Bassassin

The best, and funniest musical comedy act I ever saw was the Doug Anthony All Stars. This is very, very NSFW and I very much hope the spoiler tag works...

As has been said, it's an East German Musima. These are pretty decent, some nice components including Gotoh tuners. The early Marlin brand Ps were Musimas, before manufacture went to Korea & quality went down the toilet.

Looks like an Alperious pickguard on that. Not something you'd put on - or at least, leave on - a knockoff. https://www.alperious.com/

Re-imagine it as Achy Breaky Neck? 😁

I know a bit but I can't guarantee it'll clarify much! The J copy's Korean & made by Samick The identifiers are the square heel, pressed backplate tuners & narrow unstamped neckplate, which aren't features you'll find on an MIJ Jazz. The control cover's a bit of an odd shape but don't remember seeing that before, actually looks like a home-made replacement. The pickups are the same design as the MIJ Maxons but either copies or (more likely) licensed. They'll be plain on the back, rather than embossed & date-stamped, and in my experience a fair bit hotter than the Maxon versions. Despite the 8 poles, these are single-coil units. Here's a very similar Hondo-branded 70s Samick J copy. Most of the details are identical. The P's a bit more tricky. I have frequently bemoaned the fact that the more accurate the copy, the harder it is to pin an ID on - and this is a perfect example. Give it a brand name and we might have a bit more to go on, but no-names are a right bugger! The neckplate with its lower-half stamp was consistently used by Fujigen, but occasionally by Kasuga & Moridaira on later instruments. There's also an as-yet unidentified manufacturer of various nice quality off-brands that used these. Any pics of the back of the headstock? Would be interested in seeing the tuners. I'm tempted to cop right out and pin this one on Matsumoto Gakki Seizou Kumiai, AKA the Matsumoto Musical Instrument Manufacturer's Association, a loose alliance of smaller woodshops & parts manufacturers who broadly collaborated building off-brand & unbranded low & midrange instruments. But that would be basically saying "dunno, mate". Did I mention that I probably wouldn't be much help?

There's something magnificently and indisputably Glaswegian about the fact the fretless version's called the 'Nofretiti'!

I do like that. That would look great sat next to this:

The reshaped 50s P style is a big improvement. Seriously considering taking a hacksaw to my V7.

Compared to most of the rest of the thread - my very modest Sire V7: I might be alone here but I love the look of that lined maple board. 😍

A year later, one out of five ain't bad under the circumstances: Yes, I do expect some appreciation for the thematically appropriate background! And what a lovely little bass it is - cheers @PaulS! Lack of car boots during the pandemic mean the quest for £30 Westones & Statii (stranger things have happened) has been a non-starter, but I got as far as buying hardware for the Faker conversion before sub-zero temperatures, apathy & weapons-grade self-pity conspired to keep me out of the garage. Soon though. Maybe.

Wouldn't mind a look at that - any danger you could upload the images direct to BC, @SurroundedByManatees?

It's an Odyssey, this double A logo appears to have been used on the revised range of basses & guitars made by Attila Balogh. No idea if there's any significance to the AA or if it was just a pleasingly symmetrical design.

Mine's pretty small - about 3m x 3m (10 x10 or so in Brexits) and contains quite a lot of stuff. Windows 10-based system running Reaper with a Behringer UMC404 interface & X-Touch control surface. Actually, quite a bit of Behringer stuff... Including a few in cases & out of sight, there are 15 basses & 8 guitars squeezed in here, as well as gawd alone knows what else. The bookshelves are temporary but indefinite migrants from another room being redecorated - needs a carpet fitted, which is a bit tricky right now, so the shelves ain't going anywhere fast. When we first moved here 7 years ago, this room was actually used as a full practice area as well as recording studio. Our previous place had had a massive basement where we rehearsed & recorded (prone to flooding during heavy rain, leading to it being named The Diluvian Room) so with a bit of sensible scaling down, electronic kit & everything going through the mixer of my old Korg D1600, we managed this for a few months, until the drummer eventually got bored & wandered off, shortly followed by the guitarist. As they do: Unsurprisingly, this became known as The No-Room - which has sort of stuck. When the kit went it was nice to be able to breathe for a bit, and not just because of the absence of Drummer Sweat. But as you can see, volume of stuff always expands to fill the available space.

I have a Zephyr C5 through-neck 5er, which I got just before the Grind range was launched in the early 00s, genuinely can't remember exactly when! I think these were Korean-made but I don't have any date info - unhelpfully, mine doesn't have a serial number. The Grinds would have changed over the years but the first ones were very similar to the Zephyrs, lacking the bubinga body veneers and with an ugly front body slap contour, below the fretboard heel. My C5's a very nice bass, well put together & playable (if you don't mind narrow spacing on a 5) but something of a boat-anchor weightwise. Always found the passive soapbars a bit weak, if I ever used it for more than noodling at home, I'd probably want to upgrade to something a bit beefier.

Apart from the ruined finish & janky-looking headstock that's quite cool. Oh - and the price, an enterprising bodger could knock that up as a bitsa for under £300, no sweat. And route the pickups a bit better.

Having actually been bothered to look at the pics, I'm confident that no-one will either be surprised (or care!) that I think I know what this was. Before it was a bitsa with a cheapo Chinese neck, crappy tuners & Ebay knockoff sticker, it was an Italian-made Melody 5000. Check out the oddly bulbous lower horn, square truss access & skinny neckplate: https://best-vintage-guitars.de/melody_precision_bass_italy.html Ashytrays aren't standard & f*** knows what's under them - although 'demarzios' weren't standard on either Ibanez or Melody P copies. I suppose the body grain's quite nice though. A decent Melody 5000 would probably be £100-£150. Seen a few with split bodies/necks so likely that's the case here.

Agreed. Free to use (although you can oay a small fee) great sounds & good standard patterns - and you can program your own parts in your DAW's MIDI editor.

Just sitting on the couch for general noodling. Probably terrible for back & posture, and definitely not good for fretting hand position but, er, whatever. For recording I either stand or use an old (long discontinued) Ikea Traktor stool: Rolls out of the way if I want to stand & has a good range of height adjustment & a surprisingly comfortable ar$e-shaped seat. The bass stays on the strap when sitting for a bit of added stability.

In fairness to The 'Oo and all these lyrics being quoted in order to rip the p!ss out of old Rog - he didn't write any of them. Didn't even sing Boris The Spider. He was always The Thick One.

Ha-ha-ha-HOW much??? Mine was £50. Also original & not routed with a Stanley knife for an oversize pickup. Wonder what happened to the bass that the Ibanez Accu-Cast bridge came off?

Looks like that went about as well as dying before he got old.

Was about to say that! It's a pretty thing, would look nice with gold plastics. Will not be buying.

New Headless Birthday Bass Day! Thanks to the sterling collaborative efforts of @Paul S and my lovely partner, I got this for me birfday! It's a Riverhead Unicorn RUB1090, from 1985-ish. I've wanted one of these since I tried one at the old Bass Centre in Wapping in 1985, and sadly found myself unequal to the £500 price tag! They don't turn up too often & I've missed out on one or two, including this one when it first came up a few months ago. Happily Paul gave me first refusal - and a great excuse to get it at no personal expense! So everyone's a winner! This is in nice condition for a 35-ish year old bass. A lot of these are pretty tatty, seemingly the factory finish wasn't too durable, but this has had a decent refin at some point, over the original matt black. The hardware's in near-new condition, which I'm surprised & very pleased about - many of these have corroded-looking metal parts. There's a little bit of fretwear, mostly under the E & A around the first 5 frets or so. A fret level/dress would help but I don't know if I'll bother - Paul's strung it with flats & the slight acoustic rattle doesn't seem to be audible when plugged in. Actually this is the first time I've had flats on a fretted bass in about 15 years & I'm surprised how well they work on this! Through my little Yamaha THR10 it sounds nice & full, with a bit of a Jazz growl to it. Pickups are passive single coils & fairly close to J positioning. First impressions are that it's a bit nicer to play than my Hohner B2A or Cort Space headlesses - the chunky pickups provide a more natural feeling hand/thumb position and the narrow (39mm nut) but fairly deep neck makes it feel pretty substantial. Very early impressions, I may try a bit of recording with it over the next few days. On the whole, I'm chuffed to bits!

I like the design a lot, but I really struggle with the wonky curve of the horn/bow. Looks like it's been leant against a hot radiator all afternoon.