Bassassin

That's an interesting old bass but I don't think there's any connection to the UK Encore brand, which is owned by distributor JHS. I'm guessing you're in the States - all the 70s & early 80s Encores I've seen are in the US, and (despite what some not-too-reliable online sources say) I'm pretty sure they're nothing to do with the domestic brand here. JHS Encores seem to have appeared in the late 80s & the details of this bass (brass bridge, P/P pickups) were more common 8-10 years earlier. Also, I've never seen one before! Your bass looks to me to be late 70s/early 80s, post 'copy era', and from what I can see, probably Korean-made. There are some vintage MIJ & MIK Facebook groups with a lot of knowledge so it might be worth posting it there, with any luck someone might've run across one before, or might know more about the brand. https://www.facebook.com/groups/55074615631 https://www.facebook.com/groups/772335426130798 https://www.facebook.com/groups/277195109119716 I'd be interested in seeing more pics - any stickers or stamps on the back of the instrument could help narrow down details, or markings on pickups, pots etc.

Guitarists are ten a penny, just accept you'll have to have a revolving door until the one who can play well enough & isn't a tw@t eventually turns up. Keep the drummer.

70s Japanese copies were sold with various brands - Maya, as mentioned by @Grahambythesea Avon (which I had 10+ years ago) and various other names. These all seem to be rebrands of the same bass, thought to have been made by Chushin Gakki, and were very accurate copies. A bit hefty, certainly, but well-made & a good player. If I recall the neck profile was P width but quite shallow, pretty high output & a reasonable range of tonal variation moving the pickup. Quite hard to find, like a lot of old MIJ stuff now, wish I'd kept mine! Some better pics of a nice one in this old TB thread: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/70s-gibson-grabber-copy-incredible-orig-cond-sliding-pickup-maple-neck-orig-hsc.1164324/ There was also an Italian-made copy, made bt Melody, these turn up very infrequently & as far as I can tell were good & pretty accurate. Never seen one in the flesh, but some decent pics here: http://guitarz.blogspot.com/2018/06/gibson-grabber-bass-copy-by-melody.html The recent Epi version is probably easier to find than either of these, but (someone correct me if I'm wrong here) not a true Grabber as it didn't have the sliding pickup, iirc it had a standard split P unit.

Remember coming across an old German guitar with a 5-pin DIN - can't remember if it was a Klira or Musima - at a flea market in Berlin years ago. Cool/weird old thing, should've bought it...

If it was '87 then Dunnery's Strat would have been a Japanese E, SQ or JV serial. These days they're generally regarded as being, erm, quite good! Fwiw Steve Rothery from Marillion still uses his SQs & JVs.

The moment you stick someone else's fake logo on the end, a replica/copy becomes a counterfeit.

Don't like to see it, don't understand why anyone does it. A copy's a copy's a copy, whether it's a £90 Harley Benton or a £900 Limelight & I don't think there's any shame in that - it seems eminently more tragic to fake an instument up as something it's not. Fwiw I've had dozens of Precisions, Jazzes, Strats & Teles - and not one has been a 'real' Fender or worn a shonky sticker. Maybe not actual copyright or trade dress registration, but they have taken successful action against manufacturers & brands using similar styles - Vester & Fenix were made to change the styles of their logos back in the 80s/90s. Fenix was particularly ironic as the brand owner/manufacturer had previously had the contract to make Squiers - until they started selling them under their own brand without permission!

Stroll away.The singer's the focal point of any covers band, and if the singer's sh!t, so will the reputation of the band be, and the likelihood of getting regular good, well-paid gigs.

Never encountered the NZ Commodore brand before, clearly not related to the Matsumoku-built UK Commodore brand of the late 60s/early 70s. Did a very quick Google which unearthed this article which covers the origins of the NZ company & its founder, plus a few Commodore gutars: https://www.audioculture.co.nz/scenes/ten-guitars-nz-made-guitars And this Reverb listing for a very pretty Commodore 6-stringer, its styling owing an awful lot to 50s/60s Italian instruments, IMO. https://reverb.com/item/8244871-extremely-rare-vintage-commodore-electric-guitar-new-zealand-rare-50-s-1958 Aside from Australian manufacturer Maton, I'm hard-pressed to think of any Antipodean guitar & bass manufacturers. I'll see if I can dig up anything else about Commodore. Edit: Thread on Offset Guitars forum discussing the brand: https://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=53549 It's a 10-year old thread so probably a few dead links.

I had a lovely Ibanez 2366B Precision copy, around '72/3 (currently owned by @BreadBin) with a similar lovely flame on the fretboard & headstock. Same factory (Fujigen) so looks like they might've chosen nice timbers for boards. Pic doesn't quite do it justice.

Pedant!

Maybe - looks like the body could be (although that shape feels familiar) but the neck looks manufactured. I think that elongated Fender-type headstock will be what IDs it - if someone recognises it, that is! Wondering now if it could be Italian... https://www.fetishguitars.com/

They all look like Snoopy choking on a log.

I think that's because it is a Fender (or Fender style) cover. No dice on Cheesyguitars, which is a great quick reference guide for Soviet-era stuff & other weirdness. Still leaning that way - no adjustable truss rod would be very odd on a Japanese/Korean instrument.

J'arrive! Aaaaand - dunno what that is. Would say it's possibly MIJ, mid/late 60s or possibly a little later & Korean. Pretty sure the scratchplate, pickup, jack, knob & bridge cover aren't original. The skinny headstock does have a Teisco-y look to it but the neckplate & tuners aren't right. Those tuners are typical 70s MIJ or MIK, so if it is 60s, mightn't be original either. Actually, wondering if the tuners etc aren't a bit of a red herring. It has a bit of an Eastern European, Iron Curtain era look about it. Am I right in thinking it doesn't have an adjustable truss rod? can't see any access. Off to CheesyGuitars.com to have a dig around...

Not many Freshers in the UK but the same things turn up with all our favourite domestic 70s brands (Columbus, Avon, Grant, CMI etc) as well as Japanese brands like Maya. It's pretty much established that Fresher was a brand made by Chushin Gakki, as were many, if not all of the instruments from the other names I mentioned. The bass in the TB thread is a low/midrange P copy, probably mid 70s, ply body, cheap 2-saddle bridge intended to be hidden under a cover. It's OK but genuinely nothing special. New, in say, 1975/6, this & its equivalents would have been about £50 or £60, so an awful lot cheaper than a real Fender P, which would've been £250-odd back then.

Look - someone had to do it. It's actually deeply disturbing how many different images come up if you Google 'Lemmy denim shorts'. I think I'm scarred for life now. As is my search history.

Learned & played a Quo song or two when I started, age 16, wasn't much of a fan but my guitar playing mates were. I suppose it was reasonable training in keeping time playing a root note 12 bar, but I can't say it exactly held my attention or inspired me as a bassist. Don't know if it's true but I do remember reading that Alan Lancaster didn't play on Quo's recordings because he, erm, couldn't keep good time.

Don't worry, it'll be up on Ebay soon. For a grand, obviously. (Before anyone asks - IT WASN'T ME!!!)

I don't think a band can - or should - be a democracy. You put it together, you know what you want & have a particular vision for the band - and you are able to very clearly articulate in this thread what that is, how it will work & why trying to change it weakens it & makes the band less marketable. I think you need to explain it to your bandmates in the same way & remind them (diplomatically is probably best!) whose idea the band was in the first place! Not sure, but it sounds like it's predominantly the singer trying to pull it away from your original concept - if so & she can't be talked round, you might have to accept that she's not the right singer, no matter how good/experienced she is.

I was maybe thinking of 'plum juice'.

Am I correct in assuming that when you say 'tomato juice', that's a polite metaphor on a family-friendly forum?

Afraid I don't know too much about Ferrnandes specifically but this looks to be a nice example, all looks original and in cosmetically good condition, apart from some slightly manky looking metalwork. These are considered replica-standard instruments alongside Tokai, ESP & other high-end 80s Japanese brands - and price-wise it looks good, certainly when compared to JV Squiers & such from the same era. One thing I'm not a huge fan of is the visible wiring channel between the control & pickup route when the scratchplate's removed - that's an odd thing to see on a bass with correct neck pickup routing & I'd wonder if that's original. The seller also mentions the bridge pickup being 'weak' - without any more detail it's hard to know what that issue might be or how weak the output is. Had a quick look at the Fernandes catalogue archive & I think it's an FJB-65 - page 11 in this 1980 catalogue: http://fernandes-cojp.check-xserver.jp/fer_wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/1980.pdf Text is Japanese but the images appear to show DiMarzio-style split coil pickups & the push/pull controls.

Looks like a nicely done, great-looking & well-specified bitsa. No idea how high the price will go, but at the moment it's £200 - which is about the value of the pickups & bridge alone. I'd definitely keep an eye on it.

Nice - but waaay too tasteful for the likes of me!