Bassassin

I would. But then, I'm subject to occasional rash & impulsive decisions!

I don't. Looks like a one-off to me, probably late 70s when symmetrical (neck-divey) bodies were inexplicably popular. I'm pretty confident neither Mats nor any other Japanese factory would've used that headstock on a bass like this. Not sure that's a Schaller bridge - looks a bit like a 3D but the proportions don't look right. Maybe something like this, from around the same era & loosely based on the Schaller. Apart from the actual rollers!

Happily, that funny Mr Hall has retired, and been confined to a remote, isolated island with no means of communication, or quietly led down to an underground soundproofed padded bunker, so he will trouble us no futher. That's why Rickenbackers have single dual-action truss rods these days. Regarding the mysterious HW, I don't know - but if I wanted to, the Rickenfakers FB group would be where I commenced my clandestine investigations.

Chushin Gakki, Japan, mid 70s. Pickups may have date codes. On the whole these are very, very good copies. Might have been branded Shaftesbury but these turned up with a bunch of names, and if the bass is in Sweden it probably had a local importer or retailer's brand. Odd comment about the 'cheapest possible quality' parts. The pickguard's a bit of plastic, not sure the bits of plastic Rickenbacker use are made of superior material! The closed-back, cast button tuners are Gotohs, and should be perfectly serviceable. Shergold used them back in the 80s. Eko never made a 4001 type but Italian manufacturer Gherson made some nice ones.

That's really quite restrained & conservative for a Wandre. I've never found any of their designs particularly appealing but live in hope that, wonky-looking & tacky as they are, one day one will turn up at the car boot for a tenner.

There are Chinese copies of these - there's at least one owner on the Rickenfakers FB group. I don't think the one in the pic's a knockoff though, it doesn't have the generic hardware & pickups a copy would come with.

Temu Special Edition. Pretty sure the Cats Protection League will have no idea it's not genuine.

Fair point. But it's a quality defret job, if it's not factory.

Gold or red pearl for me. Bit sick of tort.

B-Bass lined fretless 6? I had no idea such a creature existed! That has two more strings that I've ever found strictly necessary & 24 fewer frets than I would normally favour - but even I'm borderline tempted! That's (literally) a lot of bass for not all that much money. Those Strat knobs would have to go, though.

Never had one but always thought it was a good-looking bass - they used to come up quite regularly but haven't seen one for ages. Crafter as a brand's pretty decent, a guitarist mate has a Crafter acoustic, which plays & sounds way better than the price tag suggests Just had a quick look & there are a couple of CX100s going for £135 & £115 respectively. If this one's the same ball park - go for it!

I think if I wanted a pointyhead 80s hair-metal bass, I'd find a real pointyhead 80s hair-metal bass. It wouldn't be £1400, it would almost certainly be MIJ, not Indonesian, and it would probably have one of those amazing multicoloured crackle finishes. That said, I didn't want one back when they were current & I certainly don't want one now. Not sure who the target market for stuff like this is in 2025, tbh.

Aside from my first gigging band when I was 19 - which already had a full set of original songs written by the guitarist - I've been main composer or co-composer in every original band or recording project I've been involved in. I suppose I'm reasonably prolific & have for the most part put bands together, rather than joining them. I've always been open to other people getting involved with writing - but maybe for some musicians it's just easier not to!

For fear of it getting a bit specifically political (but not in a partisan way), them's the consequences of a polarising system, & the New Bosses being essentially the same as the Old Bosses. Fwiw I'd contend the Guardian hates Corbyn & whatever his new party's called (and probably the new ultra-left Greens) just as much, if not more than they hate Reform.

Rick & Stick? 😲 You are Nick Beggs & I claim my £5!

Quite. I tend not to read or contribute to threads I find uninteresting, or downright boring.

"Virtue signalling"?

Just for the record, assuming I finish this before the inevitable lock - no. Racists, homophobes, transphobes & hateful, bin-burning bigots of any faction can do one. Not in my band, not in my life, if I can possibly help it.

It's a sad reality that every time there's an excited-sounding thread title naming a bass brand I'm unfamiliar with, I have a little bet with myself it'll be yet another bloody fake Precision. I probably owe myself around 20 grand by now. Although it'd be 25 if I occasionally took a punt on it being a 15-string singlecut coffee-table.

A quick Google image search suggests it's a Sandberg Bullet Booster. Which is a really rubbish name for a nice-looking bass, in my (admttedly valueless) opinion. https://bassbros.co.uk/sold-basses/2012-sandberg-bullet-booster-fretless/ There are people on here who know a lot more about Sandbergs than me, with luck one wil be along soon.

@casapete beat me to it - Fujigen (the factory which made it) 2407, branded Antoria for UK distributor J.T. Coppock & Sons. We had one turn up a couple of years back & I contributed what little I knew back then. There's a serial number on the bass neckplate - can't quite see it but the second 2 digits are the year, likely '76 or later.

Hey Steve, that mystery was solved upthread. The bass is a 70s Japanese copy, made by a factory called Chushin Gakki, and it pre-dates both the Chinese guitar industry & the advent of high-quality Korean-made instruments. Here's the translation:

Thanks - it will. It'll take about 4 months to work it out, though...

I look at the pics every month in the hope of inspiration, but... My creative process (if you can call it that) is incredibly unspontaneous, slow & laborious, ideas can take months to develop & just as long to record satisfactorily. It's very rare that any composition is 5 minutes or less, and although I dislike them, can't play them & obviously have never used them - unfortunately I can't guarantee no bagpipes. So maybe next month...