Bassassin

Always thought these looked awesome. Not so sure about the rest of the bass, though:

Kent Armstrong do Jazz lippys: https://www.wdmusic.com/kent-armstrong-split-tube-series-chrome-hot-lips-pickup-for-fender-jazz-bass-details.html 10.3k, so hotter than most J units. Also Warwick sell these by MEC, can't see any specs: https://shop.warwick.de/en/parts-for-instruments/warwick-spare-parts/pickups-spare-parts/17713/mec-lipstick-single-coil-bass-pickup-4-5-string-chrome

You need a time machine to go back to February: https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/405787-fs-fernandes-fpm-80-double-precision-sold/ I kick myself every time I think about this - @Beedster gave me first dibs and I politely declined because I knew it'd just be a wall-hanger, as I'm not gigging these days. What a tw@t.

Fascinating stuff, never heard of O'Hagan before... And after going for a little nosy around myself - it turns out Prince's original pair of Cloud guitars were modified O'Hagans. https://www.fretboardjournal.com/features/the-origin-of-princes-cloud-guitar/

These are lovely, I particularly like the single P, aesthetically. They do, but I don't think they're MIJ. Too many quirks, like the truss cover at the heel end, and the fact hardware & electronics is Schaller/DiMarzio. Realistically Alembic's to blame for these & the similar Japanese stuff.

@Franchement - have you seen this? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-1980-OHagan-Nightwatch-Special-Sunburst-Thru-Neck-USA-Bass-Guitar-OHSC/124297319396 A bit dearer than most suggestions - but I think it's stunning!

It's a 2-pickup, which I think puts it out of the running. These are nice for budget basses though, made by Cort in Korea around 1980-ish - if you look closely you'll see it has the same triple-dot brass inlays as the Lotus I posted earlier, which is a nice touch. I had one of these a few years back, unfortunately it had a somewhat twisted neck. Other than that it was a nicely made bass, on a par with much of the Japanese stuff from the same era. If the OP was up for a project, modifying one of these for a single pickup migh be fun.

I'm no Rick expert but that seems like a good price for an early 4003 these days. 2-piece pickguard & wavy Grovers are rare features on these, I think.

No, but it's related - same control layout & scratchplate, same shaped trc, zero-fret etc. I think the pickup used on the Zentas linked earlier & Hooky's is the same - pre-serial Maxon humbucker by the looks - unlike the mock-mudbuckers on most MIJ EB clones. Shame it's not visible in @Chris Dow's pic. As I mentioned these basses were sold with numerous headstock names and none at all - @prowla's Zenta is exactly the same as the Jedson I posted earlier, and also the same as this: As you can see, these basses have a matching guitar version (I own an unbranded one) and the theory is that they were made by Sakai, which was a manufacturer which used its own brand. The guitars turn up branded Sakai: So I went to see if I could find a Sakai-branded 2-pickup EB type - but instead I found this: And that, my friends, answers the question as far as I'm concerned. It's the same bass as @Chris Dow's (and Hooky's): same distinctive scratchplate, same control & jack positioning, same chrome handrest, same bridge, same tuners, same distinctive truss rod cover, zero-fret, inlays and so on. The bass was made in Japan by Sakai Mokko, a manufacturer established just outside Nagoya City in 1923, and which became very successful during the 60s Japanese guitar boom, continuing building instruments into the 70s. From the type of features we see on MIJ instruments I'm confident the bass is early 70s, probably no later than 1973. It's odd that Hooky would've thought his was an Eko, but he's clearly mistaken.

They're not absolutely identical but the Nova looks very much like a set of these mounted on a baseplate: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bass-Bridge-Precision-5-String-Bass-Metal-Single-Headless-Round-Bar-Bridge-Kit/233307037073 Bought a set for a project (that I've yet to get around to) after seeing this thread: https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/402221-headless-explorer/ And they're tiny! Interesting to catch up on that build to see that @DarkHeart eventually opted to use one of the Hohner clone units rather than these, and they do look like they'd be more suited to a guitar build than a bass. I'll persevere (eventually) as the individual units will actually overhang the end of the body I'm using to the extent I'll not need to route or modify it. Not convinced E string thickness won't be an issue but we'll see. Looks like the Nova intonates in the same way - each unit slides on the baseplate to adjust string length.

Might say that but this: ...is not an Eko. If you want to check out vintage Ekos this is the best/only resource online. There are some EB types but you won't find any the same as Hooky's & the Zentas or the pic at the top of the thread.

It's neither, I'm afraid. Yamaha never did an EB copy, and there is no 70s Ibanez at all like this. Both brands are incredibly well-documented & there aren't any models that collectors & vintage MIJ enthusiasts don't know about. It's the same as the Peter Hook bass & the Zentas, whatever it said on the headstock.

Wish I'd known too, still lived in town then, could've walked 'round.

All these brand names are only names & nothing to do with who made it. Might not even have had a headstock brand, many budget instruments from the 70s didn't. However it's 99.9% MIJ (fractional possibility it's Korean or Taiwanese but I doubt, it and it's absolutely not an Eko!) and does look closest to Hooky's old EB copy & the 2 Zenta-branded basses - main clues are the shape of the scratchplate & trc. The same designs did appear on basses branded Jedson, possibly made by Sakai Mokko or Teisco Gakki, (which is a different Teisco to the one most people have heard of) but otherwise they're very different: The scratchplate & trc might put Sakai/Teisco Gakki in the frame but isn't enough for a positive ID. I don't have any pics of an identical bass (and the guitar versions are more common) but I'll have a dig around & see what I can find out. The Zenta name doesn't offer much of a clue, the brand was a John Hornby Skewes budget range & the Zenta literature I have shows 2 EB style basses, both identical to Korean-made Hondos & lacking the distinctive details of this bass. The business model back then was often to source the best deal on any generic instrument, so suppliers & instruments would change depending on what was available.

You could've sold it to me if it was a P/P like this one - I'd only have had to come from West Lothian!

I just have a memory for pointless details that no-one else notices!

MIJ. I have one, cost me £60 from a local pawn shop, and turned out to be the nicest Jazz I ever picked up. Looked like this when I got it: And looks like this now: Original round-end pickups were a bit thin & weak, so it got a pair of DiMarzio Model Js. And pimped a bit too. If I could only keep one it'd be this, no question. I don't know as much about this as I'd like to. CSL was Summerfields' house-brand at the time they were UK importer for Ibanez, and this, plus several other CSL models, is a rebrand of a Cimar Jazz copy from 1980. Cimar was owned by Ibanez' parent company Hoshino, so it's tempting to think they came from the same factory, Fujigen. However there are details which make me quite confident that's not so - and I don't know who did make them. Which is faintly annoying!

Metal fixes everything. 🤘🤘

The Eko looks a little like the Westone (another 80s Japanese brand) Thunder range - although not quite, the Westone bodies are more symmetrical. Unfortunately the single-pickup Westone Thunder I has a bolt-neck, which is why I've not included it here. The other models in the range both had two pickups & active electronics.

@sarakisof - "is it good for metal?" is a BassChat in-joke that's been around so long no-one, not even Tony Goggle or TIM! - can remember where it started. And of course it is, everything's good for metal. In the right hands.

Never seen that before! Add that to the list, then. And that reminds me of this one - another Aria Pro that fits the bill: Aria PB-1500 from about 1978, I think. Probably neck-dives horribly but I'd love one. Very rare, though. Sorry if I wasn't clear about the Brandoni Eko - they bought up Eko's original stock including unfinished bodies & necks, and sell them as parts to build yourself, or as completed instruments.

What's really odd is that I've just posted a pic of a bass version (branded Asama) on this thread - someone looking for a natural finish, through-neck & single pickup bass. These are interesting guitars & are something of a mystery within the online vintage Japanese guitar communities. So far they've been identified under nine different brand names around the world, and I'm confident there are others: Fernandes Bozo Lincoln Asama Condor Memphis Pro Martin Sakura Tempest Out of those, the only "name" brand is Fernandes, where they appear in a Japan-only catalogue as "Custom Hand". There was a bass version too. There seem to be small variations between versions & it's interesting that yours had a built-in effects circuit, I've not read about any of the other versions having that. It's still not clear who made these - as you may know, an instrument's brand name is seldom connected to the actual manufacturer - but speculation is that it was Kawai Gakki, who are known to have manufactured Fernandes at various points, or Kasuga Gakki, who seem to have been main manufacturer and possible owner of the Pro Martin brand that these guitars were also sold under. Both Kawai & Kasuga produced similarly constructed instruments under their own names.

I think the MC800 & the active, twin-pup MC900 were only around for a year, after which they were replaced by the MC924 active and (on occasional years) MC824 passive. Both were twin pickup/24 fret. Ibanez used the same numbering to differentiate active/passive & 24-fret necks on their Roadster, RoadStar II & Studio series basses too. I sometimes worry that I know all this stuff, but nothing remotely useful.

Both stunners but I'd be all over the blue, love a transparent colour stain.