151246137787[/url] £80 BIN, £15 postage. If I hadn't recently picked up a Squier VMJ I'd be all over this. Get in, as they say. Jon.

Never had my hands on a Morris Hurricane, but the factory, Moridaira, did make some good-quality instruments. 70s & early 80s Hohners were made by Moridaira, I have a Hohner-branded Washburn Wing copy guitar which is extremely well-made and quite lovely - or it was before I played it to death & stupidly modified it! Looks like a pretty bass, if it's a sensible price why not go & have a look, if the seller's local? J.

[quote name='NightGoat' timestamp='1393871666' post='2385343'] I am still digging a little bit into the local Dutch brand ¨Gerrinez¨ also one of those vague brand names where there is little to find about. I still think it is possible that on a day in the 70s a local music shop here in the netherlands ordered a batch of 4001s copies from some japannese factory and sold them with the ¨Gerrinez¨ brand. [/quote] I remember Gerrinez being discussed on one of the vintage guitar boards - can't remember which one, though. I think you're right, it was a dealer called Gerritsen, if I remember correctly. J.

Just to add a bit more confusion to the mix, it wasn't only the Japanese factories making high-quality, accurate copies. Italian manufacturer Gherson made a very nice neck-through bass with twin truss rods (quite easy to ID, though) but for me the proper widcard is Brazilian acoustic guitar builder Giannini, whose 70s Fakers were near-indistiguishable from the best-quality MIJ examples: [url="http://hisonic.blogspot.co.uk/"]http://hisonic.blogspot.co.uk/[/url] Regarding Japanese factories, I could reel off a list of about 20-odd who were making & exporting copy guitars under various different brands in the 70s, and I'm confident there were any number of other, smaller manufacturers doing the same thing. All of them were copying the popular American instruments of the era, so it's entirely reasonable to assume they all made Rick 4001 copies. We will never be able to identify them all! J.

Bugger! That makes me wish I'd just nabbed it & flipped it when I had the chance. Would've been good to see someone on here get it for a good price though. What a git. J.

[quote name='chaypup' timestamp='1393583843' post='2382156'] What are you selling? [/quote] Not entirely sure yet, but off the top of my head: Cimar XR2065 P/J bass (needs rewiring & fret fettling) Ibanez 2366B Precision (pre '75) Unbranded 70s Bitsa Jazz Eros Mk II 1970-ish Jazz copy (dodgy neck) Ibanez RS924 Roadster (maybe) Kawai Sleekline J-type (maybe) Westbury Track 2 (maybe) Also: Squier 1985-ish E-serial Strat Hohner Revelation guitar Peavey T-40 Plus a bunch of old backline I'll never use again. That's for a start, there's probably a lot more I'll be parting with - A brief head count tells me I have roughly 40 basses & guitars plus various amps, cabs & pedals. In fairness I don't actually [i]want[/i] to sell very much of this stuff, but a house move within the next 6 months leaves me with no alternative. FAO mods - this isn't a "for sale" list, I have no prices for any of this and am not soliciting offers. In due course I'll put stuff up on BC in the appropriate fashion. J.

If this is getting dragged OT then I'm in! Kimbara (Matsumoku) Rickenfaker, from International Musician mag, mid-70s: [sharedmedia=core:attachments:35642] Doesn't look like it's the whole review, unfortunately. J.

Missed this thread at the time but I've had a few Satellites over the years and done a bit of research about them. Satellite was FCN music's low-end brand, they also owned the mid-range Columbus and the high-quality Kimbara brands. As far as I can tell all Satellites were Korean-made, at a time whan Korean quality was universally poor. I've owned a Satellite Jazz, Precision, Geoff Byrne's old neck-through P and two Les Pauls (there may be others I've forgotten) and they were all poorly made & finished and most had issues which compromised their useability. Out of that lot the bolt-neck P was a nice, playable bass, and one of the LPs was OK - apart from the dreadful pickups - but both suffered from extremely shoddy construction. Like all cheapos, I'm sure there were a few good ones, but back in the 70s/early 80s when these were around, quality control at this end of the market was practically non-existent. Satellite as a brand has a poor reputation which in my experience is pretty much justified. I'd say walk away from anything priced over £50, and be very, very sceptical about what's left! Jon.

[quote name='ash' timestamp='1393502867' post='2381048'] Well he contacted me and said 'cash and pickup only sorry' so unless anyone here fancies picking it up for me from Glasgow and posting it to Lancaster I'll pay them for it........ [/quote] Amazed it's still there! If you get it, will you have a go at fixing the broken bit of headstock? It should look like this: Looks like it should be straightforward enough - a donor Fender-shape head would provide the missing bit. Still tempted by this myself - but I'd never play it, I'd just gyppo-flip it for profit, because I'm a bad person. J.

Pretty sure it's not a Kasuga - I'd expect checked binding & a toaster style neck pup with some very fancy routing. As with a lot of these, it's easier to say what it's not than what it is - so this definitely isn't either a Matsumoku or a Fujigen build. I've said in the past that the problem with 70s copies is that a lot of them do tend to look very similar and there are a lot of Fakers at the higher end of the food chain (solid timber bodies, through-neck construction, accurate hardware & pups) where it's really hard to identify them. Basses branded Shaftesbury, CMI, Cimar, Fresher, Maya, Arbiter etc all fall into this category & so far I'm at a loss to say which factories actually made them. Jon.

Antoria Black Eagle - with an Ibanez logo on it this is pretty much the Holy Grail of 70s JapCrap basses, and you could expect to get £500-odd for it, even with the broken headstock & general dilapidation. With an Antoria logo (it's otherwise completely identical) it would fetch a little bit less, but this is still ridiculous bargain of the decade. I'm in the unfortunate position where I really do need to downsize the hoard of basses & guitars I'm sitting on, so I passed this up a couple of days ago when it first appeared. I would imagine it's now long-gone, but I'm sure you'll see it on Ebay very soon. Jon.

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1393445791' post='2380482'] Quest bass - anyone know anything about these? Looks like a Washburn Force 4 with a Westone Spectrum neck. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291089571490?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649"]http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1423.l2649[/url] [/quote] Well - Quest is a Vantage sub-brand, and early Vantages (and Quests) were Matsumoku-built. There's a Quest catalogue [url="http://www.matsumoku.org/models/vantage/catalogs/atak-manhattan/catalog_th.html"]here[/url] and this looks like it [i]might[/i] be the model Q-B, although it's kinda hard to tell! If anyone wants to sell me a Manhattan M-3BZ I'd be very willing to re-engage with my "problem"... J.

Stunning. Can't help wondering if the timber provides enough straight grain to be strong enough for a neck, though. Jon.

[quote name='noelk27' timestamp='1393375722' post='2379627'] Safer to just offer them crack. It's less addictive! [/quote]Quite correct, although I seem to be doing OK with my own dependency issues. I walked away from that Black Eagle (which was still available when I enquired) with only some minor shaking and only a brief panic attack. It's important to remember no addiction is ever beaten, and recovery lasts a lifetime. J.

Tell me about it. Within collecting distance for me but unsurprisingly it's all over the web (someone on FB gave me a heads-up yesterday) and is bound to be long gone by the time I get organised. Still, as I said, I need to be shifting stuff rather than buying more. Anyone want some JapCrap? J.

Too late again. That Pantera was gorgeous for £130, I would have had no choice... Probably a good thing I missed it - I seriously, urgently, need to downsize. J.

[quote name='Musky' timestamp='1393230485' post='2377476'] Pictures are fine Jon, as is discussion of fakes. It's just links to any ads that are banned. [/quote] Thanks - suddenly got cold feet over all the hot JH action I missed while I was gone! Here it is, then: [sharedmedia=core:attachments:35315] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:35316] J.

Sorry Eric, sadly I missed it too. Seiwas were made by Chushin, weren't they? Chushin's come up on the Facebook JapCrap guitars group & I couldn't remember if they made Seiwa. J.

Genuine fake knockoffs of the 4004LK do exist: [i]*pics deleted for fear of The Wrath Of Hall*[/i] That turned up on Fleabay about 5 years back, around the time those rather sexy Bach copies were around. It was brand new & not all that dear. Jon.

Doubt it's JapCrap, looks too recent. Still probably worth £50-odd for the case & parts, even if the bass turned out to be junk. Jon.

Sweet - I had 2 SR800s at one point, and have residual GAS for another. You won't be surprised to hear that one was in my watched items! I think it's a great colour! Jon.

Same person's also selling a Vintage brand fretless - looks like the back of neck pic is of that bass. Got his pics mixed up, I suppose. Jon.

Fretted/fretless headless twin neck makes sense to me. Sadly £800 doesn't! Jon.