Bassassin

One for a completist Rush tribute band, perhaps? [attachment=45167:geddyteardrop.jpg] Geddy's was a 60s Precision once - wonder what this one was? Jon.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='780133' date='Mar 19 2010, 07:25 PM']How much do they usually go for? What would you value that particular one at in its current condition?[/quote] I can't really tell much from the pics - it looks dull & grubby but the seller reckons "there's hardly a mark on it". I've had some absolutely foul guitars clean up beautifully so I think it would scrub up well. As far as value's concerned - remember this thread from around Xmas: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=71823"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=71823[/url] That one sold for £170 ultimately - I think with this one I'd cross my fingers for £120 - £150, given a good Ebay ad. J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='779749' date='Mar 19 2010, 01:41 PM']Westone Concord Bass. Collection only. BIN of £80. Starting bid of £30. Doesn't look wonderful I must admit. I'm presuming that this is Matsumoku made. Weren't the Concord guitars and basses among the first instruments released after the brand was created? EDIT: "Bought in the early 1980s". [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Westone-Concord-Bass-1_W0QQitemZ260571566933QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item3cab469355"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Westone-Concord-Bass...=item3cab469355[/url][/quote] Yes - these are Matsumoku. Surprised it's still there at 80 squids - if I was down in That London , I'd have it [s]and probably clean it up & gyppo-flip it[/s]. J.

It's a badly put-together bitsa - I'd expect a cheap & nasty neck & hardware - including the pups. Looks to me like the pocket/heel area's been roughly reshaped - I think that fancy grain's probably hiding a multitude of horrors! £87 was probably about right... Jon.

[quote name='Pookus' post='777916' date='Mar 17 2010, 08:05 PM']I have a very nice '73 Rickenbacker Jetglow 4001. When I bought it (in 1984) the damper assembly was missing. Until now I never missed it - but recently I got into using flatwounds and a whole different vibe. I want to replace the damper. Now I can easily resource the two bolts (they appear to be the same as the strap buttons!) but I cannot seem to find the strip with the damper material. Can anyone help me find one - or fab one up? Cheers, Jamie[/quote] You should ask at [url="http://www.rickresource.com/forum/"]http://www.rickresource.com/forum/[/url] - someone will probably have one in their spares box. They'll probably want to see lots of pics of your '73 JG. As do I. Jon.

These pop up on Ebay occasionally, early 80s JapCrap, possibly made by Matsumoku (as some Vox guitars were) and might have a DiMarzio in it. Jon.

You can use anything really - I've bodged 'em with folded-up cardboard in the past. Surprisingly good acoustic properties... Jon.

[quote name='Clarky72' post='776031' date='Mar 16 2010, 10:03 AM']Aria Catalogues Just found some great clearer scans of the early Aria catalogues. [url="http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B81O_PQg1P-uMDBjYzFjNzAtZDY0Ny00MDRiLWEwNTMtYzJjY2ViYzUwNGI1&sort=name&layout=list&pid=0B81O_PQg1P-uNGY0NzhhMjYtNWY4Yi00ODdkLTg0OGMtYTVkMzI5ZTUyZWNk"]Aria Catalogs[/url][/quote] Excellent resource - cheers for that! J.

[quote name='WarPig' post='776033' date='Mar 16 2010, 10:05 AM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-1960s-Kay-Precision-bass-guitar-Japan_W0QQitemZ190381063215QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item2c53987c2f"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-1960s-Kay-Pr...=item2c53987c2f[/url] Is it just me or does something look.....abit crooked? The back shot of the neck? Might just be the grain.[/quote] It is just the neck plate. I've had 2 of these, they're Taiwanese, early/mid 70s and if you can get them to set up OK they're not bad. Admittedly I paid less than £20 for mine from the car boot so allowances can be made! They are incredibly, ridiculously heavy and the necks (made from mahogany ply) are like fenceposts. Both of mine had very loud, & decent-sounding pups. This one looks pretty beat-up and £139 is just a bit ambitious, I think. Interesting window full of JapCrap behind the bass... J.

That wouldn't bee too hard to fix - you just need to get the broken screw out - carefully drill around it using a small bit, and then fill the hole - a small hardwood plug & a bit of epoxy would do that. If you were trying to fit this neck to a different body, that might be why the screw broke in the first place - you should always plug & re-drill the neck holes when doing a transplant! Jon

I've just lowballed a very interesting guitar, just to stop him changing the title if someone tells him what it is! Be cool if I got it for £56.67 - but I won't. J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='775416' date='Mar 15 2010, 05:12 PM']£180!!!! Did you ever get to see what happened to it after you sold it? Did it get restored? Not serious here, but perhaps the buyer thought it more valuable as with the modifications it no longer infringes on anyone's intellectual property. Edit: "Tokia" (sic) Rockinbetter, also from Bolton. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/tokia-rockinbetter-riki-style-bass_W0QQitemZ320502303133QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item4a9f6d099d"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/tokia-rockinbetter-r...=item4a9f6d099d[/url][/quote] He actually sold it on (for a few quid less) a month or so later - I guess he must have realised it was a lost cause & pretty much unrestoreable. Cheeky sod even used my photos! J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='774909' date='Mar 15 2010, 07:56 AM']Is that really a good price? It's all scratched up, missing much of the electronics and various bits and pieces, and is a bolt-on rather than a set neck. And if you add on the postage, it's more expensive than my Cimar was. This is a direct rather than rhetorical question, as I don't know prices.[/quote] I'd say yes - from the point of view of a collector - or some gyppo out to make a killing - despite all the missing bits, this still has the most important part - the Ibanez truss cover. A through-neck Ibby can go for £500 - £600, while the bolt-neck counterpart can get maybe £100 less. The Ibanez brand commands a premium that other JapCrap names don't. That said, Rick copies, regardless of condition, can bring out the Ebay hordes and silly money can change hands - check this out: [attachment=44838:bodyF.jpg] [attachment=44839:headfront.jpg] Top horn hacked off, frets ripped out & badly filled, neck binding gone, Ronseal refin, plywood scratchplate, no hardware etc. I sold that for £180. And bear in mind you got a [i]spectacularly[/i] good deal on your Cimar. J.

Someone shut that window - the light's attracting them! Black through-neck no-idea-what-it-is: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190380752650"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=190380752650[/url] Ibanez 2388B bolt neck project: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1970s-Ibanez-Rickenbacker-style-bass-guitar-Japan_W0QQitemZ190380711117"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1970s-Ibanez-Rickenb...emZ190380711117[/url] £229 BIN - if I had the parts to finish it (bridge, scratchplate, neck pup, electronics) I might well go for this one. Nice early Ibby copy - check out the massive square-hole tailpiece & full-width sparklies. Jon.

Usually it's the string adjacent to the one I'm playing (or the pup when I'm playing the E) but sometimes I rest my forearm on the body & my thumb floats around like a floaty thing. I always tend to find my thumb's on or above the neck pup - doesn't feel right over the bridge pup on J or P/J type basses. I've only been playing predominantly fingerstyle for about 6 or 7 years, having spent the previous 20 or so with a pick, so my technique (if you can call it that) is unschooled and doubtless very poor! Jon.

[quote name='Soloshchenko' post='774151' date='Mar 14 2010, 10:34 AM']Nice looking copy. I actually have serious GAS for something similiar. I must say, looking at it, it seemed surprising it was an Ibanez. Are you sure itisn't a Greco?[/quote] Theoretically it could be a Greco, as the same bass was sold under that brand. However Greco was technically a Japan-only brand & never officially imported to the UK, so it's quite unlikely. J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='774036' date='Mar 14 2010, 01:07 AM']A bolt-on from Bolton, no less.[/quote] J.

[quote name='Stacker' post='773408' date='Mar 13 2010, 09:31 AM']Interesting tug-bar holes on the 'guard. I'd bet it is one of the later Ibanez copies, judgin by those elephant-ears keys and size/diameter of the tuning capstans themselves. One of the better copies and with full-width inlays, too![/quote] I think this is a strange sort of transitional one - Ibby 4001 copies all had full-size tuners from the earliest ones in about 1971 and the date explains the full width inlays & checked binding. However for the first 4 years or so they had big chrome Gibson Mudbucker style pickups, which were actually single coils in big cases: [attachment=44769:edf9_3.JPG] Around 75/76, the model was updated with more accurate hardware and smaller pearloid inlays, however one or two "transitional" examples turn up with features from both "eras" and I think that's what Stevie's is - I've only ever seen FWIs with mudbuckers before. All Ibby 4001s seem to have checked binding regardless of when they were made, and the very earliest have a very heavy cast tailpiece which can't tail-lift, a bit like the old Rick gap-tooth ones. I'm of the opinion the Ibanez 4001 copy was the first (along with early Greco, which was the same bass with a different badge) which is why it has a lot of early 70s features, and perhaps why the factory used and EB3 type pickup set - it was what they had lying around! Stevie - is there a serial number? It'll be stamped on the back of the head if there is. J.

Aria Diamond - Matsumoku bolt neck: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320498460896"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=320498460896[/url] Horrid-looking replacement pups which are probably those cheap single coil copies of the old Hofner Staple things. J.

A naughty direct link should work: There's a Rickenfakers FB group, set up by our very own Hooky6stringbass: [url="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=78514186083"]http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=78514186083[/url] Big gallery of pics there & I'm starting to be convinced Hooky6string's owned all of them at one point or another... J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='773581' date='Mar 13 2010, 01:20 PM']Is this "Yoshi" bass Matsumoku? Is neck through and seems to have mystery switches. Doesn't look worth £280 to me, unless it's something special that I haven't recognised. [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/YOSHI-Bass-Made-in-Japan_W0QQitemZ180478595750QQcategoryZ4713QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BIEW%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D8%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8465310829701741283"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/YOSHI-Bass-Made-in-J...310829701741283[/url][/quote] I quite like that. Nothing says "Matsumoku" about it to me, never heard of Yoshi before (outside of Nintendo games) and I'm pretty sure I've not seen that same bass with a different brand. Them there mystery switches will probably be series/parallel for each pup like on passive Arias. The same seller had this up a couple of months ago for a lot more so maybe he'll keep dropping it if it doesn't shift. OK - some wild speculation based on JapCrap geek trivia. There's an Aria sub-brand called Shiro which takes its name from Shiro Arai, president of Aria guitars. Yoshi just happens to be the first name of Yoshi Hoshino, president of Hoshino Gakki, owners of the Ibanez brand. Hoshino also have a brand called Starfield - which is a literal translation of Hoshino. Makes you think. Or makes you want to smother me whilst I'm sleeping, for being sad enough to know this stuff. J.

[quote name='Annoying Twit' post='773406' date='Mar 13 2010, 09:26 AM']How the something can a bass have eight bids, but still be on at £26? I mean, I make a lot of lowball bids, so far none of which have won. But, I'm lowballing something worth £200 with a £100 bid or so. What are people thinking when they lowball a Fender bass in good nick with a bid of £8.27 or so? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FENDER-JAGUAR-BASS_W0QQitemZ290412932886QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item439df5af16"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FENDER-JAGUAR-BASS_W...=item439df5af16[/url][/quote] I honestly think its a "I might get really lucky & blag this for a tenner" mentality. I've currently got a guitar on and it's had 6 bids since Thursday (excluding one I cancelled) and it's currently at the heady heights of £7. I've been known to lowball something that I see with a really bad/inaccurate/misspelled title, because those parts of a listing can't be edited once an item has bids, and a hard-to-find listing's a good listing if you're a gyppo like me. It's worked a few times too. Jon.