Bassassin

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='639542' date='Oct 28 2009, 10:39 PM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Late-1950s-Prototype-Bass-Guitar-5-String_W0QQitemZ130340569105QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item1e58e74011"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Late-1950s-Prototype...=item1e58e74011[/url] Bwahaha. Bwahahahahahahahahaha. OMG, LOL, somebody burn it.[/quote] Unbelievable. "It's a Burns", "it might be a Guyatone", "oh, we heard about something called a Fenton-Weill - it must be one of them". They wrote the label wrong. POS, obviously. Jon.

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' post='639562' date='Oct 28 2009, 10:57 PM']Not too much in common with an Alembic either... [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1970s-KAWAI-F-1-B-Bass-Guitar-Alembic-similar-MIJ_W0QQitemZ170378927516QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item27ab601d9c"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1970s-KAWAI-F-1-B-Ba...=item27ab601d9c[/url][/quote] Somewhat. They are well-made & quite rare but probably worth about half that. There were some far more exotic versions available anyway. Jon.

Not a fan of the LK - although I really like the checked binding & star position markers - in fact everything except the carving! It looks like it belongs on the front of your nan's sideboard. If you can neither find nor afford the now staggeringly rare original, those devious Chinese (or wherever) copyists have had a go: [attachment=35315:Lemmy_1.JPG][attachment=35316:Lemmy_2.JPG] Unfortunately they left off the best bit (the binding) & replaced it with what looks queasily like a knotted scroll of dog faeces. :wacko: J.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='639349' date='Oct 28 2009, 06:56 PM']You don't suppose that belt might scratch the back of his Ricky's ... [/quote] You're right! For pity's sake man, untuck that shirt!! J.

Lemmy's been seen with a good few interesting Ricks & Rick-shaped things - check this out: No idea if this has ever been within 10000 miles of Santa Ana, but it's way cooler than those LK4004 monstrosities, and I want it. Jon.

Any helpful mods want to merge this thread with [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=64691"]this one[/url]? J.

"With great power...." etc. Fact is, I'm on their side, and the RickResource folks know it. [i]Obersturmbannführer [/i]Hall isn't so sure, though. Regarding the Shaftesbury, I really don't know which Japanese factory made these, and I'll try & explain as comprehensively as possible. Since Shaftesbury is a brand name owned by a British importer, it doesn't actually provide many clues to the manufacturer, since with very few exceptions, importers would source instruments from whatever Japanese manufacturer/exporter gave the best deal at the time. What this means is that instruments from various sources were sold with the same brand name, model number & at the same price. So in order to identify what factory made a particular "off brand" instrument, like your Shaftesbury, we need to find an identical bass which is either under a factory's own brand, or from an importer who only sourced from one known factory. So far I've not done this with Shaftesbury - and neither has anyone else in the tiny online community of Jap guitar obsessives! There are a couple of small clues but so far they're not conclusive at all. The main identifying feature on your bass which doesn't appear on any positively ID'd Rick copy is the tuners. All Shaftesbury Rick copies have the same closed-back, cast button medium-size tuners that yours has. These are very common on many MIJ basses throughout the 70s & early 80s, but appear on only a handful of Rickalikes. Two of these brands, Cimar & El Maya, are interesting but don't give us a concrete answer. Cimar, first of all, was associated with Hoshino Gakki, the trading company which owns the Ibanez brand, and was later marketed as a sub-brand of Ibanez. However 70s copy-era Cimars didn't come from the same factory which built Ibanez - and we don't yet know where they did come from. Anyway [url="http://www.ibanez.co.jp/anniversary/14/7.jpg"]here's Cimar's Rickencopy[/url]. El Maya's potentially more helpful - this brand was owned by a trading company called Rokkomann, based in Kobe. Anecdotally, Rokkomann owned its own factory, which was apparently destroyed in the Hanshin earthquake in 1995. It's often assumed then, that El Maya & Maya branded instruments were built in Rokkomann's own factory, but this is unverified. [url="http://www.vintaxe.com/catalogs/thumb_1976elmaya.jpg"]This is the only example of a Maya/El Maya copy with these tuners[/url] - others are different, but more common. These basses appear to be similar but neither is identical to your Shafty. To complicate this even more, there are at least two distinctly different but unidentified MIJ Rickenbacker copies which were fitted with these tuners. I've owned two - the fireglo one in my avatar, and a highly-modified (read ruined) parts donor bass, which would have originally looked similar, but had completely different dimensions & construction, and probably hardware & finish too. There are numerous problems with this sort of JapCrap detective-work. In the early/mid 70s, the Japanese guitar industry was both in its infancy and booming, there were dozens of different factories we know about, and any number of ones we don't, all jumping on the highly lucrative copy bandwagon, many of them not even from a musical instrument manufacturing background. Matsumoku, for example, was a traditional Japanese cabinet maker, whose main business was building sewing machine cabinets. Very few records were kept of manufacture, imports or exports, and most of the factories are long-gone and pretty much forgotten. There are very few instruments left, in real terms - older players will remember that at the time Japanese copies were regarded as cheap, low quality, disposable junk and were treated as such. Most of the catalogues & brochures were thrown out decades ago. All that's left is what we have in our hands. You will find clues on the web but very few answers - it's easy to jump to any number of wrong conclusions, so it's easy to be an "expert" on the internet. Me - I know sod-all & I'm happy to admit it. Anyway you have a Shaftesbury Rick copy & I don't - so a few questions: Is the fingerboard lacquered or bare wood? Are the inlays real Mother Of Pearl, plastic pearloid or plain silver/grey plastic? Does the red part of the fireglo go all around the edges of the body or are there uncoloured parts? Does the truss rod adjuster have an allen key or a brass hex nut? Are the body wings single pieces of wood or a "sandwich" split around the edges? Jon.

Stephen bought my lovely black 80s MIJ Squier P, very pleasant & easy transaction! Hope he enjoys the bass as much as I miss it! It's been business doing pleasure with you! Or something like that... Jon.

I had one of these in 1981, when I joined my first proper band. As I remember it was this one: [url="http://www.ampaholics.org.uk/basmaster%20FNT.jpg"]http://www.ampaholics.org.uk/basmaster%20FNT.jpg[/url] Only with ordinary black Tolex-y covering. I also had a matching 2x12 cab, I think I paid about £30 for both from a charity shop! It seemed pretty loud to me at the time but I probably didn't know much better... I can't exactly remember what happened to it - I have an idea that the basement where we practised got flooded & it was ruined, along with a bass bin I made with my Dad. Wish I still had that. Jon.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='635931' date='Oct 25 2009, 10:11 AM']I should add that I did offer Bassassassin first refusal before selling it elsewhere.[/quote] Stop reminding me! It's terrible - I couldn't afford that, I can't afford Chris' one, I can't afford your 2366B fretless and I'm too skint to even make an offer on that nice Antoria Jazz that came up last week! Curse having to buy a new car & not having sold all the basses I don't want any more! J.

Have you seen this? [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=63842"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=63842[/url] Not a Cirrus BXP, but these are great, I have the 5er & it's a stunner for the money. Jon.

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='635724' date='Oct 24 2009, 11:05 PM']Bassassin will probably be along in a minute to shine light on the matter. While you're waiting, here's the Rickenfaker thread to pass the time. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=270"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=270[/url][/quote] Hi! Mr P. Redictable here... What the very knowledgeable Mr Foxen says, and the OP's own observations about the bass he owns, covers pretty much everything that's currently known about Shafties. Good-quality 1970s Japanese copies, imported by Rose-Morris, who also had the budget Avon brand. The main visual differences between these & real Ricks are the tuners and the somewhat more garish finish. They also have a single truss rod as opposed to the 2 in a Rick neck, and are of course a lot cheaper! Beyond saying "mid-70s ish" they're quite hard to age due to the lack of serial number. 1978 is probably the latest it's likely to be, as most Japanese manufacturers were turning towards original designs by the end of the decade. £300 isn't at all bad for a good through-neck vintage copy these days. Looking forward to seeing some pics. Jon.

I've taken a few I was quite chuffed with: [attachment=35075:sleekline.jpg] [attachment=35073:cortfretboard.jpg] [attachment=35072:buggerheadHC.jpg] [attachment=35074:frankenbugger.jpg] [attachment=35076:sqprecision.jpg] I'll have a trawl & see if I can find a few more. Jon.

I feel that any relationship in which one partner feels they have a right to make huge, life-changing [u]demands[/u] of the other, is fundamentally broken. If your partner cannot - or will not - accept a fundamental aspect of who & what you are, then that relationship is a sham and you will only ever be dissatisfied and unhappy. Jon

A refinished bass with some original parts? I don't know a great deal about vintage Fender values but that seems absurdly optimistic. Bloody good luck to him. Jon.

I don't mind one way or t'other tbh. J.

[quote name='Kev' post='628849' date='Oct 17 2009, 04:50 PM']I must have misread his post, to me it looks like its suggesting a new forum separate from the other ones in the marketplace should be made, which i think is a little OTT.[/quote] While a subforum would be fine, I don't think a dedicated forum is OTT. Currently we have bass guitars, bass amplification & bass effects as individual forums, followed by anything & everything else musically related - which currently encompasses everything from BadAss IIs to Mongolian nose-flutes, via your kids' old Bob The Builder CDs! Well, theoretically. Given that the vast majority of us seem to be modders, tinkerers, tweakers, bodgers & builders, I don't think a bass components forum is at all unrealistic. J.

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='628850' date='Oct 17 2009, 04:53 PM']Oh and I'll give you £100 for it if you like. [/quote] Ignore him - I'll give you £150! Head over to [url="http://www.21frets.com"]http://www.21frets.com[/url] for all the JV-related information known to man, gathered in one convenient website. There's also a very useful forum too, most of the info is guitar-centric but JV basses are covered, and much of it applies to both. Any chance of lots of hi-res pics? Jon.

Definitely, absolutely - [u][b]yes[/b][/u]. It's not like it hasn't been suggested before, though. I suggest making this thread into a poll - simple yes or no. Jon.

Much better show than last week. Magazine were great, head & shoulders above the other post-punk "heritage" acts Jools has been featuring. Little bit sad without McGeoch though, & a shame he didn't get a mention. Seasick Steve was excellent too. Jon.