Bassassin

Interesting old bass - I can tell you it's not Japanese. From what I can see I'm fairly confident it's Korean - that style of tuner with the pressed steel backplate in that shape, and the domed string retainer, are universal on MIK Fender copies from the late 70s/early 80s. Importantly these never appear on Japanese instruments. For comparison, this is a Korean Jazz copy I had a few years back: Another clue is what looks like a blank neckplate - most Japanese instruments from this era have an MIJ stamp. There are exceptions but those will usually have other identifying characteristics. The extra fret's odd - I don't think I've seen that before, but I wonder if that's because a number of MIK basses (including the Franconia above) were available in long & short scale versions - the extra fret suggests the neck pocket's longer, which might be to make it possible to use the same body blank/routing for both scale lengths. Just an idea. The round-ended J type pickups originated on MIJ basses but also appear on MIKs - speculation is that manufacture was quicker/cheaper routing rounded body cavities than cleanly squared ones, leading to these being used. Early MIJ Gibson copies with bolt-necks have round-ended fretboards & neck pockets, presumably for the same reason. It's an interesting bass, nice to see a solid timber body rather than the usual ply. If you can get it for £/$/€50 (don't know where you are!) then that might be worth a gamble, but tbh it does look pretty tatty & neglected, in that state I wouldn't pay more than that.

The neckplate's from a October '82 Fujigen guitar or bass. These plates were never, ever used on MIJ Fenders. Everything else apart from the blatantly shonky sticker does indeed appear to be a Classic Vibe fretless. These chancers really need to try harder.

I might be cloth-eared & hearing-damaged from years of high-dB ear abuse, but with these comparisons and with my own basses I can never hear a difference that's not more likely to be attributable to pickups, electronics, pickup positioning or even hardware. I love the look & feel of a lacquered maple fretboard so for me it's an aesthetic & tactile choice.

You know what I'm going to say. 😁

They certainly are - cream covered DiMarzios (or copies made by Maxon or Goto, which Yamaki/Washburn used) were absolutely de rigueur on early 80s basses! Swapping the covers would be sacrelige!

Peaches by The Stranglers. Would've been June 1978, got home with my brand new £59 bass, sat down & tried to play along until it sounded right. Had to re-learn it a week or two later after I found out how to actually tune the bass - and suddenly it was a lot easier! Also the B-side, Go Buddy Go taught me to play walking bass - which was handy. Took me 2 years to actually get in a room with a guitarist & a drummer & the first thing I ever played in a "proper" band was the Overture/Temples bit of 2112, by Rush.

Definite similarities. There was a pretty standard format for a lot of MIJ original design basses, which was basically a symmetrical doublecut body, bolt neck, 2-a-side headstock & a single P type pickup. Washburn, Westbury, Vantage, Kasuga, Aria, Hondo, Morris and various others all had basses like this. Not sure if they were an attempt to "originalise" something like a Gibson EB type, or just have consistency with their guitar designs. Or maybe just an odd affection for neck dive...

I had a Watkins Rapier 33 guitar about 13 years back, picked it up at the local car boot, cost me £12 for that and a Kay Strat copy that looked like it had been found in a ditch. The Rapier was a really interesting guitar, did a lot of reading & research about them - they were proper garden shed instruments in many ways - no truss rod, hand-wound pickups, switches cannibalised from Morphy-Richards hairdryers & so on. The finish was an odd sort of plastic coating rather than conventional paint/lacquer - very prone to cracking & flaking, probably due to age-related shrinkage - mine wasn't an exception! The one I had turned out to be a pretty early example - the features & serial put it at around '63, I think. What was good was that everything worked fine, a couple of frets needed re-seating but it played quite nicely after a clean, fettle & re-string. Sold it for around £350, if I remember - which was quite pleasing considering it cost me £6.

I sort of do - but really don't like the fake- fiddle cutouts. Do away with those & make the waist a bit slimmer and it would be a real looker. And give it a headstock that didn't look like the dog had been chewing it.

Looks like a nice example, and good (as well as unusual) to get what I assume is the original case too. Don't know as much about these as I'd like to, having owned 2 MIJ Washburns from the same era - but these were made by Yamaki Gakki, and later by Chushin. I don't think the Wing series basses - the Scavengers & Vultures - were around for very long so they're almost certainly Yamaki. This is a 1980 catalogue: http://www.matsumoku.org/models/washburn/catalogs/1980_fullline/80_wash_cat_pg7.jpg.html Serial should be dateable, the first 2 digits should be the year. If you do FB there are a couple of relevant groups: Washburn Guitars - The Golden Era Daions Online Daions were made by Yamaki - in fact the two companies were owned by the same family - and Yamaki's head designer Hirotsugu Teradaira designed the MIJ Washburns made there, so there is a lot of shared DNA.

I'm sure this one's a joy to play. As long as you don't look down.

You might find if the fence paint's just been slapped on over the original finish, it will probably come off with a bit of solvent & elbow grease. I've had a few badly refinished basses & guitars where the original poly lacquer & finish was intact under the paint.

Nah. If you took a rasp & filed down those two stupid little bumps, that would actually be a quite graceful & pleasing take on a singlecut. It's got none of the Marleaux's queasy, malformed freakiness & sheer wrongness.

It's beyond foul. It combines what to me are the two biggest insults to the eyes in bass design - that massive, bulbous single-cut hump and the twee fake fiddle aesthetic, complete with "traditional" f-hole. Surprised the headstock ended up being so restrained, although it realistically wouldn't look out of place on a £160 bass, never mind a £6750 (HOW MUCH???) one. Quite surprised at the sheer horridness of this - would agree Marleaux' styling's probably all a bit marmite when we're conditioned into thinking Leo nailed it in 1951 (and that weird thing he made in 1960 was a bit too damn risky) - but I've always found most Marleaux designs striking in a good way. This - the more I look at it, the more it makes me want to gouge my eyes out.

Seen the guitar in this style, but never a bass: https://reverb.com/item/18479542-morris-hs-anderson-vroland-ii-red-natural-1982 Works better as a bass, but not sure about the fiddle-style cutouts, And the headstock (common to quite a few Moridaira originals) is just horrid! Some somewhat optimistic pricing going on there too, I can't help thinking.

Oh dear god that's ugly.

Oh, that's pretty. Wouldn't know whether to play it or lick it...

Having predominantly played original music over 39 years of gigging, playing for free (or more likely, covering your own travel expenses/accomodation to do the gig) has always been Situation Normal. Have always avoided/boycotted pay-to-play gigs, and my best situation was the original band I had in the 90s - me & the guitarist also had a covers duo on the side, & over a weekend would play 2 paid covers gigs & an unpaid full band gig. That was a good situation, would do that again.

There was a "Squizz" on Ebay a few years ago. In fairness, the logo looks more like "Squizz" than "Squire".

Those gap-tooth tailpieces are solid lumps though, not like the hollow, bendy thing that succeeded them! Doubt if they ever lift.

That or a Sunn Mustang (same bass with a different sticker) - at least that has Fender heritage! Got to be a record for both worst fake/most optimistically priced £60 bass ever!

Never noticed that on yours! I'm 99.9999% sure that's a mod - it's not on Bathiki's or my (slightly later fretted) bass. I assume if it "Does F*** All" it's not wired in, I'd guess it was a phase switch for the P pickup.

Blimey - didn't realise it was the exact same bass as @Beedster's. Clearly these are like buses, you don't see one for 35 years then two come along at once... So yes, everything I said about the other one applies to yours - made by Yamaki Gakki, looks like '81 from the serial. Original components on yours, shame about the broken tuner but the modern equivalent Gotoh would be a drop-in replacement. Is the damage at the back of the neck just cosmetic? Apart from that it does look to be in pretty decent original condition, from what I can see.