Bassassin

Late to this thread, otherwise would have very strongly suggested grabbing one of these for £118: J&D Thinline Tele Had one for about 18 months, quality is ridiculous for the money, and I've barely played anything else since I got it. And what's interesting is if you dig around, what looks like exactly the same guitar only with a Fender headstock & vintage style tuners can be had for 3x the price. That extra 200 quid buys you a Tokai sticker.

Exactly what I thought. I really, really like it but I'd have to buy this neck for it.

Hardly a Fender expert but I know a little about the MIJs & CIJs. Not seeing anything at all here that points to Japan.

That's an Aria 1720, from around 1970 - '72 or so, and looks, apart from the missing bridge cover, to be in original & unmolested condition. http://www.matsumoku.org/models/aria/catalogs/e70s_aria/e70s_aria_cat.html I'd be inclined to leave it as is, just give it a stripdown & thorough clean up - looks like there's very little corrosion to the metal parts, and all those knocks and bumps are its history. These are rare instruments these days, and pretty collectable - although not worth a fortune, they aren't without value, and are becoming more sought-after.

There was a radio version with different lyrics - interestingly changed to 'bikini'. I'm absolutely sure they weren't trying to be ambiguous or provocative at all with the original, though! 😄

If it's got original Rick pickups & electronics I'd think it's fairly authentic, the placement's fairly close to where they'd be on a Rick body. Although that in itself is variable as Rickenbacker specs & dimensions have changed over time - in the mid 70s the neck pickup spacing was moved to 1" from the fretboard end from the original 1/2", and also the position of the neck itself changed relative to the body wings (and therefore pickup position) at some point. Compare @prowla's '72 to a modern 4003 - on a current bass the fretboard heel aligns with the lower cutaway, whereas on Paul's bass the 20th fret itself is at that position. And speaking of @prowla's basses, I'd think his Rickenberger might be a good test case for whether it's pickups or pickup position that contribute most to the tone - it's a 24 fret, 34" scale bass & it looks like the pickups are largely occupying the original routes - so if it sounds like a Rick, then it's all about the pickups. Probably!

Oh, go on then, any excuse to recycle a very old joke: The PRick. ...sorry.

My Kasuga (MIJ, 1975) bolt-neck is 33.25". I'd guess the manufacturers that did both bolt & through-neck versions share the same dimensions between them, eg all Matsumokus are 34", Kasugas are 33.25" etc. Not 100% sure but I think it was only Hondo (MIK, Samick) that didn't have a neck-through variant. Apropos of nothing, the Rickenbacker 4080 twin-necks were bolt-on.

I have a maple board 4 string V7 fretless, on mine the dots are near-invisible, being sandwiched between the binding and the timber. Never gigged with it but under stage lighting they'd offer no reference point at all. You get used to not relying on them surprisingly quickly.

I used to make some of my income from buying, tidying/restoring & selling on, during that time the local car boot provided me with: 1962 Watkins Rapier 3 guitar: £7.50 1960s Jem Crybaby wah pedal: £10 Westone Thunder I guitar: £5 Squier Strat, E-serial 80s MIJ: £70 (the most I ever spent at a car boot) Antoria EB-3 copy - £30 As well as literally dozens of other less interesting projects and clean-up jobs, mostly budget 70s MIJ & MIK. Some cool stuff from Ebay, Gumtree & local Crack Coverters & pawn shops too: Squier Precision, early 80s SQ serial MIJ: £70 Squier Precision, mid-80s A-serial MIJ: £30 Ibanez MC150 Musician guitar, 1981: £70 Washburn SB-40 bass, 1983: £95 Westbury Track 2 bass: £50 Westbury Standard guitar: £60 And loads more not interesting enough to mention, plus some I've doubtless forgotten! 10+ years on, I regret not having a full list of this stuff - I lost most of the pics of everything pre-2011 in an unsalveagable hard drive incident. Such is life! If anything's the best deal I ever had though, it's this: CSL Jazz copy from 1980-ish, cost £60 from the pawn shop. I had every intention of doing a quick wipe-down, setup, new strings then flipping it for double what I paid - until I played it. It was, and remains, the best-playing bass I've ever laid hands on. It's been significantly pimped, this is what it looked like the day I brought it home: A few in the list above have been keepers but this is the one I'd grab in a fire.

Wouldn't have thought it would carry so far, me being out in West Lothian these days. Sorry, I'll knock it back to 10.

I've always thought it's because the Precision is sturdier and constructed more robustly, in order to afford the player an advantage in the event of an undead apocalypse.

I can tell you - despite appearances the Mudbucker, and the 8-pole bridge unit, are both single coils. Would expect they'll have numbers, date codes on Maxon pickups are thought to go back to 1971.

As I understand it, most crackling is dust/muck/contamination on the track, the noise is what happens when the contact passes over the dirty part, interrupting the signal, so it's a bit of both. Cleaner removes the contamination, but persistent crackling that doesn't respond to being cleaned suggests damage to the track. There should be enough gaps or openings in the back of the pot to get cleaner inside and onto the track.

Been using the same can of Servisol lubricating switch cleaner for about 15 years now. Always works, cost about a fiver.

Maybe he's 12, which is how come his dad's had it for as long as he can remember. Hard to believe anyone's really this dim.

He picked up the bass & started soloing, so they left the property & headed for the nearest bar.

In case anyone thinks no-one in their right mind would actually do this, then of course, you're completely right: However - it's been on this wall for nearly 6 years, and about 3 years at my previous place . And that Daion P weighs a ton. Apologies for the Indian restaurant wallpaper - no time to decorate properly when we moved in, and now it's fallen off the bottom of the list...

Correct - it's a shim for height adjustment, if you don't need it, don't use it!

Can't find much but MonoGram appears to be a budget current/recent Japanese brand, and their Fakers do look like generic MIC stuff.

Trying to get my head around the kind of thought-process that could lead to this happening. "OK - what's in the shed? The remains of a cheap PJ bass pulled out of a fire, two dozen costume jewellery butterflies from Clare's Accessories, 3 metres of gas pipe and some glue. Wonder what I can make?" And the answer is - f@ck knows!

Unfamiliar with Monogram as a brand. Got a pic? But @prowla's right, waaaay too much for any Faker.

Or perhaps you're the only (unfortunate) person not to have more basses than cases! On-topic, I had a sticky stand a few years ago, and they replaced it without fuss. I wonder if they were a bit overwhelmed with sticky stands at that point, and changed their warranty policy as a result. Was able to bodge my old one by wrapping the sticky bits in gaffer tape but the plastic underneath has crumbled to bits. It's OK in the house but I wouldn't gig with it.

It's not sacrilege - but if you mod it and in 10 or so years don't feel the way you do now about it, when you come to sell it you'll be kicking yourself so hard you'll have buttocks where your cheeks used to be. Even now it's rare and not without value, irreversible mods will make a huge difference. I would go with the plan of buying a decent but inexpensive P/J body and swapping neck & hardware over.

Indeed they were - I've had a NOS set of l/h Gibson-branded Schaller M4S tuners in my spares box for years, waiting for the right l/h neck to turn up so I can do a reverse headstock project. Still waiting!