Bassassin

I did struggle to find a DAW I got on with since migrating from hardware multitrackers 4 or 5 years ago. Reaper was my first choice, but I found it impenetrable & unintuitive, and the manuals garbled. Then tried Studio One - mine too, came as a free bung with some hardware. Seemed more accessible but my supposedly fully functional free copy started regularly deciding my evaluation period had expired. And so did my interest in the software. Tried Tracktion (forerunner of Waveform) after that - liked it a lot at first, very accessible, easy to get up & running - but the more involved I got, the less sense the workflow made. I found the lack of a distinct mixer view incredibly fiddly, with everything crammed into the end of the track window, and when rendering a stereo file, for reasons I couldn't fathom all MIDI instruments went fractionally out-of-time. Particularly obvious & frustrating with drums. So - I've gone full circle & come back to Reaper - and I love it. This time I decided to largely ignore the impenetrable documentation and avail myself of the many YouTube tutorials available, just to grasp the basic principles and get up & running. I'm still only scratching the surface but so far I think it's a great piece of software, very flexible and definitely fits my way of working. It's stupidly inexpensive considering how powerful it is - and comes with what's effectively a permanent evaluation period, if you begrudge the developers their measly $60.

Fair point. Worth another quid if he'd at least run it under the tap.

Call that busy? Can't see the sound guy's dog anywhere!

Haven't bothered looking at this thread since Thursday. Guess that means I'm a bored bass player.

These older guitars were what's called 'strip mahogany' - in other words plywood - in an attempt to make cheap necks more warp-resistant. However in the early 80s Chushin Gakki launched a high spec guitar called 'Bambu' which was made with a through-body bamboo neck. Will post some pics & stuff when I'm not on my phone. Edit: Here's a convenient link to a Chushin Bambu that went through Ebay a couple of weeks ago: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maya-Bambu-Guitar-Chushin-Gakki-factory-/174658482254 And the manufacturer's blurb about them. Not too high-res, so you may want your specs:

It's interesting - but a bit expensive for the poor condition. Looks like it's been neglected for a lot of years - would like some reassurance that the hex screws aren't seized, and I'm not impressed by how chewed-out a couple of the intonation screws look. Might drop a tenner on it but 20-odd quid's too much.

I could go check the pickups on my '84 (ish) Mori, as I still have it - but it wouldn't help much, it's one of those little guitar things, not a bass! I'm really only guessing that the 8 prefix means '80s, it's quite likely it doesn't. Considering that many of these instruments are straight Fender & Gibson copies, you'd normally expect MIJ examples to have stopped manufacture by 1979, as most established manufacturers - including Moridaira - were moving to original designs towards the end of the decade. If it wasn't for the numbers possibly suggesting otherwise, I'd put serialised Moridaira copy instruments between '76 & '79. It's simply the fact that most of these serials start with 8 (something the MIJ community's really only just noticed!) that makes me wonder if there's a pattern to them. Previously I sort of assumed they were either random (like early Matsumoku serials seem to be) or sequential producton numbers.

Of course - I wondered if you'd thought the stickers meant they were UK market exclusive rather than made here! Quite likely the pickups are original - it doesn't look like the bass has been played all that much, never mind tampered with.

It's an unbranded Moridaira. This type of silver sticker s/n is exclusive to Moridaira. It's by no means UK exclusive. It's probably early-mid 80s, but it's not 1981, regardless of the numbering. Moridaira serials seem to be 5 or 6 digit, the vast majority are like this - 6-dgit beginning with 8. It's possible they are dateable and that the 8 is the decade (a few 5-figure 7 prefixes have turned up) but the second digit's not the year - there's an example that was bought new in 1984 which starts 86, and the purchaser (yeah, it was me) didn't have a DeLorean at the time... Anyway - these are good. Moridaira is the factory that built MIJ Hohner, their own Morris & HS Anderson brands, Bill Lawrence, MIJ Lotus - and Prince's MadCat Telecaster.

Sanox is something of a mystery brand - it'll be an importer/distributor name rather than a manufacturer, but the name appears on some very interesting & nice quality looking instruments - like this. I don't know too much about the brand but I'd point you towards The Original Vintage Japanese Guitar Fanclub on FB - there's a lot of specific brand-related knowledge and a guy called Ben Rimmer who posts there has a particular interest in Sanox, if I remember. From what I do know, I think the El Maya @Dom in Dorset posted is probably related - these were from the Chushin Gakki factory & Sanox looks likely to have come from there too. El Maya was largely a high-end brand and while the Sanox isn't as complex a build as the El Mayas can be, it looks like a quality bass.

I doubt many here feel 'attacked' by the post. It's more that the poster has spectacularly misjudged his audience, and clearly hasn't spent enough time looking around BC to appreciate that a community largely comprised of middle aged & often highly experienced musicians, many with 30-40 years of regular gigs behind them, might not be very receptive to his somewhat condescending and judgemental post! As a result he's been on the receiving end of some suitably tongue-in-cheek ribbing & light-hearted p!sstaking, and interestingly, hasn't been back!

I think they're Schallers. The cast key & shaft are the same as M4S units, which sometimes turn up with Gibson branding.

Absolutely. I am a crushingly dull excuse for a human being, people would describe me as a walking void, but for the fact that they only register my existence as a vague sensation of unease followed by the need to bathe. However, I have, on occasion, donned ornamental headgear whilst performing, and I have never once - not once - been described as a 'boring bass player'. Stick that up your oh-so-helpful YouTube channel.

That's off a 1980-ish Kasuga. Go the same thing on my Scorpion, never seen one on anything else.

Washburn seemed to go the way of Aria - once they stopped being made in Japan in the mid/late 80s, there was a shift in the types of instruments they were producing & a narrowing of their appeal. Fashions change, & both brands moved away from boutique-looking through-neck designs and associated themselves more with the pointy headstock & garish paintjob SuperStrat market. Moving manufacture to Korea meant that for a lot of the range there would have been a drop-off in quality compared to the MIJ stuff and by the 90s, both Washburn & Aria had largely lost their high-end/pro-endorsed market & were seen as pretty much budget brands. The original late 70s/early 80s Japanese instruments, very much so. The Wing & Stage series guitars & basses particularly are increasingly sought-after, & high-end examples are getting towards the 4-figure bracket. They're pretty scarce, which helps.

oH No iTs cAncEL cuLTuRe GonE MAD!!!!!1111!!!!!!1111

I'm being proper nice, me. But I can't be held responsible for other people's absence of a sense of humour, or appreciation of irony & my clumsy, elephantine attempts at sarcasm.

If you go back read carefully, you'll find I said I'd never do any such thing. Go on - have a try.

Excuse me - is this the right room for an overreaction? However rose-tinted your recollection of these instruments may be, they were low-quality, cheaply (often badly) made, and aimed solely at undiscerning beginners. Back when I started, this sort of thing was all I could afford, and having more recently been in the business of buying, restoring & selling elderly Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese etc instruments - many of which have been decidedly low-end - I know very well of what I speak! They might be interesting, but quality musical instruments they are not. I had no intention of causing offence - but then it would never have occured to me that calling a cheap, poorly finished plywood budget guitar 'tat' would cause offence to anyone. It's really not like calling someone's Harley Davidson a clown bike. I'd never do that.

No idea how I missed this thread first time around. Guitars & basses like these - for want of a better word, tat - aren't really my thing but they're associated with many of the same manufacturers as the MIJ stuff I am into, so I've picked up the odd bit of info here & there. Very few of these budget Kay-branded instruments are Japanese, but there tends to be an assumption that every funny looking 60s & 70s guitar is MIJ. They're pretty much all from Taiwan, and products of a factory established there in the mid 60s by Kawai/Teisco. These are probably all early 70s instruments, and some designs (including the Tulip) are near-identical to the earlier MIJ Teiscos. The strip-ply neck is pretty common on 60s & early 70s MIJ guitars & the technique is very common on products from the Taiwanese Kawai factory. It's a way of avoiding warping common on single-pece necks made from available unseasoned woods.

See, that's what I'd do now: Bung in a nice set of DiMarzio Model Ps for £50 or £60 and stick the '70s Fender unit on Ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FENDER-PRECISION-BASS-1974-USED-PICKUPS-11-5-k-EXCELLENT-WORKING-CONDITION-/164632533665 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1977-Precision-Bass-Pickup-1976-Pots-Cup-and-Jack-Complete-Set-/224265520692 Free Antoria, free DiMarzio & enough change for a few pints and a pie.

And we have a winner! And I've got one, ain't I? Slightly (reversibly) modded because the original scratchplate's a bit ugly and the parts box was a bit full: Still have all the parts to put it back to stock, should I ever flog it. Which I might.

£900?? There's money in that there parts bin!

Not usually - I have an early 80s Washburn which does, but it's not really the same sort of thing. Looking at this, hard to be sure but I think it's a mod - the bridge is poorly aligned & the string spacing's a bit too narrow for the neck, so it looks replaced. The ferrules are all over the place too.

That's kinda cool, I'd pay €20 for it! Going by stuff like the tuners & neckplate it's Korean rather than MIJ. Really interesting/cool pickups and looks like the defret hasn't been too much of a hack job, as far as I can tell. But no, don't remember seeing one the same before (and I'd probably remember!) and I couldn't say who made it & when, beyond maybe Samick or Cort & probably mid/late 70s. Would like to see this pulled apart & cleaned up - I doubt all those switches & pots are original, but you never know. Anyway - buy it!