Bassassin

What an odd collection of pics. It's almost as though the seller's wilfully trying to hide what it actually looks like! Best impression of the shape is the back view, although it might be rubbish from the other side, it's near-impossible to tell. Watching anyway, because see-through blue, through-neck & £50.

Could be rescued by removing all the crap & filling whatever disasters live under the scratchplate, I suppose. Black refin. Knock another £100 off the price & it might be worth it.

What do you do when your EB0 falls over & the controls & jack smash through the front of the body? Do you rush it off to a good, capable luthier or...? And then stick it on Ebay for nearly four grand.

It would be petty straightforward to recreate the sticker design - you'd just need that 'Powersound' font, or something with similar proportions & style.

Afraid not - I just Googled a pic! Having said that, these stickers were pretty common on Corts from that era, so I'd think it's likely with diligent searching, a good square-on image might turn up. Headstock wings, Ricky-style?

By all means question me - I might know a bit about Japanese stuff, but I'm in no way a Fender expert! If the JD prefix on this suggests it's from a recent (post Fender Japan) range then that would make sense. Not sure how it works now but Fender Japan, which was set up in 1982 as a collaboration between Fender, Kanda Shokai & Yamano Gakki came to an end a few years ago, and the use of MIJ/CIJ as specific factory designations almost certainly ended with it.

I'd say it looks exactly like the GAK 2013 PJ. The only thing that contradicts that though is the GAK blurb (and they may be mistaken) which claims it's a Dyna Gakki build. @Chopthebass's pics clearly show 'Made In Japan' on the headstock & heel. As I understand it, MIJ is exclusively used on Fujigen-built Japanese Fenders, Dynas & Tokais have 'Crafted In Japan' instead. Having said that I'm pretty confident the bass is the same model - either GAK have their facts wrong, or both Dyna & Fujigen both produced these, which reslistically is most likely. Fujigen stopped being Fender Japan's main manufacturer in 1997, but have done occasional production runs since. This bass is probably one of those - and as such might be a bit of a rarity.

Not jealous. Not jealous. Not jealous. Enter the Eastwood limited edition, with standard J pickups, generic pressed-tin hardware and a 4-figure price tag...

On balance I don't think I own a single bass that wouldn't be improved by a sparkle/metalflake pink refin.

I'd say so. The originals were DiMarzio knockoffs, & the DP126 PJ set's pretty much period-correct. Have to be cream covers, obvs.

Looks like that's had the original transparent brown stripped & the mahogany lacquered or oiled - looks great, really brings the grain out. Could be tempted to do that with mine... Since my old pics are long-gone, this is the beast.

Getting the bass set up properly is the very best thing to do, chances are (specifically because it's coming from a catalogue) it'll be borderline unplayable out of the box. Whereabouts are you @Mands? Chances are a BC member local to you will be willing to give it the once-over.

First SG I ever played was a 3000, at some point in the mid '80s. A guitarist mate from another band had an odd way of getting hold of incredibly high-end stuff, and turned up one day with this gorgeous pearl white/abalone/gold SG3000. He also had an original '50s gold-top Gibson LP, could never quite work out what was going on there... The auction estimate for that's very low (tends to be the case with Gardiner Houlgate, unless it's a US Fender or Gibson), this could easily fetch double that price.

[4] No, you're mistaken, it's definitely a Gotoh. Like I told you.

Probably is, considering Danish is a bit of a faff. Do you have proper spray gear or is there good-quality rattle-can stuff that's not on my radar?

I am seriously doing so, but in the fullest interests of pedantry it'd need to be a bit broader. How does "My inner pedant will be along to correct you in due course" sound?

Not a great pic but I've done a bit of tweaking - it's definitely a Gotoh 206. Ah - it all makes sense now - Tolkein, Rivendell!

My inner pedant has to point out that these didn't have DiMarzio pickups - despite appearances Ibanez never fitted them on their Blazer, Roadster & Roadster II basses. They're very good DiMarzio lookalikes though, almost certainly made by Maxon/Nisshin Onpa & referred to as 'Super P4/J4' in the Ibby promo literature. A quick way to check whether your hex-pole pickups are DiMarzios or just similar looking is to try an allen key in a pole piece - DiMarzios are imperial, all the others will be metric.

Aww, it's home at last! The screwholes even line up. Well - close enough for rock 'n roll.

I like it but not old or (probably not) Japanese enough for my mental encyclopaedia of useless info. First impressions suggest a luthier build, maybe '90s or '00s. Leaning towards '90s, as the bridge is an obsolete Gotoh model used on some 90s Ibanez. The 'TR' logo looks sort of familiar but not ringing any specific bells, not yet at least. And that's all I got.

Staining the wings is a great idea - and if you're persistent enough with Danish oil you can get a good gloss - this was 20-odd coats applied with a cloth: Took a while as I was doing it in the dead of winter but it was straightforward to build up the finish (managed 2 applications a day) & then just a light sand before applying a final coat. I think it'd be smoother/shinier on something with a less open grain.

It's some Stagg thing, isn't it?

A couple of years ago RIC made 3x 30.5" scale basses for the bassist from Death From Above 1979: I seem to remember they teased the idea it might become a production model, but clearly that never happened. These are nothing like as cool as Rinus Gerritsen's shorty 4001 though.

Just been having another look at the pics of this one - might be the angle but that does look like the neck might have a pretty serious twist. As it happens, mine had a mild twist, not enough to affect playability, but this looks like it could be quite severe. Would recommend anyone considering bidding on this should try & get a look at it first. Unless it stays at £25, of course.