Bassassin

I have very scant knowledge of 60s era MIJ guitars other than what I've picked up peripherally, or from Frank Meyers' excellent History Of Japanese Electric Guitars book. However I know enough to be very confident it's not a Teisco - apart from in the sense that somehow every wonky little 60s/70s starter guitar's somehow a Teisco... Norma maybe, Teisco, nah. A bit of digging uncovered this, apparently from 1972: The 'National' bass second from the right is a Sakai - and after consulting the aforementioned Big Frank's Useful Book, so, it would seem, is the wonky little guitar next to it. So yes - despite knowing borderline bugger-all about old tat like this, a bit of detectiving estabishes the guitar in question appears to be a Sakai. Norma's a US brand name & as it's unbranded, it seems reasonable to call it a Sakai EG300, as Sakai Mokko was a manufacturer. Unless... Curiously, there are several versions of the Sakai bass design, some of which are Korean, not Japanese. It's not unrealistic to assume versions of the guitar were also made in Korea or elsewhere - there are minor differences (the pickup being one) from the one in the catalogue. This type of guitar continued to be made in Korean & Taiwanese factories through the 70s & into the 80s.

That & weapons-grade incompetence.

As it happens, I quite like 'em, apart from that scratchplate which is an ugly, design-free, afterthought botch. Would never own a real one, mind.

As I understand it, John Hall's been wheeled off to a quiet little room with soft walls where he can't hurt himself (or anyone else) and I think a younger Hall (a son? I dunno) is now running the show. This can be seen in almost-sane product developments such as a bridge that intonates mounted on a tailpiece that doesn't bend in half, and the adoption of those weird, crazy & radical single truss rods used by those rule-breaking futurists at Fender, Gibson and everywhere else in the world circa 1955. It's also quite possible that they no longer have the same dementedly litiginous attitudes to people trying to sell on 45 year old Rick-shaped Japanese basses. Although I'd continue to support the ban on sales of Rick copies and real Ricks here, because they're still a bunch of tw@ts..

Looks like a decent spec bitsa with a sticker. €300 would be a bit more realistic though. Tuners look like the ones used on Italia basses.

I had first refusal on that. I knocked it back. AND NOW I DON'T KNOW WHY!!!

Apart from the fretboard material it appears to be the same bass as the OP's - obviously at the very opposite extreme of condition, but it seems to have all the same build details and hardware, so it's logical to assume it's from the same manufacturer. If you've read through the thread (and I hope you have!) then you'll know it's not at all clear who that was, and unfortunately I have nothing new to add to what was discussed upthread. As far as "brand" is concerned,it could be anything - or indeed nothing, as unbranded instruments were very common. With instruments from this era, more often than not the name on the end, if there is one, tells us little or nothing, which is why trying to discern an actual manufacturer is of more interest.

Was never a huge Quo fan but I played a lot of AL's lines in my first little school bands, and The Quo were the first band I ever saw in a stadium - Wembley, 1979. RIP Mr Lancaster.

I was literally about to post - it's like someone saw the MM sig J & thought - "that's just not ugly enough!"

I had an Avon Grabber a few years ago, given that Avon had a reputation for being the cheap & tatty end of the market, this was a really good bass & a very accurate copy. Could almost have been passed off as original, with a few hardware swaps & a new headstock sticker.

Interesting - never seen a Columbus Ripper, but they did have a Marauder guitar copy so that was probably sold as its bass couterpart.

There were both. The set necks were far less common. The Melody & Avon copies were Grabbers, not Rippers, and from different factories. Melody was an Italian manufacturer.

Of course. It's right in between the 'h' and 'r' of 'hairdrier'. ...sorry.

I still quite like the old Bogseat. That said I've always thought it looks unfinished - a couple of slight changes would give the design a lot more flow & integrity while retaining the shape. And I'd ditch the stoopid scratchplate.

Subbed. Awesome track, and that's some set of pipes your vocalist's got!

Don't know much about Hagstroms but I've been to Stockholm & I like ABBA & Opeth, so that's a start, at least. I also once placed a sneaky bid on an original Super Swede that the seller had no clue about & looked like it might sneak under the radar - think it ended up selling for the price of a small semi-detached in Croydon. If I'd won it for £95 I might have an opinion of some consequence, I suppose, but this does look interesting, as does the SS reissue. Didn't someone on here have a Hagstrom Beluga a few years ago? Cool-looking singlecut thing, doesn't look like they make it any more.

I assumed you hadn't clocked the seller's name - happens surprisingly often. I'd assume since the 'celebrity' owner is also the seller, he'd probably have actually played it, if only to make sure the pickups were working. In my defence I haven't watched any of those 'Americans scrapping over storage units full of old clothes & severed heads' shows in about 10 years & as a consequence I have no idea who Gunter The Celebrity is!

I suspect a 70s Matsumoku Ripper copy. Most common badged Aria but no-brand ones would've existed, like with pretty much any Japanese copy. Think I've seen these branded Kimbara too. Shame you didn't ask the BC Hive Mind before writing it off as crap & parting it out, tbh, would have been a nice & pretty straightforward looking resto project, & worth a few quid these days too. https://reverb.com/uk/item/6350520-aria-pro-ii-lb-650-ripper-bass-natural-1970s

The seller's name might proffer a clue...

I suppose it depends what you consider to be tidying! The jack is the worst bit but looks to me like it could be eased back level, glued from the front & then reinforced inside the route. Replacing a microswitch (prob 2-way) is a part that costs pence & about 10 minutes with a soldeing iron. Maybe a bit more of an issue if it's mounted on a PCB but I don't think these were. Like I say, it's perspective - I spent about 10 years doing this sort of bodge fix - sorry, restoration work - almost as a day job a while ago, so this doesn't look too daunting to me. That said, I'd be keener if the bass was £5 from the car boot instead of £300, like this Thunder 1 guitar I bodged restored was!

A lot of Ebay hopefuls are asking silly money, but with the occasional exception 1As & 1s still mostly go for £150 - £200-ish. Same as it ever was, really. It's probably a £400 - £500ish bass in top condition - if the electronics work it would just be tidying to make this one nice. Fortunately these days repro knobs are available for £35 a set.

Don't worry - it's not 'either or'!

Will be interesting to see what it fetches - needs a bit of tlc, & given the condition I wouldn't put money on the electronics being functional. About £300-ish would be fair enough but I wouldn't want to pay much more.

Would be easy enough to build as a bitsa - bit of extra pickup routing on a J body, cut a Tele Thinline-ish scratchplate then whatever neck/hardware/control layout you wanted. Reminds me a bit of the Aria Avante Steve Bailey sig.

I like the look of that, it's not the banal P or J clone I expected. However the dumb let's-pretend-a-bass-is-a-Telecaster control setup, which allows no scope for blending the pickups, makes it a nope.