Bassassin

Can't help thinking the only reason the seller's left all that risible wannabe-goth tat nailed all over it, is that it looks worse with all the screwholes & finish dents they're covering. Nice neck.

Sorry - late night, half-asleep typo, RS940 was what I meant! You might be right but I'm still inclined to think/hope it's an uncommon standard model, would seem unlikely that a re-boarded bass would have the same offset dots as the maple board instrument & other factory fretless Ibanez.

I think one or two of us might be becoming a little confused! That's an ST924 Studio. Bolt-neck, but with a fancy laminated body & soapbars rather than P/Js. Err... that'll be because this is about the Musician range (MC900, MC924 etc) and yours is an RS series Roadster. The Roadsters & subsequent Roadstar II (which was genuinely a typo) basses were all bolt-on. Pretty confident yours is just a model variation on the RS920 fretless, which just doesn't happen to be in any of the catalogues that are currently available. Lots of Ibbys underwent changes & updates during the model's life but those aren't always reflected in literature. Also there's not a complete record of catalogues for the 70s & 80s yet, so it may just have been in one there's no copy of.

That's not the original trc, looks like it's from an Ibby SR.

Agreed. Not sure why you'd do that. Logo & serial number gone too. This sort of thing is unfortunately why there are so few left, and even fewer in good original condition. Shame.

RS940, but there's no rosewood/ebony board version in any of the catalogues, as far as I've seen. May be a formerly fretted/maple board version that's had the board replaced, or just an oddity. Quite a few models from this era don't seem to be in any of the available catalogues.

Thomann & Bax Music do replacement plates for Sire V7 4-strings, not sure if they do them for the 5ers. They're after-market though, and not a fantastically good fit - I swapped my boring black plate for a clear one and it took a lot of very careful filing around the neck & pickup cutouts to get it to go on. A couple of the holes didn't line up fantastically well either, was a bit concerned about either the lacquer on the bass or the plate itself cracking when I tightened it down. All went well though, and I think it was worth the work:

Are you looking for the specific knobs for your bass or just whatever will fit? I think most of the MCs had combinations of Sure-Grips (speed knob with a black rubber band basically, three different flavours) for passive/master V&T and smaller black silver capped ones for the preamp controls. You can still get Sure Grip IIIs from Thomann & other places (about £8 a pop) , and I'm pretty sure I've seen cheap sets on Ebay, probably from China, if you don't mind a wait. Not sure if the preamp knobs are Ibby-specific, they do look more generic though.

It's not really that much like a Rick, really. If you rounded off the corners on the insides of the horns I don't think there'd be any real similarity. Rickenbacker have registered all their designs as trademarks, and that's very specific - almost certainly means they can't do anything about instruments that are blatantly influenced by the look, but don't precisely copy anything - like this: The only thing here which is a spot-on clone of the RIC design is the scratchplate - which is a shape they never trademarked!

Cort T-34 (unsure if it's named after the tank) which someone has ruined by badly faking the 4000 series' ugliest feature. Otherwise it's a dead-on Rick copy - what with its active preamp, 34" scale and skinny 24-fret, Ibby Soundgear-esque bolt neck. I had one, mine was pretty:

Agreed, if it's a choice between hideous and dreary. Fortunately, it isn't!

Just a detail, anyway what do you need the post for? It's only got two strings! Clearly a design feature - a weight saving, and to compensate for neck dive!

It's a full set! Plus you could knock up a nice engraved plaque out of that neckplate, if you didn't mind all the holes.

That's worth £28 for the Schaller 3D & the set of old Gotoh tuners. Even more of a bargain if you have an open fire at home.

It does look like someone found The Ugly Stick and made a bass out of it. Although in fairness, it looks like one of these wonky, lumpy things knocked up in the shed by an enthusiastic amateur with no grasp of aesthetics or proportion. It lacks any of the wilful, mismatched, freaky wrongness of something like this misbegotten abomination.

Other brand names are available. As far as I can work out, early Marlins were Musimas, not sure when MIK production took over.

Found a bit more detail - "Tulio" is just a US importer brand so not really an ID - but as an unbranded bass, it's a Fujigen EB-2. A proper oldie too - this is from a 1965 catalogue for a US importer brand called St George, owned by a New York music shop chain. Apparently one of the first US importers of Fujigen instruments, when the company was still in its infancy, and operated from an out-building on a cattle farm owned by its founder, Yuichiro Yokouchi. All important information...

Well - despite the internet being the Suppository Of All Global Knowledge, I actually found it in a book! Frank Meyers' History Of Japanese Electric Guitars has a pic of this exact bass & calls it a Tulio EB-2, made by Fujigen Gakki. I have to go out now but I'll do a bit more research when I get back & see if I can find any more detail. Fujigen's one of the best-known & longest established Japanese factories, but I'd never heard of Tulio before. I'll see what I can find.

Can of worms, those.

That's a US mail-order catalogue brand name.

I know a bit about old MIJ stuff, this is 60s which is a bit before the eras I know. Will have a dig around & see what I can find out. Pics of details like neckplate & tuners might give clues. With something like this it'll be a manufacturer rather than a brand name we'll be looking for.

Probably the best place to ask is the Tokai Registry forum: http://www.tokaiforum.com/ They're mostly concerned with the vintage Japanese Hamamatsu factory output, but likely someone will know about the more recent stuff too.

Having seen the pics - @itu nailed it, it's a Musima! So, early/mid 80s, pre-unification East Germany. A slightly more interesting/cool P copy than I expected. Seen loads of these either unbranded or rebranded, but never seen one with a Musima logo before. Would have saved a bit of time & head-scratching if I had! Still have no idea why the Musima logo reads "WL" though...

That scrubbed up nice!

While you're all bickering over semantics, let's agree it reads 'WL', because it does. Interesting design, intended to read the same inverted, & just happens to be embossed on a component that can be fitted inverted.