Bassassin

Don't care if Les Claypool's got one, I'm saving £300 by not buying the idiotic thing.

Think it still is - J/J version for £250? That was a bargain right up until the £150 one turned up. Wish I'd seen it - had GAS for a through-neck double P MIJ bass for decades! Suspect it'll be back in the new year though. Priced around £500.

Bought my current favourite guitar (lovely little £113 Tele Thinline copy) from them, very happy with the service, instrument arrived promptly & in perfect condition, with a setup I've not needed to touch. Would definitely buy from them again. Think they're in direct competiton with Thomann, so the standard of service is on the same level.

Harley Benton with a ramp and a sticker? The burst's not right (uglier) but it's pretty damn close: https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_jb_40fl_3_tone_sunburst.htm Another day, another chancer...

I think it's early/mid 80s, made by Tokai Gakki and is likely a Japanese home-market brand unconnected to Aria. I'm confident it's absolutely not a Matsumoku instrument. The Barts might be original - a look at the soldering on the pots might give you a clue as to whether it's factory standard.

Well this is interesting... Sorry @AndyTravis - amazingly I've never seen one of these before - I'd remember if I had, it's a stunner! Can't be 100% but I'm not sure this is the Aria Diamond sub-brand. Might be wrong (Japanese home market stuff's pretty inexplicable) but typically Aria Diamond is low to midrange & Matsumoku-made. This is neither. I have a feeling this is made by Tokai - the serial number position & format are the same as on their 80s basses: That wouldn't rule out Aria - some post-Matsumoku MIJ Arias apparently came from Tokai after Matsumoku closed in 1987, but I've never seen a high-end Diamond, or that "guitars and basses" subtitle before. Inclined to think it's a different Diamond brand - but Google's giving me nowt. Tip about the unmatching tuners - the E string machine is the only remaining original, as far as I can see, and it's a Gotoh GB1/GB10. These were very common on 70s/80s MIJ basses, and fortunately are still available. It'd be worth replacing the unmatched ones on a bass as nice as this.

J&D are very, very good, if my £113 Thinline Tele copy is any indication. What's very interesting is that it's possibly to buy the exact same guitar, obviously from the same production line, with a slightly more Fender-shaped headstock bearing a "Tokai" logo. Costs about 3 times the price of mine. I'd have no hesitation in picking up a J&D Precision or Jazz copy for around the £100 mark, same goes for Harley Benton, from everything I've heard. The idea of cheap instruments inevitably being junk really is a thing of the past. Hail China!

For anyone who's genuinely interested, it's a Teisco J5, twin pickup version of this, from the late 50s/early 60s. Looks to be complete, so definitely worth restoring. Bit miffed I missed it, having clocked the price of this one: https://reverb.com/ca/item/11473907-teisco-vintage-j-3-1960-guitar-and-teisco-amp

What, a walk?

Hard to pick one as the best - the Japanese copies were all well-made instruments and some were frighteningly accurate, to the extent that they sometimes turn up in circulation as originals. If I was to pick one, I'd say you wouldn't go too far wrong with a Shaftesbury - these are exceptionally well-made and are more robust than some of the others. Aesthetically very accurate aside from the single truss rod and the tuners, which are the small cast-button types used on many 70s MIJ basses. What's good is that these are probably the most common through-neck Fakers on the UK market, and turn up pretty regularly if you know where to look. I don't think I'll be breaking any BC Rick Defence Protocols by posting this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/78514186083 FB group for Fakers, been around for years now and they're bought & sold with impunity there. Not sure why JH leaves the group alone, possibly doesn't feel he can chuck his weight and empty legal threats around in Mr Zuckerberg's gaff. I dunno... Worth mentioning that the current crop of Chinese Fakers are very, very inaccurate - they're really only Rick-shaped basses. All the hardware & electronics are wrong, as are the neck proportions. Most MIJ Fakers copied the 33 1/4" scale and all have the correct narrow string spacing, whereas the modern versions are all 34" and have much broader, Fender-esque spacing.

Butchered Slack Beagle. Heartbreaking.

This bass has the handle of a kitchen drawer screwed trough the body in lieu of a thumbrest. I'll say that again: A kitchen drawer handle. Screwed through the body. MDP's got competition.

That £30 Gumtree guitar is the only one I've seen in the 30-odd years I've lived here!

Seem to remember reading somewhere that a Scottish dealer (might've been Grant's) was UK importer/distro for these - there does seem to be a disproportionate number of them north of the border. Unfortunately none of them are mine - had GAS for one since @FlatEric posted pics of his on here ages ago. With any luck that'll summon him to this thread! Anyway, time for me to trot out my favourite Odyssey anecdote - the one where I missed out on one being sold on Edinburgh Scumtree for £30. Admittedly it was only a guitar, but still...

I'd like to think this isn't something you'd forget in a hurry: Ot this:

You'd need to check screw hole positions to be sure but as far as I can tell the tuners on these basses (and lots of other MIJ stuff from 70s onward) are Gotoh GB-1s. https://guitarpartscenter.eu/en_US/p/GOTOH-GB1-single-bass-tuner-N%2CL/4501

Sorry I'm late, came as quick as I could but regrettably I'm subject to the same laws of time and space as mere mortals! Antoria's a UK-specific brand which has been around for a while, and has changed hands a number of times - at the time these basses were made it was owned by J. T. Coppock Ltd, in Leeds. Oddly, despite being identical to the Ibanez range, Antorias were priced significantly lower. As has already been said, they were made by Fujigen, and the serial number dates the new one to September 1977. These basses were identical to their Ibanez-branded counterparts and share the same model number - 2365B - which was a factory designation. Despite the differences both Antoria basses have the same model number. I've never been hands-on with a later bass like the '77 but I'd expect the older one to have a body made from mahogany butcher-block, (like @ead's appears to be) with front & back veneers, possibly birch. I wouldn't be surprised if the later bass was the same. Does the older bass have normal J type pickups, or are they 8-pole chrome units like these? The Gibson type nut and large chrome truss cover are early features, so I'd expect the older style of pickup - it's thought these were used because the basses pre-date the existence of accurate Jazz pickup copies - and they were intended to be hidden under chrome covers anyway. This is a '73 Fujigen bass - not entirely sure what the original brand was as I bought it sans neck. These pickups will usually have date codes stamped on the backs, which give a very accurate guide to the instrument's age. The neck on this was from an Antoria - the logo had been removed but the wood where it had been was paler so it was just about legible. The neck is much later than the body, as can be seen from the correct nut type and heel-end truss adjustment - however it was a perfect fit, even the screw holes aligning properly. Regarding the lawsuit question, if we're going to be anal about it (which some might accuse me of, although I cannot imagine why!) technically neither of them are. The only instruments the term really applies to are Ibanez-branded Gibson copies featuring an "open book" headstock profile, since that was the trademarked feature that Norlin (Gibson's then parent company) threatened Elger Hoshino (US arm of Hoshino Gakki Ten, owner of the Ibanez brand) with legal action over. I say "threatened", as no action took place, since Norlin started proceedings in June 1977, presumably unaware that Hoshino/Ibanez had stopped using the infringing design the previous year. It's quite reasonable to refer to them as "lawsuit era" but most nerdy MIJ geeks prefer "copy era".

Definitely never seen this before. I'd guess it's Japanese domestic market - export Aria copies disappeared completely by the late 70s, like most other MIJ brands. I suspect the pickup's a DiMarzio lookalike, like on most MIJ basses from this era. Don't think DiMarzio ever used white covers, did they?

Made my own: B&Q battens, some wood screws & a junior hacksaw.

I had one! My first properly good-quality bass back in my teens. Sold it after a couple of years because it looked too "metal" for the band I was in. The folly of youth etc. I know a bit about the Washburn Stage series - enough to think that £500 is probably not too wildly overvalued for a good original example. I'm guessing you paid a fair bit less! There are some decent catalogue scans on the Matsumoku.org site: http://www.matsumoku.org/models/washburn/catalogs/wb_catalogs.html Although, paradoxically, MIJ Washburns were never made by Matsumoku - they were initially from Yamaki, with production moving to Chushin Gakki after Yamaki shut up shop. There are some good FB groups where there are people who know these way better than I do - you'll probably be able to find out about serial decoding, manufacturer & possible value: Washburn Guitars - The Golden Era Daions Online The Daion Guitar The Daion groups are relevant because that was the house-brand of Yamaki Gakki so there is a lot of crossover between the instruments. The Stage series guitars were designed by Daion/Yamaki head designer Hirotsugu Teradaira, who is in contact with some of the group members, & contributes to discussion.

I'd put money on that neck being a generic P type with a badly re-shaped headstock & the heel end filed flat. For a "lovingly restored" instrument, it's doing a great impression of being a filthy, bodged-up bitsa.

£40 is a steal, however you look at it! However £480 is wildly optimistic for the Aria - it's probably closer to half that in the real world. The Aria brand makes it a bit more collectable than the same instrument with another name, but I'd think yours is a good 200 quid's worth, particularly with the DiMarzios.

After a bit more digging, can tell you it's the same guitar as an Aria 1932. Not sure if the Bigsby is original or not but that & the brand name are the only differences. http://www.matsumoku.org/models/aria/solid/sg/19xx.html https://reverb.com/item/28109394-aria-aria-doublecut-1932-1970s-natural

I suppose technically it's not the right place for it, but I have a problem with authority anyway. That's a very nice guitar, with nice era-correct pickup upgrades. It's a Matsumoku-made guitar, which is confirmed by the "Steel Adjustable Neck" neckplate, the arrowhead-shaped truss cover, and the original pickup rings, which are for 3-screw humbuckers. These traits appear together on most early 70s Matsumoku copies of Gibson guitars, and the neckplate was exclusive to that factory. Age-wise, it's probably 1971 - 1973. Unfortunately the serial numbers on these early 70s Matsumokus appear to be random and there's no reliable way of dating from them. The original pickups would probably have had date codes stamped underneath, so in the event they came with the guitar, those would give a very accurate idea of its age. As it is, the neck style, with rounded fretboard heel and inlays up to the 17th fret are an indicator that it's pre- 1974, and the use of a pin badge rather than a transfer tells us that it's early 70s. As the stickers suggest, the pickups are almost certainly DiMarzios, likely Super Distortions, and will have been fitted to replace the original Maxon-branded units, probably late 70s/early 80s. Quick way to check if they are DiMarzios is to stick an allen key in a pole piece - DiMarzios are Imperial, so a metric key won't fit. Alternatively, they should have red/white/black/green/wiring and if you're lucky, PAF stickers underneath.These are pretty sought-after vintage pickups these days. If I haven't already bored you to death, I can also tell you a little about the brand. Eros was house-brand of London distributor Rosetti, the name seemingly taken from the statue in Piccadilly Circus, which was near to their retail premises. They were broadly good-quality copies of US designs, and initially were sourced from the Matsumoku and Fujigen factories. Later Eros instruments were Korean, and unfortunately not of the same standard. There is some confusion about the brand itself. Rosetti used "Eros" and "Eros Mark II" for reasons that aren't exactly clear, whilst, even more confusingly, being UK distributor for Italian acoustic guitar brand E-Ros, an entirely unrelated brand made by Fuselli in Recanati, and closely associated with Eko. And as @Stub Mandrel says, PJ Harvey played an old Eros SG back in the 90s, with her original 3 piece band. Oi - wake up at the back!

Fitting a Steiny-type replacement (the cheap Chinese units are clones of Hohner's Steinberger licensed version) would require some modifications. It wouldn't be a straight swap, I think the routing for the existing bridge would need to be filled & then re-routed for the replacement. Probably not a massive job for a decent luthier - maybe give our own Andyjr1515 a shout, I get the impression he's quite handy!