Bassassin

From a quick glance at the pics, it ain't from 1960 and it seriously ain't worth £400! Maybe a tenth of that. This is a generic mid-70s plywood starter bass - it looks medium-scale to me, & the brand name will, like about 95% of 70s MIJ guitars, be just an importer's brand & nothing to do with a manufacturer. The "domino" position markers are quite unusual & fairly cool - but still don't make it worth that money. J.

[quote name='karlfer' post='563584' date='Aug 8 2009, 05:23 PM']Thanks once again Jon. I looked on the fetish sight, but could not find the bass in their catalogues (dating from about 64 to mid 80's). I really just want to as honest as I can be when I advertise it, so I will need to think carefully about what I say. I do remember seeing somewhere the Italian version had a narrow tailpiece and one piece pick guard , but I am b******d if I can remember where I saw that. Reality is I will be as honest as I can , but going out at £160 to BC'ers and £180 reserve on ebay, I am not going to worry into an early grave! Again Jon, many thanks, you have helped a lot of people with your knowledge sharing. Cheers, Karl.[/quote] It might be an idea to do a bit of exploratory surgery on it - unscrew the scratchplate & have a look at the backs of the pots, same with pickups, tuners & other hardware - you might well find some evidence of country of origin - or even a particular manufacturer there. I'm by no means 100% convinced this is Italian. I'd say £160-ish is a pretty decent price for this (sorry not in the running to buy, too skint!) but I'd be wary of high reserves/start prices on Ebay these days. I've seen lots of stuff that's quite realistically priced fail to sell because of this - on the other hand low starts/no reserves are attracting plenty of early bids & often end up in demented bidding wars. Funny thing, Ebay psychology... J.

[quote name='pete.young' post='563355' date='Aug 8 2009, 10:30 AM']What appears to be a Maya precison with a maple neck - is this a '70s Matsumoku? [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MAYA-BASS-GUITAR_W0QQitemZ190326483805QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item2c5057ab5d&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MAYA-BASS-GUITAR_W0Q...id=p3286.c0.m14[/url][/quote] No - Maya (and El Maya) were owned by a Kobe-based trading company called Rokkomann, who were understood to manufacture their own instruments. Anecdotally the Maya factory was destroyed by the Kobe earthquake in 1995. FWIW there was nothing to choose between the better quality instruments from the various Japanese factories. J.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' post='563395' date='Aug 8 2009, 11:44 AM']That'd be mine - It's on here too. The £200 one the other week was from someone else - that would be silly money even in my opinion.[/quote] Sorry mate - no offence meant! The offer of £50 still stands, though. J.

[quote name='karlfer' post='563278' date='Aug 8 2009, 07:05 AM']Now I've remembered why I looked here the other night. Hopefully Bassassin can be his usual copy Rickapedia. Hopefully these photos will attach, (only poor camera phone I'm afraid) she will be going on sale soon. I bought this on ebay a couple of months back and unsurprisingly things weren't quite what they seem. The biggest problem is that it is medium scale and my fingers are long scale (and actually pretty fat scale, slightly resembling the centres of American Hot dogs). Anyway,I would like to describe as accurately as possible, so J, if youv'e got your ears on, any info gratefully accepted. Condition rather quite good except for some poor attempts at respraying(only visible close up). Neck has been re-glued at some stage, excess glue has not been removed, but other than that a good job. There are no model/serial number, or "Made in...." written on it. It was advertised as made in Japan. I cannot find it in any EKO catalogue, and I seem to remember reading somewhere that even Ibanez didn't start serial numbers until 1975. This is a good sounding, good condition, very light bass, that my fingers are too big for. Any help from anybody to help describe as accurately as possible would be gratefully accepted. Confused of Wigan.[/quote] Quite tricky, this - there isn't much info out there about these but from seeing them come up on Ebay (they're not too uncommon) there were definitely both Japanese and Italian versions of the same thing sold under the Shaftesbury brand. The set-neck & style of tuners on yours makes me inclined to think it's Italian, and this being the case it's pretty early, possibly even late 60s - but with no catalogues to cross-reference I'm just guessing! Anyway, Shaftesbury guitars initially seemed to be Italian-made copies (as well as Ricks I've seen thinline Tele guitars & 50s-style P basses) and UK-made (Ned Callan) originals but by the mid 70s they pretty much all seemed to be decent-quality MIJ copies, predominantly Matsumoku. That's just the history as far as I can make it out - I don't think the basses like yours were Matsumokus but the Japanese ones might represent some sort of transitional period in the Shafty range. I've seen MIJ Shafty P-basses too, like the Italian ones. Eko definitely supplied Shaftesbury acoustics & electrics so I'd be inclined to think the Rick "copies" (there never was a real Rick 330 bass) came from the same place There's some info about Shaftesbury/Eko on the [url="http://www.fetishguitars.com/html/general/shaftesbury.html"]Fetishguitars site[/url] but they've changed it a bit recently and the English version of this page has conveniently vanished! Jon.

[quote name='Weird War' post='563110' date='Aug 7 2009, 10:05 PM']Quite, at least one too many zeros - quite a surreal ad, just like this: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220423413475#ht_500wt_1182"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...5#ht_500wt_1182[/url][/quote] I call shill on that one - it even has an MIJ neckplate, no-one on Earth would think it was a real Fender, no matter how dim & ill-informed. J.

[quote name='4000' post='563250' date='Aug 8 2009, 01:16 AM']+1 to 99% of the above. We always go down a storm away from home too; problem is fitting those "away" gigs into busy 40-something lives. I think what I live for musically these days though is the writing (probably always was really).[/quote] Having just spent something like 4 years writing the best music I've ever been involved with - I can understand that entirely. But now I just want to play it! J.

[quote name='spinynorman' post='563052' date='Aug 7 2009, 08:43 PM']Funny that Rickenbacker, having failed to do anything about it at the time, now hound Rickenfakers off eBay.[/quote] Actually they probably don't! They've got two forum-loads of rabid Rick-owners to do it for them! They might send the occasional C&D letter to US-based importers of dodgy Chinese knock-offs but The Rickenfaithful do most of the legwork. However, the web & Ebay have made Rick copies that much more visible, and therefore the activity in shutting down sales is similarly higher in profile - as dictated by the requirements of US trademark law. Luke - that's a Westone Thunder, de-fretted so not getting the money he wants. I think it started at £200-ish; if it gets to £50 I might have a punt... J.

F*ck me now [i]that's[/i] a loaded question. No, my band is not a democracy. If it was, I don't think we'd have any songs, gigs, recordings, we'd never get a rehearsal organised and the best we could hope for would be the very occasional night of curry, beer & Monty Python. Which would still be ok, however... Me & singer Karen started the band as a writing/recording project about 10 years ago and basically put a band together to perform our songs. We've had two previous guitarists & 1 other drummer, but have had the same line-up now for about 6 years, and I'd very much like it to stay that way. I'd be very open to writing collaboratively, but it never works that way, likewise drummer & guitarist have little interest in any of the day-to-day running of the band. For my part I recognise that they are infinitely more skilled at their particular instruments that I ever could be, so they get free rein to embellish the parts I write, and for the most part I feel it works very well on a musical level. It's fair to say that neither of them (drummer particularly) are the world's best communicators so sometimes it can be quite difficult, but I think for the most part it suits everyone. There can be issues - having now worked with him for 8 years I do realise that if Drummer doesn't like a song, he simply won't learn it. Fair enough occasionally as we are fairly prolific, but when he's quietly taking exception to an entire new album of linked songs (OK, OK- it's a concept album. About the fall of the Aztec empire. Get over it.) and suggesting he might learn it faster if we rehearse less often (?) then we're into a whole new world of idiocy for me to work out how to deal with... Jon.

[quote name='OldGit' post='562787' date='Aug 7 2009, 02:21 PM']Jon's got it sussed. I bet his band is entertaining. That's why other people's audience members sign up for their myspace and their friend and sandwhich shop people come along to see them.[/quote] Not sure we have got it sussed! Like I said, we don't [i]attract[/i] an audience at all - we're just good at winning over people who haven't seen us before. I'm inclined to think it's because we blindside their expectations - most people don't expect a female-fronted 30s/40s band to be playing the sort of stuff we do. We absolutely don't go out of our way to appeal to a particular audience - if people like what we do & enjoy watching us then that's fantastic, if they don't then there are countless other bands they'll like better. There is a big audience out there for "our" kind of music - but so far those support slots with Tool, Rush, Mars Volta, Porcupine Tree etc have persisted in eluding us. Steven Wilson did pinch one of our riffs, though... J.

The bridge turned up today from Howard & it's spot-on. About twice the weight of the rubber one & not about to bend in a hurry. Very keen to get cracking with this now! J.

Just got a 3-point bridge for my Westbury Track 2 project, exactly the right part, arrived in under 24 hrs. Cheers Howard! Jon.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='562655' date='Aug 7 2009, 10:53 AM']Jon, I hope you're planning on putting together a UK tour. If you can get your band down to London at some point, you should be able to rely on Basschat to rustle up a decent audience for at least one gig![/quote] I'd absolutely love to - we get out & about as much as we can but obviously one of the downsides of being a "mature" band is the day job/mortgage/high-maintenance disapproving wives trap that at least half the band is in! There is something of a rift between the composing/recording aspect of the band and the performing unit - but it all comes together so well once we're on a stage in front of a big, empty room... J.

[quote name='4000' post='562318' date='Aug 6 2009, 10:07 PM']Hmm. I think I've been here before, and at great length. Haven't I, OldGit? Like I said last time, the problem we have is getting people to take a chance on us (although these days it's becoming more about getting the entire band on stage without injury; it's like everyone in the band suffers from Spinal Tap Drummer syndrome. That's what you get in your 40s folks!). I must admit, I think I'm getting closer to giving up playing live (I'll play covers when Killer BOB finally takes possession of me, and not before!), but I just don't want to go out on several lows. Of course if I do get my "final" gig high, then doubtless I'll get the bug again....I'm not holding my breath though. If I'm honest I've been far happier this week staying in watching my Twin Peaks dvds than I have been playing the last few gigs (one or two a year for the past few years!). I guess those slippers are starting to feel ever so comfy......[/quote] Don't do it! Never give up, never surrender! As another 40-something old duffer playing originals I am painfully aware that broadly speaking Joe Public won't take original material & bands seriously unless it has been validated for them - people need press, radio, TV, the web etc to basically say it's OK to like something before they'll front up cash - or even make the time to go & see it. I have played covers (to help subsidise an original band) and the fact that you're playing other peoples' songs gives you a validation that playing your own material doesn't - no matter how accomplished your own work may be there's an attitude that "if you can play ******* then you must be good!" Madness! The band I'm in now has been gigging since 2000 and it's fair to say couldn't attract flies to a sh!t fight, but it's not because we suck. Our favourite gigs are out-of-town ones where we're a completely unknown quantity, often playing first on the bill to another band's audience - we always, without fail, get massive amounts of praise & compliments, sell CDs & T-shirts (when we're organised enough to remember to bring them) and have new people getting in touch through Myspace. It seems in no way a disadvantage that we're often twice the age of the bands that we gig with and the people we play to. For me, playing music, specifically gigging, whether it be to 2 people or 200 is a life-affirming experience - we've had a couple of long breaks (6 months or so) and I hate it - in a sense gigging is what I play music for. However covers isn't really an option despite the advantages of audience size, public approbation, regular gigs & even money - I need to have a passion for what I play. I co-write my band's material with our singer, and it may be wildly egotistical, but I like our stuff better than 99% of pretty much everything else - and I actively don't want to play anything else. Jon.

[quote name='nick' post='562184' date='Aug 6 2009, 07:39 PM']Nice looking & fairly decent [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Kay-Bass-Guitar-Thru-Neck-Epiphone-style_W0QQitemZ280380283913QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item4147f79c09&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14"]Kay[/url] Mate of mine has 6-string version of this & it's not bad. Not the usual Kay crap.[/quote] That's 'cos these were Corts, made in K'rea around 1980, from secret plans nicked off Matsumoku & Kasuga. I had one of these and it was a really nice bass - apart from an uncorrectable neck-twist. Gah. I'd buy another in a moment if I could find one for the £50 (or less) that I bought the last one for. J.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='561570' date='Aug 5 2009, 10:48 PM']Are you doubting his authentierty? [/quote] Absolutely not. He's selling it on Ebay, ergo every claim he makes is an honest, genuine, factual & truthful lie. And I say this as a regular Ebay seller. J.

[quote name='bythesea' post='561395' date='Aug 5 2009, 07:35 PM']I emailed asking what make it was and suggested that it was Jazz shape and not Jaguar. This is the reply I got. "Im sorry but I cant help you on the authentierty as I purchased it about 25years a go as a fender but did not do any research on its back ground sorry " So not a lot of help there then! [/quote] B0ll0cks. He bought it for £20 at the car boot on Sunday, bloke told him it was a "Fender bass". He went home & Googled it, the first one that came up was a Jaguar. J.

I'm now sorted out for a bridge thanks to The Bass Doc (Howard) so I'll probably be getting on with this sooner than I thought. I just need a 2-way mini switch (buttons on Ebay), one speed knob (spares box) and a control cover, which I can make. J.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='560930' date='Aug 5 2009, 09:56 AM']Do we have any clue why he thinks it's a Jaguar?[/quote] Maybe the block inlays? Or more likely just a word he's heard in connection to bass guitars. Like "Sting". J.

Generic Japanese, or possibly Korean 70s copy, nothing to do with Fender & certainly not a Jag. You can't infer a brand from the tuners as these were used on basses from every known copy manufacturer in this era, but they are a giveaway as to its origin. With bidding starting at £60, an undisclosed reserve, and the seller under the impression it's a Fender, it's probably stupidly expensive for what(ever) it is. Jon.

[quote name='JTUK' post='560141' date='Aug 4 2009, 01:09 PM']You want to be careful how obvious you make flying in parts ..Britney and Madonna can do it and nobody cares how much is mimed, but a pub/club band might get some funny looks, IMV..[/quote] This is unpleasantly true. Me & a guitarist mate did rock covers as a duo, using drums/keys/rhythm guitar backing tracks which we recorded ourselves. I don't think we played a single gig without some half-cut knowall accusing us of miming [i]everything[/i]. Jon.

[quote name='neepheid' post='560370' date='Aug 4 2009, 05:00 PM']Sorry man, I sold it some time ago when I parted out my Epi EB-0. Bought it when the pound was strong last year and got £50 for it if memory serves, so I think I got all my money back [/quote] No probs. [quote name='sgt-pluck' post='560369' date='Aug 4 2009, 04:59 PM']Was that on eBay last week?! How did I miss that?! Nice buy. I've been looking out for one of they also - I have a the g****r version which is very nice. Last one I saw went, as you say, a good sum and far more than I would've expected for a little-known japcrap brand. Funnily enough IIRC the last one I saw had a broken bridge also. I think I remember discovering that a few basses had the exact same bridge, the grabber-esque Hondo for example. Not inconcievable that a replacement may find it's way on to eBay? Nice find. Pluck[/quote] That makes 2 of us - I have a lovely black Westbury Standard g*it*ar - without a doubt the nicest one I've ever owned! That's actually why I've been after a Westy bass for ages. Always fancied having "the pair". J.

[quote name='neepheid' post='560281' date='Aug 4 2009, 03:27 PM']That bridge is so bad it looks photoshopped! I can vouch for the Supertone bridge, but yes you'll pretty much have to source it abroad. However, the pound is strengthening against the dollar so it might work out not too bad. Obviously, dimensions are quite critical - [url="http://www.hipshotproducts.com/files/all/supertone.pdf"]http://www.hipshotproducts.com/files/all/supertone.pdf[/url] $100 from BPR = £60. Alternatively there's always here: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260456582644"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=260456582644[/url] - I bought my last one from this guy with no problems. Because they're in short supply here, you should get most of your money back if you choose to move it on, particularly if customs overlooks it on entry...[/quote] When I Googled the Hipshot your BC review was the first thing that came up, and the pics of it on your EB were what swayed me away from a conventional bridge. Thanks for the links, I'm pretty certain it would fit my bass, and the seller in the States is pretty reasonable. Interestingly, when you Google Westbury Track 2, half of the results seem to be about broken bridges - obviously there was an issue with the part! Really surprising considering these were Matsumoku basses & the quality control was generally excellent. Of course bridge replacement option no. 3 would be a standard 3-point bridge, which would return it to stock - and this does appeal to the JapCrap purist in me. I'm very drawn towards the Hipshot but I suppose I don't know if the Westy's a keeper until I've played it a bit & gigged with it - so I feel a bit reticent about buying a part that will cost more than the bass did! Have you still got your old one & would you consider selling or loaning it? J.

Thought you might be interested in what dropped through the letterbox this morning. I've been vaguely looking out for a Westbury Track 2 or Track IV for a good few years - they're not exactly common & when they come up on Ebay the JapCrap vultures tend to push the prices well into that 3-figure stratosphere, where my Pikey Powers desert me, and I cannot not go. However, last week I managed to snag a Track 2 project for £52, and this is what I got: [attachment=30245:trackfront.jpg] [attachment=30246:trackback.jpg] [attachment=30247:trackbridge.jpg] The bad news is all very apparent from the pics - particularly the bridge, which appears to be made from plasticene. The good news is that the important bits are fine - the neck is dead straight, truss rod works and the frets are in excellent condition with very little wear, no splits or cracks. I was a little concerned that the pickup might be a dud, after the Ebay seller claimed it "just buzzed", but it turns out that the phase switch it had originally is missing & somebody appears to have attempted to re-wire it using the power of guesswork! A quick bit of reconnecting shows that the pickup, a vintage PAF-stickered DiMarzio, is reading a very healthy 11.5k. I'm not sure what to do about the bridge - obviously that piece of bent rubbish is useless, and my first impulse is to just forget it, fill the little route under it with a block of wood & fit a more conventional type - I have several suitable bridges in my parts box. But the other option is a Hipshot Supertone - they look the business, adjust in 54 different directions, and should just bolt straight on. However, they cost a fortune & seem to be pretty much unavailable in the UK. I'd also need to confirm that my JapCrap plasticene 3-point has interchangeable dimensions... Anyway, no hurry, I can't see this bass getting huge amounts of attention straight away, as I currently have about 5 other projects ongoing! Jon.