Bassassin

That's a beaut, alright - I think it'll go for a bit more than that £106, sadly! Jon.

[quote name='silddx' post='739508' date='Feb 8 2010, 10:41 PM']I'm a fan of the ZF. They make perfect sense and no-one on this planet may argue differently. If they do, they are nuts.[/quote] Amen, brother. J.

It's an incredibly sensible idea which for some reason has been tarred with the notion that it's a cheapskate corner cut. All basses & guitars should have zero-frets. You know it makes sense. Jon.

[quote name='jezzaboy' post='739322' date='Feb 8 2010, 07:52 PM']Moon was a vastly overated drummer. He is one of those guys who got better after he died.[/quote] In what way overrated? He was a one-off, absolutely no-one played & sounded like him in the early days of The Who. For that reason he's one of the most fundamentally influential drummers in the history of rock. How, exactly, do you "overrate" an originator? J.

[quote name='Prosebass' post='739249' date='Feb 8 2010, 06:53 PM'] Discuss[/quote] Could do with a good clean, those stickers will come off easily if you warm them with a hairdryer, sensible choice of bridge. J.

The Who's last album was Endless Wire, at the end of 2006. It's a lot better than it has any real right to be - and so are the band on the strength of that performance. Townsend's vocals were pretty rough & he was trying far too hard, Daltrey's still got it though, even though he might not have the range he had 40 years ago. The mix for the first few minutes was dire & I think exaggerated vocal imperfections somewhat. So yes, I did enjoy it - but compare it to the Live8 perfomance from 2005, the vocals were spot on (Townsend particularly) & the band seemed to have far more energy. Admittedly for that gig the rhythm section was Damon Minchella & Steve White - & for me Damon's a far better bassist for The Who than Pino. If I remember rightly the whole thing was so last-minute, he had a day to learn the parts & just one rehearsal. Anyway whatever, cabaret or not, I'd still go & see them if they ever mainline enough Sanatogen to be able to tour - The 'Oo were the first rock band I ever got into, way before I ever picked up a bass, & Townsend's possibly the most unique & influential songwriter/guitarist this country's ever produced, even if his web-browsing history's a bit dubious. True, they're not the band they once were - but they haven't been for 32 years. Jon.

[quote name='Ancient Mariner' post='739186' date='Feb 8 2010, 05:51 PM']El Maya here for £200 with only an hour or so on it: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130363782064&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...e=STRK:MEWAX:IT[/url] I'd absolutely love it (had an El Maya guitar in the early 80s and it was fantastic) but no mun mun right now.[/quote] I think £200 start's a bit steep for that, been watching it just to see if anyone would. Worth pointing out, it's a Maya, not an El Maya. The two brands were owned by the same company (Rokkomann) but El Maya was the upmarket iteration while Maya was somewhat more cheap & cheerful - for example this one is sporting big black oversprays on the contours, which is usually an indication of ply construction. It's a nice bass but I'd say £150 would be much more realistic. J.

Don't hold your breath - I haven't had it off BassJase yet! I did tell him there was no hurry, though. J.

Rule 3 - ignore them, for them it's all part of being American and twelve. Jon.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='738580' date='Feb 7 2010, 10:53 PM']That's our old mate [i][b]ashdigits[/b][/i]. He turns up quite often in the Japcrap and Rickenfaker threads.[/quote] Indeed he does - and having doubtless offloaded a Hondo or twenty, I can visualise his nose extending & pushing the monitor off the back of the table as he typed this: [quote]The instrument was made in Korea at I believe the Samick factory where quality control is second to none.[/quote] Jon.

[quote name='merello' post='737590' date='Feb 6 2010, 08:31 PM']Looks like an Ibanez Blazer! Is he a member on here![/quote] Certainly is! Viva la Vintage JapCrap! Not that I'm paying much attention to the bassist... Jon.

[quote name='obbm' post='737700' date='Feb 6 2010, 10:44 PM']1946 was a poor year for basses. [/quote] I dunno - I expect there's a '46 [url="http://www.charliecardozo.com/web_pht_pic.jpg"]Tutmarc bass[/url] out there somewhere. J.

[quote name='Marvin' post='737494' date='Feb 6 2010, 06:38 PM']Correct my possible stupidity and naivety, but can what a guitar (or bass for that matter) is finished in ie poly or nitro really make a noticeable difference to its final sound. I understand what MrX was saying about resisting absorption, but I really can't see it making a difference that would be noticeable. I could be wrong.[/quote] It's bollocks. Pickups, strings, amp, any effects / overdrive, playing style, all make oceans more difference than even the timber & neck/body construction - never mind the varnish. I'm doubtful it [i]can[/i] make any tangible difference - consider the way string vibration is transferred through an LP: at one end, the bridge is mounted on metal posts which are sunk into the timber, making no significant contact with the finish. At the other they pass over a plastic nut which is glued to the bare wood at the end of the fretboard and then lacquered over. And while we're at it, how does all that woody (and presumably nitro-cellulosey) resonance get back to the pickups to colour & enrich the sound? It's got a job. It has to make its way from the timber, up the 4 screws that secure the hollow plastic pickup rings, through the thin crappy plastic to the height adjusting screws, down said screws (taking care not to be dissipated by those bouncy springs) into the little pressed metal tabs on the pickup base. I wonder how much is actually left by the time it gets anywhere near the coils, 'cos it's almost as if the cunning designers had deliberately mounted the pups like that to isolate them from vibration, ain't it? I'm afraid Mr X's whole spiel read like so much overly anal, self-elevated, I'm-a-guitar-expert-and-you-little-people-know-nothing guff*. Why not just shut up & play the damn guitar? But then what do I know? I've spent 25+ years of my life playing cheap instruments in loud rock bands so my ears are f@cked anyway! *Edit: I should add that I have no quibble with his comments on the variable quality control at Gibson - their dips & peaks in build and material standards are the stuff of legend, and it's wholly realistic to expect to find a lot of duffers. The answer to this problem? Simple - buy an Orville. Jon.

[quote name='Ancient Mariner' post='737760' date='Feb 6 2010, 11:58 PM']Did anyone click 'Enlarge', and if so, did it get any bigger?[/quote] No enlarging here, no sir. :ph34r: J.

No interest. 60s JapCrap was largely sh!te. Jon.

[quote name='Musky' post='737502' date='Feb 6 2010, 06:44 PM']No bids? I would have been all over that if I seen it before the auction finished. Mind you, the girlfriend would have probably been all over me if I'd bought it, and not in a good way. [/quote] It's presumably been cancelled by the seller - no way would that have got no bids. He's either had an offer he can't refuse or chickened out of the 99p start. That's a nice old early Matsumoku, probably late 60s, these strange headstocks pre-date the open-book type. J.

I assume* that's an original advert for this amp. If not, that's [i]really[/i] f@cking weird. Jon. [size=1]*Ass-ume! I thank you. Tell your friends, I'm here every night.[/size]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='737280' date='Feb 6 2010, 03:08 PM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Westone-Thunder-I-A-Bass-Guitar_W0QQitemZ280461651836QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item414cd12f7c"]Thunder 1A with soapbar variant. Also appears to be broken in half and taped back together.[/url][/quote] His pet wildebeest's been chewing on the headstock as well, by the looks. J.

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='736923' date='Feb 6 2010, 07:50 AM']That's where my quest fails me; I was hoping that seeing a couple of headstocks with names on might jog my memory but alas off the top of my head I can't recall. The set-neck isn't even a definite but I seem to recall that at the time I decided not to refinish the bass (as I did the short scale Jazz I subsequently got), so I'm assuming it was because the neck was fixed. Don't worry about it I just wondered if there was a resource/website that might show some of the copy basses from this period (which would have been the mid 70's as I recall getting it around 78 and it wasn't beaten up).[/quote] There's no one resource for old JapCrap basses (not yet - haven't got around to building that website!) but there are lots of pics out there & quite a few catalogue shots. I've only had one EB0 copy, which was this: [attachment=41894:front.jpg][attachment=41895:headf.jpg] [attachment=41896:headb.jpg][attachment=41897:back.jpg] This is a fairly typical low/mid quality example - bolt neck, ply body, pretend mudbucker (there's a little single coil hiding in there). The brand itself is fairly uncommon, though and the exact same bass was sold with a variety of different names. Can you remember any of the hardware details? These also appear with two pickups & 2x V & T controls, 3-point bridges, bridge ashtrays, block markers or offset dots etc. A list of names might help jog your memory: Columbus, Grant, Grantson, Avon, CMI, CSL, Sumbro, Zenta, Antoria, Jedson, Arbiter, Shaftesbury, Eros, Kimbara, Sakai, Saxon, Pearl, Cimar, Hohner, JooDee, Hondo, Kasuga, Maya, Aria, Aria Pro II, Ibanez, Tokai. These were all brands available in the UK (about half of these are UK importers' own brands) and this is far from a complete list. Many, many more existed outside the UK but could have found their way here, and lots of imported guitars were sold unbranded - so yours might never have had a name in the first place. To muddy the waters even further, the 70s copies weren't all from the Far East - Italian brands Melody & Gherson are often mistaken for JapCrap, & some of the early UK - branded copies were built by Eko. There were some nice German Hoyer copies but these were a bit more individual than the run-of-the-mill JapCrap - [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=71718"]and we have 2 of 'em in this very parish[/url]. It might be an idea to start a thread about this somewhere more visible - this is a pretty dusty & out-of-the-way corner of BC! Anyway - I'll see if I can find a few more pics of different varieties of EB copy. J.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='736478' date='Feb 5 2010, 05:55 PM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Custom-Tiger-Stripe-Ric-style-bass_W0QQitemZ320484338440QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item4a9e5aeb08"]Barely counts[/url][/quote] There's one of these on my local Glumtree for £70. Which is a tiny bit more realistic, considering it's a Wesley & cost £99 new! J.

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='736483' date='Feb 5 2010, 06:04 PM']This is a long shot and there may not be a simple answer but... My very first bass was a short scale Gibson 'SG' EB? style jap cr4p bass. I have a very hazy recollection of it; it may have been NT rather than BO and it was period correct red stain mahogany with appropriate 2 aside headstock, but is there a likely candidate for what it may have been? If anyone has pics of any likely candidates I'd love to see, as it may trigger my memory as to the make. I might then try and track one down for old times sake. As I say, it's a long shot! [/quote] Did it have a brand name? Not very many of them were set-neck so if it definitely was, that would probably narrow it down a lot. The problem is that there were literally dozens of different brands & factories all copying the same instrument - and being copies they all tend to look pretty similar! J.

That's the same bass as the one I had (not the same same - but you know what I mean) and to be honest I picked mine up for £50 delivered, did the usual strip, clean, polish & setup, kept it for a couple of months until I satisfied myself I didn't get on with it & wouldn't gig it - then 'Bayed it at 99p, no reserve. I think I got £185. If I'd seen this one at £30 I would have been all over it - and probably ended up doing the same thing. These are really good, accurate & well-made copies of the real deal - in fact put a Gibson neckplate, trc & transfer on it & most people would be hard-pressed to spot the knockoff. Apart from EvilLordJuju. J.