Bassassin

MusicRadar review from 2008: Fender Jazz 24

Never seen one in the flesh but there were a number of these turning up on Ebay - new ones too - some 15 or so years ago. It's not going to be from 1988 (pretty sure the only non-US Fenders back then were MIJ), more likely the mid '00s. I think you're correct that these are Korean-made.

I feel guilty for telling you...

Sobering thought - according to this Inflation Calculator tool, £120 in '74 is equivalent to £1,162 now. £167.40 would be £1,618.

There's an '81 TOTP video - he's playing either an Aria SB700 or an SB1000 - through-neck, single pickup, can't tell if it's active or passive. I'd guess that's what he recorded the track with. Begs the question why the high-end Japanese basses like Aria SBs and Ibanez Musicians & Studios, which all emerged at the end of the 70s, don't seem to have been embraced by the players that @Bean9seventyis talking about - they'd seem to tick all the boxes, not Fendery, through-neck, 24 fret, 2-a-side headstock etc. Certainly very affordable compared to the Alembics that inspired their designs.

Burns-Weill & '70s Eastern European knockoffs. Look like they should cost about £60, but I strongly suspect they don't. Somewhat aesthetically challenging. Or challenged. At least they're not yet more Precision copies though, so that's something.

Gorgeous. I am an inveterate and unrepentant vintage MIJ snob but I've said numerous times that the post-MIJ/Matsumoku Arias & AP2s are broadly excellent, great VFM and tragically underrrated instruments. I'm trying to avoid bass GAS for '22 but your IGB ain't helping.

Me, plonking & twiddling away on a guitar between swigs of coffee, trying to kick some sense into what might or might not be a new song. Assuming that qualifies as 'music'.

Glen Matlock played a Rick, some of the time at least. I think Sid might've used a Precision, but more for hitting punters than playing. Re the funkage, it wasn't my scene during the era @Bean9seventyis relating, but I did become a massive MK/L42 fan/copyist from about '83/4 and remember he was such a regular interviewee in the old Making Music freesheet that it became known colloquially as Mark King Music. The point is, many of the anecdotes in this thread were related by the man himself in those interviews so me (and probably one or two other BCers) are familiar with the fact he was a drummer from the IoW who blagged a job selling basses in Macaris, & that he got his first JayDee because he couldn't afford an Alembic but an s/h JayDee turned up in the shop, and it looked a bit like an Alembic. Apropos of nothing - I did buy a Washburn B20 from Macaris during the time he would've been working there, and it might or might not have been him wot sold me it. The point however, is that I sold that bass a couple of years later because the position of the neck pickup right up against the end of the fretboard made it nigh-on impossible to play Mr Pink on. And that's the circle of life, or something.

Bronze pearl. And that lacquer's looking fabulous!

I liked Beefy. Why'd he get banned, again?

So - are you saying this is Mark's dad?

Nah, the original Hondos were cheap, nasty plywood, made in Korea by Samick. Not sure when they first appeared (Hondo's originally a US owned brand so they would've been in the States before getting UK distro) but I'd guess '74ish. There are some pics online of what might be an MIJ prototype (early 70s looking LP copy) but some doubt about whether it's genuine. Korean manufacture quality seems to have lagged behind MIJ by 5-10 years so the Hondos did get better as they went along - I had a set-neck, carved top Samick Hondo LP from about 1978 which was really well-put together & a great player, let down by horrible hardware & electronics. In the late 70s/early 80s there was an attempt to move the brand upmarket by fitting OEM DiMarzios to a lot of models, and introducing a Japanese-made range of higher spec instruments - the through-neck bass I posted is a great example of that. Many of the later, original design Hondos are MIJ, plenty of Matsumoku-made examples & (anecdotally) Tokai made some too. The bass I posted is early 80s and almost certainly made by Chushin Gakki - it has the same bridge as the Chushin-made Washburns from the same era, which looks like this on the back: Not sure the brand relaunch went too well - there aren't that many 'good' Hondos around compared to the tat, & the brand's hard-earned reputation as being the nadir of cheapsh!t garbage guitars was probably hard to shake. I think it's disappeared & been relaunched a few times over the years so it's likely there are some Indonesian & Chinese-made Hondos around to muddy the waters still further!

I bought my first good bass, a Washburn B20 Stage, out of Macari's in 1981. I'd like to be able to say it was demo'd to me by some short blond guy doing frenetic boinkety-boinkety-boink stuff with his taped-up thumb - but I honestly don't remember.

Some of the solid finish MIK Squiers have plywood bodies, had a red Strat like that years ago. If it's an E serial it'll be a Young Chang (subsequently busted for selling the same guitars under their own Fenix brand) and these are generally regarded as very good. And probably not ply. That said, 90s Arias are excellent quality & VFM, I've always fancied an IGB. So I've no idea which you should go for!

Can't tell much from that pic. Close-ups of the back of the headstock, neckplate, control cavity/neck pocket, also any markings under the pickups and on the electronics would help. I am a bit concerned it might turn out to be a recent Chinese copy - hope you didn't pay over the odds.

What model is the bass, & is the number stamped on a neckplate? The 70s 'Steel Adjustable Neck' plates have numbers which appear to be random and cannot be dated. Info & pics would help.

On the whole those budget Chinese-made paddle-headstock necks tend to be pretty decent for the money, yes.

Never underestimate the potential for some visionary to look at a perfectly good cheapo P copy and think - "I know what would improve that!" I'd think it likely a strong cocktail of alcohol & incompetence was behind this particular lightbulb moment. Also "Neckplate? We don' need no steenkin' neckplate!"

That's plausible, apart from the fact that yours & mine were made only a few months apart, & the Roadsters appear to have been discontinued in 1982. You'd expect the Roadstar II range would've been in development well before the predecessors were phased out, so you'd wonder if they'd bother with very minor changes on a near-obsolete bass! It occurs to me the 24-fret basses - Roadster, Studio & Musician, all have pretty much identical body shapes - maybe the control route templates were interchangeable between some or all of them. I suspect we'll never know!

Perfectly plausible that someone might've modded a Silver Series P to P/J.

Curiouser & curiouser. I'd be inclined to think it points to a different factory (using different router templates) manufacturing mine - or the body, at least. It tends to be assumed that all MIJ Ibanez came from Fujigen but guitar manufacture in Japan isn full of examples of outsourcing & collaborative building, no reason to think Ibanez was any different, really.

Looks like you're right, pcb screwed on like yours too. Wonder how come mine's different? It's tidy & untouched-looking enough to assume it's original. My bass is Feb '82 so just a few months later than yours. You'd think they'd be the same.

Well, they're not wrong... Wonder if someone realised there was a bit more involved in a headless conversion after they went at it with a junior hacksaw?