Bassassin

[quote name='The Funk' post='701760' date='Jan 5 2010, 03:52 PM']Just reading up, I think Mackie brought an expensive and unsuccessful lawsuit against Behringer in the late '90s. After that, Behringer have had free reign to do whatever they like in the cheap clone market.[/quote] Up to a point - when Behringer announced their range of cheapo stomp-boxes a few years ago, they were identical to Boss pedals in appearance. Roland kicked up a stink & they were redesigned. They're very popular low-end pedals - deservedly so because they're throwaway-cheap and half-decent quality, so it baffles me why they'd invite legal trouble (plus the expense of a redesign) by trying to punt knockoff designs in the first place. It's hardly like copy guitars, where the image & appearance of the instrument's arguably more important than what it actually does. J.

There's surprising money in original cases. Last year I acquired a Gibson Custom Shop LP case in decent but gigged condition - I had no use for it so I Ebayed it at 99p & no reserve, expecting to get about £50. It sold for £180 - odd, after a ridiculous amount of interest. Jon.

[quote name='Conan' post='701238' date='Jan 5 2010, 08:02 AM']What's that stuff about "not Alembic"? [/quote] Ebay call that "keyword spamming" and can pull your auction, plus f*ck with your future listings' searchability if you do it. With basses & guitars however, it only applies when you use the words "Gibson", "Fender" or "Rickenbacker". Odd, that. Anyway, I'd think £250 - £300 would be a fair price for this, given that it's not original & the mods are irreversible - it presumably has had the jack moved to the body edge & the electronics will have been changed. I have a vague recollection of one of these with buggered original electronics going through a while ago - bet it was this one, now retrofitted with a nice new Artec 3-band EQ. J.

"EXPLOROR" "JAME HEITFIELD" Comedy gold. J.

[quote name='silddx' post='701650' date='Jan 5 2010, 02:45 PM']Me too, I thought the top of the range (Falcon? Eagle?) white guitar with all the pearl inlays and bindings and the gold hardware was totally lovely. [/quote] +1, gorgeous guitar. Bonus points for being used by [url="http://www.abba-intermezzo.de/emuseum.htm"]Bjorn from Abba[/url]! J.

Hi - I think our man BigRedX has got a GUS or two. I expect he'll be along shortly. Don't know if he's selling, though... Jon.

I've always had a soft spot for the Wing series Washburns - I'd say the body style is more suited to a guitar than a bass, though - you can expect some neck dive & what will feel like a long reach if you're coming from a P. Here's a link to a catalogue pic: [url="http://www.matsumoku.org/models/washburn/catalogs/1980_fullline/80_wash_cat_pg7.jpg.html"]http://www.matsumoku.org/models/washburn/c...at_pg7.jpg.html[/url] Another link here to a discussion on the Mat board about the origin of MIJ Washburns - they weren't all from Matsumoku: [url="http://www.matsumoku.org/ggboard/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=5551"]http://www.matsumoku.org/ggboard/viewtopic...f=29&t=5551[/url] Apropos of nothing, bar JapCrap anorakism - the reputations of the other factories connected with the brand are excellent. Jon.

A couple of years back, over at TB the Septics were going mental over the Ashdown clone - claiming it was "taking food off the table of honest American working guys" (I know, I know ) - turns out that the Ashdown & the Behringer are made in the same Chinese factory, using the same components. Ampeg might well be fuming over the Behringer copy, but I doubt they can do a lot more. And realistically - no-one who can afford a real one will buy a Behringer instead, will they? I've got a few bits of Behringer studio kit & on the whole it's good VFM, workable budget gear - not exactly robust but often cheap enough to be disposable. Can't knock it on that basis Jon.

Finish the album. Gig more. Haven't been out since August & I hate it. Finish the album. Sort out my rig with something loud, light & reliable, so I can stop thinking about it. Finish the album. Get a better PA. Finish the album. Kick the drummer in the face until he learns the songs properly, then kick him in the face until he plays them better. Then just kick him in the face, because it's satisfying. Finish the album. Play more fretless & gig with the bloody thing. Finish the album. Revive The John Rutsey (RIP) Experience, and play bad Rush covers in the safety of the basement. Finish the album. Get on with - and hopefully finish - some of my many projects, predominantly The Backbreaking Bass Of Glass. Finish. The. Album. Jon.

[quote name='allighatt0r' post='700980' date='Jan 4 2010, 09:12 PM']Ah. I see. What gives it away? [/quote] Headstock, primarily - if it's a 1976, and therefore "lawsuit" era bass, it would have a Fender shape. After that, rosewood boards are very rare on 70s copies. It's possible it's a refin/new plate & pup, but they're all wrong for the era, too. J.

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='700998' date='Jan 4 2010, 09:26 PM']My bad.[/quote] Well - not exactly! I can't help but be irritated by Ebayers who misrepresent what they're selling like this. Apart from being dishonest, this sort of bollocks ends up being accepted as "fact", and for an anally retentive, neurotic trainspotter such as myself, that's borderline intolerable. The relationship between Cimar & Ibanez is confusing and there's no clear answer to who made what, where & why - at least not yet. 70s copy-era Cimars were not built by Fujigen - I had a Cimar Jazz & it was a pretty low-end & cheaply made copy, while others were actually superior to their Fujigen/Ibanez counterparts - the Cimar Rick copy was much more authentic. It's not yet been established who made these, or the subsequent original designs. It does appear likely that the later instruments were from Fujigen, though - the best evidence for this is the Cimar Stinger/Ibanez Blazer Mk 1, which are exactly the same instrument. So far this appears to be the only example under both badges but if we assume that all MIJ Ibbys were Fujigen (which is the prevailing conventional wisdom among Ibby collectors) then there's your evidence. This would appear to be substantiated by the headstocks of other early 80s Cimars, which tend to "borrow" both of the Blazer designs. The obvious conclusion to jump to is that these Cimars [i]are[/i] low-rent Ibanezes, but it's probably more likely that all of them were just factory-originated designs, and available to whoever wanted to buy 'em. My 1980 CSL Jazz copy has the "Early Blazer" head & I've seen the later style too. There's a rare MIJ brand called Oakland, whose range included a Mk2 Blazer bass & guitar, identical in every way apart from a slightly different headstock. In the US, Ibanez "clones" pop up with a bewildering range of names - which is what's at the root of the Ebay myth that ever second MIJ guitar is an "Ibanez with a different name". The "Cimar by Ibanez" thing is a little more clear-cut - although it's not known if Hoshino Gakki ever actually owned the brand - in fact according to a former Hoshino US employee, who posts occasionally on the Ibanez Collectors forum, they didn't. It's likely there's no clear-cut answer - Japanese business relationships seem to be oddly incestuous & much less directly competitive than the Western model, a distributor (like Hoshino) might own shares in the factory it orders from, and vice-versa, and in turn a second distributor might have shares in both, so working in a mutually beneficial way is preferable. Anyway. Lesson over, hope you were paying attention at the back because there'll be a test tomorrow. J.

I've seen these before, believe it or not! Presumably back in the JapCrappy 70s some importer was badging basses up as Status. Nothing to do with Mr Green, remember his range was originally "Strata". Which Leo's old mob took exception to. Shame the pics aren't better - this looks like a half-decent mid 70s JapCrap Jazz - early Fujigens had those chunky chrome pups. Don't recall them having the varnish screwed on, though. Jon.

[quote name='allighatt0r' post='700855' date='Jan 4 2010, 07:47 PM']That's not a bad looking bass (imho). shame he wasted the bottom left section of his multi shot photo on the throw instead of the headstock![/quote] That's not a 70s copy, though. J.

Cimar. Not an Ibanez, because they have "Ibanez" written on them. Which is surprisingly easy to spot, once you're conversant with that little-known fact. It's this: [attachment=39348:cimarbasscatalogue.jpg] Specifically a Cimar XR2065BS. In the case of this example the "BS" presumably refers to the suggestion that it's an Ibanez in disguise. It's an early 80s bass & an original-ish shape and therefore nothing to do with any imaginary lawsuit. Ibanez & Cimar were related by this point, possibly both originating from Fujigen, & being distributed via Hoshino. These pre-date the mid-80s "Cimar by Ibanez" cheapos, so it's not known if Hoshino actually owned the brand at that point. I've actually got one of these in a less-original but generally tidy condition. It's presently gathering dust so I'll be watching this one with a degree of curiosity. J.

If you want a Grabber copy, you might be as well waiting for a JapCrap one to come up. My old one: [attachment=39306:front.jpg][attachment=39307:heads.jpg][attachment=39308:details.jpg] Yep - wish I'd kept it. J.

I think this is an Italian-made Melody copy (M logo on the headstock) - someone on here had one a year or so ago, I expect a bit of searching might turn up some info. Never seen a Melody in real life, but I had a no-brand Japanese one a while back - it was a ringer for the real deal & I probably should've kept it. Jon.

[quote name='2x18' post='697341' date='Dec 31 2009, 05:10 PM']Avon calling!!! [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Avon-3-4-scale-Made-in-Japan-1970s_W0QQitemZ180451158979QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item2a03ba2bc3"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Avon-3-4-scale-Made-...=item2a03ba2bc3[/url][/quote] How much? I think Avon's gonna be calling for a while! That Westy on the other hand will probably be a steal for someone. J.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='697468' date='Dec 31 2009, 07:05 PM']Sand all of the paint off down to bare wood, then finish it with some 1200 grit sand paper then build up and sand back at least 20 coats of primer then depending on the finish you want put on several coats of either nitrocellulose for a matt finish or I use Plastikote paint for a gloss finish that's the basics I use. *Disclaimer* I am not a specialist I have built up my technique on several of my own basses and after trial and error this is what I have ended up with, if you need any help PM me.[/quote] Wayne - if you're going for a solid colour finish, how come you go to the trouble of sanding back to the wood? Being the lazy, corner-cutting pikey I am, I'd think you could just key the original finish with sandpaper or wire wool & dispense with most - if not all - of the primer. I recommend Screwfix own brand black/white/clearcoat gloss spray - loads cheaper than Plastikote! Jon.

I'd avoid using WD40 on fretted boards, whatever the material. It contains solvents which probably aren't going to be good for the adhesive that holds the frets in! Ebonol & phenolic are both non-porous plastics, so anything that doesn't actually polish the surface of the material will just sit there as a coating - and come off on your hands & strings. J.

[quote name='umcoo' post='696788' date='Dec 30 2009, 09:55 PM']Hmmnn, the ones I posted up the top are 400. Still 'fairly' cheap for what could be a cool bass. Here I go, convincing myself again [/quote] £400??? Someone's 'avin' a larf - or trying to justify having forked out for the "Ventures" branding! Check out the headstock, bridge, scratchplate, pups - everything. They're from the same factory. That Aria's the same bass with a more authentic bodyshape, a proper JapCrap knockoff brand name - and even the little plastic jewel stuck in the logo, just like the old '60s Aria Diamonds had. All at about 1/3 of the price. I'll have three. J.

At first glance I thought it was the same bass as the Aria Diamond DMB380 - ostensibly a reissue of the old Matsumoku Mosrite knockoffs, these have the correct reverse Mosrite body shape: [url="http://www.ariaguitars.com/int/03_products/pro_eb_dmb_380.html"]http://www.ariaguitars.com/int/03_products...eb_dmb_380.html[/url] I had a muck about with one of these at Music Live a couple of years back - it was pretty nice, played well & was surprisingly sexy in the flesh. About £160 ish. The two basses do look identical, apart from the body shape. Jon.