Bassassin

This seller's entire Items For Sale list looks like his plan to make a million overnight involved going to the local car boot with £40 and a wheelbarrow: https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/imola1994/m.html?item=364067011254

Laptop/PC + Reaper + MT Power Drumkit (or similar inexpensive DAW/plugin pairing) should do what you want.

Rare stealth ad for a rare & (debatably) cool old headless bass, currently £90 with two days to go. Collection-only from Nottingham otherwise I'd be telling no-one & getting ready to snipe. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185673840815

I think an immaculate, virtually unplayed one might justify £250+, but like you say, the 1 & 1As haven't appreciated like other MIJs have. It's interesting that the through-neck Thunder II & IIIs do go for quite serious money. That said, I think this one might stick around for a while!

Always worth looking at the sold items to get an idea of price - still lots of Thunders around, a few go for around that sort of money, but they still seem to be mostly in the £100-£200 bracket. This one looks OK, well-played but not abused & could do with a good hosing-down. Looks all original but I'd say a bit over the odds.

I don't know much about 60s stuff (or the many holdover 60s designs that were sold as beginner guitars in the 70s & early 80s) but I doubt this is Teisco. There were literally hundreds of little manufacturers knocking out this sort of stuff in the 60s and it could have come from any of them. That said, I've seen this type of pickup on Kawai guitars. So it might be a Kawai. Maybe.

I believe the owner of that particular imitation has it up for sale on the Rickenfakers FB group.

Didn't expect much, didn't get much. I'm broadly of the opinion they've not done anything worth getting excited over since Justice For All, and Metallica were always at their best when they sounded bleak, hostile or both. This is just safe, tame and a bit dated, and probably the best thing I can say is it sounds quite sprightly for a band in their late 50s/60s. Better than the turgid Load/Reload era (I remember a pal who'd been a fan since Kill 'Em All commenting "They should change their name to Licker, 'cos they're not f**ing metal any more!") but I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy the album.

Never had an FGN but have owned many, many Fujigen Gakki - built basses & guitars. My current faviourite recording bass is my recently rediscovered Ibanez RS924 Roadster, which has the punchiest, best-balanced PJ growl of any bass I've ever played, and if I need a Strat my £70 car-boot E-serial MIJ Squier remains the go-to. Apropos of nothing, Fujigen was the factory originally contracted to produce MIJ Fenders & Squiers when Fender Japan was established. Fender Japan was a collaboration between Kanda Shokai (owner of the Greco brand) and Yamano Gakki, and Fujigen was used because of the existing relationship with Kanda to produce Greco guitars - which were the instruments that sufficiently impressed FMIC to want to manufacture in Japan in the first place. The contract lasted until the mid 90s, after which most Japanese Fenders were made by Tokai Gakki & Dyna Gakki, labelled as CIJ to differentiate them from MIJ Fujigens.

My partner's away at the moment so not available for consultation - but she is at the same time the best and the worst person in the world about this sort of thing because I know for a fact she'd say BUY IT!!! ...And I probably will...

Struggling with my trigger-finger over a Shimano 105 7020 hydraulic groupset for £499 over at Wiggle/Chain Reaction. About half what it was 18 months ago... Bugger, for a moment I though this was BikeChat.

Hard to tell much from the pics, but based on the bridge (screw in each corner) & the domed string retainer, I'd say it's Korean. I've never seen these components on an MIJ bass but most late 70s/80s MIK Fender types have them.

J'arrive! I've actually got the guitar version of this, which means I've ended up finding out quite a bit of info about these. These are among the earliest Japanese copies and probably first appeared around 1969-70, and were likely available for three or four years around that time. As was mentioned upthread, they're quite common in the UK branded as Jedson, also sold as Vox, plus numerous other names. Like many old MIJ instruments, plenty were sold unbranded. Most names on instruments like these are just brands, not manufacturers, but these also come up labelled Sakai, which was a 60s/early 70s Japanese manufacturer.

HW builds some incredible basses.

Ric was Rick until Rick became RIC. See?

'Short scale Rickenbacker International Corporation copy' is an odd sales description, particularly considering that the company did not exist at the time this instrument was made. [/pedant]

BC needs a 'Weirdest First Post' thread.

Repro Guitar Parts in the States do one. I've had a few bits & peices off them before (Ibby Musician trc & Aria SB knobs) and they're excellent quality, fast delivery & reasonable postage. https://reproguitarparts.com/#!/Westone-Thunder-II-Bass-Truss-Rod-Cover/p/356714735/category=1385115

There is - would have popped in sooner if I'd had a notification that I'd been tagged here. Will have to have a look at my settings... Anyway, while I don't have any specific knowledge of these, I'd say either date - '78 or '80 - is feasible (I would be inclined to think the headstock number is the dateable one) and they definitely pre-date 1985 whatever the manufacturer thinks now! Very small images but here's a 1980 Kawai catalogue showing the range. It's also understood that that Kawai made Alembic copies for Fernandes, and these appear starting in their 1981 catalogue (p.18). They may have been around earlier but there's a bit of a gap in the fossil catalogue record! Now - about these pics...

I played bass for about 3 years & had reached a reasonable standard before picking up a guitar - I was having musical ideas I couldn't really express properly on bass & wanted to start to compose my own stuff. I never got that good on guitar - not consistent enough to gig with it, but I can play anything I can think up & with enough takes can (IMO) sound reasonably convincing! That's maybe more of a reflection on my compositional skills than my playing ability though. Having spent various long periods over the years out of gigging bands (like now), I definitely play guitar more than bass, although I'd never consider it my main instrument. I've been told both that I play guitar like a bassist, and that I play bass like a guitarist. Which obviously means I'm doing everything wrong...

Just had a PM chat with @eubassix, looks like it's 1992, which looks about right!

TBH that's a bit fairer on the seller, you'd be robbing him at £100!

Gorgeous little thing & a total bargain, I have a V7 fretless & it's a superb bass. I do have a bit of short-curious GAS & a U5 is high on my (very theoretical!) list - I can tell you there's a blue one for sale on BC at the moment for a LOT more than you paid for that...

Mid 80s to 90s, made by Cort in Korea if it's an early one. Shame the serial's not visible as it should be dateable from that. Very pretty bass & looks in excellent condition for its presumed age. The Hohner Pro range were generally extremely well-made & playable instruments, +1 to @Lfalex v1.1's comments about the pre, I have a B2A with a similar setup.

Not so much made under license, as simply a rebrand of a model made by Moridaira. This was very common during the Japanese guitar-making boom in the 70s, a variety of identical instruments, usually copies but also original designs like this, appearing under numerous different names. I don't think Hohner ever manufactured guitars & basses in-house, in the 70s & early 80s they came from Moridaira, and from maybe 1983, production moved to Cort in Korea. Most of the output from those factories would have been sold under other brands too.