Bassassin

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.

QED.

Eastwood only make copies. The whole flaw in the notion of a BC Eastwood bass is the idea that a bunch of us would agree to (and be prepared to cough up for) a specific copy that no-one else makes already, and that Eastwood would agree to/get away with making. IMO a collaborative original design is a more interesting idea, and might be achievable. Doubt Eastwood would be interested, so we'd probably be better off talking to people like Retrovibe or Chowny.

Nah, never seen that before & it's not the sort of thing I'd expect on 70s or 80s MIJ. Not ringing any bells at all, I'm afraid.

There are a thousand shonky Chinese knockoffs of this out there already. All Eastwood would do is order a bunch of these with their logo on. And quadruple the price.

In my experience, it's five, if the weight's anything to go by...

That's a stunner!

Bought an Armstrong Aria Pro II pickup from Dan, great deal, near-instantaneous dielivery, and very friendly & helpful, he even sent me a link for the correct flat-blade switch for my Aria restoration. Couldn't be happier with the purchase - thanks Dan!

He's a member of prog band Frost*, along with various other time-served UK prog scene luminaries. On the whole I prefer his playing to his brother's these days.

Agree about the sound. Certainly doesn't sound like much else, but never found a tone I was that happy with. The single passive soapbar's never going to sound that inspiring, but you can get some interesting combinations with the piezo - but interesting's not necessarily good or useable! Always found it very comfortable & playable though.