Bassassin

Might just about be worth £50 for the tuners, pickup and bridge - those heart-shaped Hercules jobs are like gold-dust. All that paint would come off the body with plenty of acetone and elbow-grease & I'd be surprised if the original finish wasn't still there underneath. Not sure about the neck though, the paint & varnish on what I assume is a rosewood board might be problematic. And that headstock is grotesque - no idea what you'd do with that.

There's an anagram in there somewhere.

No coherent difference! It's the same company (Shiro Arai Co), they adopted the Pro II suffix in the mid 70s, probably around the time they started pushing original designs alongside copies. Don't think there's any real differentiation, modern Arias seem to use both brands pretty much interchangeably.

The discussion here plus my negligible detective skills have led me to speculate it might be an IGB-65 - is this it? https://www.andertons.co.uk/bass-dept/bass-guitars/modern-bass-guitars/second-hand-aria-igb-65-in-natural

The only real question is - how come Eastwood haven't knocked out a shonky Chinese copy, priced up at £1200?

It's a brutalized 1982 Ibanez Blazer/Roadster/Roadstar II. Both tragic and hilarious at the same time. The hilarity being the price.

Unless you mean the grotesquely wonky headstocks.

Really impossible to answer without knowing what the bass is. Aside from the 70s & 80s MIJ Arias and a few recent exceptions, there's usually not a lot of value to them. Not really sure why because broadly they're good quality instruments. I find it a bit depressing to say that it's possible you'd make more from the parts, depending on what it is.

Looking at the seller's other items, and paying particular attention to the prices and quantities sold, I am contemplating a career change: https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/apcustom_shop/m.html?item=281863941188&hash=item41a0666c44%3Ag%3ADHwAAOSwImRYaoFY&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

Now, this was unexpected, and makes me very happy. First new range of basses I'm genuinely keen to get a good look at in literally years. So much for zero-GAS 2020...

Cool little thing, although insanely overpriced. But this ad does bring to mind something that's baffled me for years - why (oh why oh why) do people cover up the serial numbers on instruments they're selling? What possible point is there in doing this?

It's proper. Here's a better condition (and also overpriced) example of the same model for comparison: https://reverb.com/uk/item/30776354-70-s-1978-yamaha-pulser-precision-bass-pb-400-nat-japan-with-hardcase-and-flatwound-org-strings Agree in that condition it's well over the odds - it would clean up better than it is but the hacked-up logo & missing original parts don't help it.

Bit of a stretch calling it a Fodera copy, apart from the headstock shape - it's a really good-looking bass. Just like Foderas aren't.

Amazing collection! Those 3-point units used by Matsumoku are notoriously flexible though - this was my Westbury Track 2 when I got it: Think it might've been too far gone for the bar to fix it...

The first UK Rockinbetters were 21-fret & had a conventional bridge: If I remember from an ancient BC thread, it's another toaster under the Fender style cover. Not 100% about this but I think the first ones were MIK, as were the Indies I mentioned earlier. Rockinbetter's a bit of a curious brand - the name seems to have originated with a Canadian distributor called Dillion (or possibly Dillon, links are all gone now) which was also distributor for Tokai, presumably leading to the conflation many are mildly irritated by. I did see pics of the Canadian market copies in the early 00s and they weren't identical to the ones we got. These are nice basses - David still manages to sneak the odd one or two out if you keep an eye on the Fakers FB group, I'm sure he just finds a few under the bed or at the back of random cupboards from time to time... I have an original set-neck RV4, only two in the world in this colour, according to David: Any excuse to keep posting this pic! Scratchplate/controls are my own mod as I'm no fan of the original 4001 style plate.

The hardware on the HB is identical to that on most modern 4003 copies - not just Chinese instruments. The bridge design first appeared on Korean-made Shine basses, probably about 12-15 years ago. At that time new Rick copies were incredibly scarce, and most of the few that did surface (such as UK brand Indie) did not use Rick-style hardware or electronics. I think this bridge design originated on the Shine-branded basses - here's a pic from The Archive: No idea why they would have come up with this rather than use existing Rick bridge copies, such as the replica Allparts have been selling since forever. Interestingly these used the Seymour Duncan SRB1 pickup set, as presumably other copy units weren't available at the time. The Shine Fakers weren't budget basses. I also don't know why this bridge design started appearing unbranded all over pretty much every new Rick copy - possibly whoever owned the design sold it, maybe it's just copied. Very curious that no modern Fakers have accurate hardware & pickups though.

There's the Hipshot drop-in replacemet, and also Rickenbacker's own new redesign, which retains the aesthetics of the original whilst incorporating individual Schaller-type saddles. Both are expensive and wouldn't work as a direct replacement for a Chickenbacker type bridge. Chickenbacker saddles are on the front edge - which is where the string mute on a Rick bridge is.

"Sell more basses than I buy" would be a good, but unrealistic start.

Used to be quite a few Luna basses & guitars on Ebay. I think the brand was intended as "instruments for gurls", in competition with the likes of Daisy Rock. I remember there being a lot of short scales and pastel pink... I like this - really eye-catching finish and nice grain, in the pics at least. Shame it's a boring old P copy, but certainly looks good for £100-odd.

Did a search of the EU registry and it appears only headstocks/trc & brand name are registered - so presumably Rick body shapes aren't trademarked in the EU. Considering the breadth of the US TMs it's not unreasonable to think those were submitted but subsequently rejected. https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/#basic/1+1+1+1/100+100+100+100/Rickenbacker As an afterthought - wonder what happens in the UK following Br*x*t?

It"s in the link in my post, The HB body shape is similar but a long way from being a direct copy.

Yes - various elements of the Rickenbacker design are registered trade marks - the body, headstock, truss rod cover, tailpiece profile etc. This bass resembles a Rick but the only part that's a direct copy is the scratchplate, which curiously is not a registered design. All this being the case, I'm sure it'd be fine to sell them on BC, as they wouldn't attract the ire of Mr Hall. Not a huge fan of this, tbh - I think it's a shame they used the ugly, afterthought scratchplate design & generic cheap & nasty Chickenbacker hardware. Although - it occurs to me, if you binned all that, this might be an interesting basis for a 50s style 4000 project. Do I feel a New Year project coming on?

Had a moment of anticipation - just a fleeting moment - and as the mental impulse to click the link was translated into physical action, I thought: They'll just be Fender knockoffs. Well, whoop-de-bleedin' doo.

This came up a very, very long time ago - my suggestion was : "All Your Bass Are Belong To Us". No-one liked it then, no-one'll like it now...