Bassassin

There's Tokais & there's Tokais. Broadly speaking, Japanese-made ones (both vintage & current) are excellent quality, sought-after & expensive, Korean/elsewhere made ones are more generic decent instruments with a Tokai badge and a less alarming price tag. Then there are ones like this: And it's very, very good. Jon.

[quote name='greenbay' post='905407' date='Jul 26 2010, 12:54 AM']you're dreaming if you think you can get a ricky bass for £600. Anyone who knows their stuff wouldn't sell one that cheap. New ones go for £1800 and the waiting list is a year. You can find old ones but not for £600. Pleasant dreams![/quote] Check the date of my post, sunshine. Bye. J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='906336' date='Jul 26 2010, 09:08 PM']Ibanez Roadster, P/J. I don't know much about the Roadsters. I presume it's a very nice bass, but I think it looks a bit ugly. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ibanez-RS924-Roadster-MIJ-/200501587502?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2eaed36e2e"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ibanez-RS924-Roadste...=item2eaed36e2e[/url][/quote] That's our very own Mr Pablo selling that. I've got one of these, I agree they aren't the most beautiful of basses but playability, build quality & sound make up for it. Plus Steve 'Arris used to play one! They weigh a ton though. J.

[quote name='Martin E' post='904629' date='Jul 25 2010, 11:37 AM']From my age and perspective the instrument we all play and love is definitely an electric bass.[/quote] An electric bass[i] what[/i]? J.

Old early 80s Aria Pro bridge on that. Conveniently, about the only non-combustible part. Jon.

[quote name='allihts' post='902153' date='Jul 22 2010, 05:51 PM']whats wrong with calling it a bass? simples![/quote] Nothing, all the time you're speaking colloquially with other musicians. As soon as you start needing to be more specific (or you're in the company of an agonisingly pedantic git, like me) the question you may get is "a bass [i]what[/i]?" "Bass" simply refers to the instrument's tonal range, it tells you nothing about what type of instrument it is or what family of instruments it belongs to. Although it's conceptually a hybridised instrument, all it takes from the acoustic upright double bass is its number of strings and its standard tuning. In every other facet of its design and construction it is a guitar. I think it's also reasonable to assume that a guitarist would adapt to it considerably more quickly than an upright player, because there is no necessity to learn any new techniques. Guitarists, the bloody lot of us. Jon.

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='901032' date='Jul 21 2010, 04:07 PM']You legend. Thanks! I was hoping it might be a £100 JapCrap oddity that nobody wants. [/quote] Unfortunately there aren't too many of them with Ibanez logos! I'd love a (cheap) Axstar! :brow: Jon.

[quote name='geoffbyrne' post='901905' date='Jul 22 2010, 02:00 PM']I played a Wesley about 7 years ago - had to wash my hands afterward - maybe things have improved? G.[/quote] Depends where Wesley get 'em from I suppose. I picked up one of the neckthrough active Rick things they had a few years ago when they were offloading them for £99. A few cut corners but a hell of a lot of bass for the money. Never had my hands on a Crunge though. So to speak. Jon.

No-name 70s JapCrap EB copy, doesn't look like a particularly good one, and is in a pretty abused state. Would probably fetch £120 on Ebay with enough flannel & flattering pics. Not entirely sure why being played by someone from a minor British punk band 30+ years ago suddenly makes it worth "£400 - £500". Bizarre. Jon.

[quote name='OldGit' post='901189' date='Jul 21 2010, 07:13 PM']Jon No one will think any the less of a JV jazz for having screw holes where a proper Fender pickup cover was fitted. It's not like sticking an extra thumb rest on or strap peg in the wrong place or routing it for a different bridge. In fact sell it with the covers and it will probably be worth £20 more. Oh, PS: Nice fix idea too.[/quote] I trust you noticed the " "? Thing is, KevinJazzBass asked a specific question about value, and like it or not, "collecty" people are very anal about such things & screwholes, covers, non-original parts and all that sort of thing will devalue it. That's just a symptom of the fact that these were sold as cheapos back in the day & most have been modded, trashed or worse by now. On the subject, I'm inclined to think the black undrilled scratchplate wasn't original - I think JV Jazzes would have come with drilled plates & undrilled bodies. Obviously I haven't seen 'em all (and Js seem much less common than Ps) so there might be exceptions. J.

Take off your drilled scratchplate & countersink the screwholes from the back. Then get some suitably small countersunk-headed machine screws & nuts, and attach the pup cover from behind, with the nuts on the front. This is how thumbrests were sometimes attached on JapCrap copies. You'll have to take off your strings & thread them under the cover to put it all back together. Alternatively if you don't give a sh!t about the value of your bass, do this: [quote name='OldGit' post='901019' date='Jul 21 2010, 03:53 PM']Just screw it on and don't worry.[/quote] Jon.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='899843' date='Jul 20 2010, 11:37 AM']Oh my god you encyclopaedic freak. And only £137? I could actually have one! Thank you![/quote] I'll have you know I consider that a compliment of the highest order. If I spot one I'll give you a shout. J.

[quote name='Dave Vader' post='899697' date='Jul 20 2010, 08:28 AM']Thanks Jon, I may nervously wander over there and say it came out of a box of parts from a long-lost/dead uncle or something then.[/quote] Or the ever popular "my mate bought this Faker - sorry, I meant my[i] former[/i] mate!" J.

It's one of these: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Arbiter-Bass-Guitar-1970-Excellent-Condition-Retro-/230496108668"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Arbiter-Bass-Guitar-...o-/230496108668[/url] JapCrap copy of the Kalamazoo mentioned earlier. There was a current auction for one as well but can't find it right now. If it turns up I'll post a link. Jon.

Looking at the pics, I'm 99.9% sure it's shonky. A 70s Rick plexi would be screened on the back, and would probably also have the model number of whatever instrument it was purloined from. The screwholes look countersunk & I've never noticed this on a real one - although I guess that could have been done later. I'm not a huge Rick expert (most of what I know derives from what you don't find on Fakers!) so my small margin of doubt would be that maybe this is from an extremely early Rick (50s/60s) and the back-printed sticker pre-dates the screenprinted trcs I've seen. But I doubt it. Rickresource is cool - just don't tell them it's off a Faker you own! Jon.

[quote name='SS73' post='898452' date='Jul 18 2010, 10:41 PM']Is that the bass in your avatar, it has the neck pup in the position of a pre 74?, nice glo though.[/quote] That looks like a 60s type scratchplate - as well as having the 1/2" gap, it goes right up to the bridge pup surround. Jon.

Jedsons weren't all sh!te by a long way. Things like this were definitely entry-level tat but you'll also find some quite sexy early Matsumoku stuff wearing a Jedson badge, such as (guitar content warning) this: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Jedson-Les-paul-copy-1970s-Vintage-MIJ-/120596488289"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Jedson-Les-paul-copy...J-/120596488289[/url] I've seen some nice Mat Jazz copies badged as Jedson too, and their acoustics can fetch some quite startling money. The Jedson brand disappeared in the early 70s after J.E. Dallas & Sons (see what they did there?) merged into Dallas-Arbiter. I think the Arbiter brand broadly has a slightly better reputation too. J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='897503' date='Jul 17 2010, 07:07 PM']Wow! I saw that when it was listed, and would never have expected it to sell for that little.[/quote] Me neither. I just assumed it'd go for £200+, so I didn't bother watching the auction. J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='897080' date='Jul 17 2010, 08:44 AM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RARE-BLACK-WESTONE-THUNDER-1A-ELECTRIC-BASS-GUITAR-82-/250667714237?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3a5cf5c6bd"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RARE-BLACK-WESTONE-T...=item3a5cf5c6bd[/url] Thunder 1A bass, [size=3]£350 + £14.99 p&p[/size] It's "rare", donchaknow. Form an orderly queue.[/quote] After a [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rare-1983-Westone-Thunder-II-Passive-Bass-Pearl-Silver-/320559190035"]through-neck Thunder II in a genuinely uncommon finish[/url] just sold for a massive £112, this is getting into self-harmingly delusional territory! [quote name='pete.young' post='897462' date='Jul 17 2010, 06:02 PM']This looks very Japanese to me, but I'm not an expert by any means. Unbranded Les Paul copy, looks vaguely Antoria-like to me. Anyone know what it really is? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/vintage-bass-guitar-/220636502301?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item335ef5d91d"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/vintage-bass-guitar-...=item335ef5d91d[/url][/quote] I can tell you it's not an Antoria but at this point neither I nor anyone else can tell you what it actually is. These basses, and the guitar version of the same thing, plus a hollowbody bass, an SG-shaped bass & guitar, and a violin bass all from the same source are one of the current ongoing mysteries of JapCrap. They are pretty decent quality and are from the very early 70s, or very late 60s, at a push. They all share a few odd features, for example the shield-shaped neckplate, plus metal pickup rings. Arch-top basses have the carved wooden height-adjustable bridge you can see on this one, and necks are made from strip ply under the paint. Most of these turn up unbranded but they appear in the wild from time to time with importer names like Jedson & Zenta, which offer no clue to their origin. I have an SG guitar from this range hanging on my wall, and I actually had an identical LP bass to the one for sale here when I was 16 - so I'd really, really like to find out a bit more about them! £200 start is a bit steep though, particularly when the seller's too lazy to even bung a set of matching knobs on it. J.

[quote name='tauzero' post='893896' date='Jul 13 2010, 04:31 PM']That's the one, perhaps with a quick check of the telly schedules to make sure it's not competing with something of significance.[/quote] Quite. My last auction finishing during the World Cup final last week possibly wasn't the best example of forward planning. J.