Bassassin

Fantastic band & enormously good fun live - do go & see them if you get the chance.

That's the thing - having had a couple of 80s Squiers, this one doesn't really look different. Don't know about the BBOT but the tuners on this appear to be the same Gotoh GB10s that Fujigen have used on most P-types since the early 70s - including my old A-serial. Have heard that some MIJ Squiers had ply bodies but it doesn't look like this one does - no overspraying on the contours suggest it's solid timber.

Probably about right for the condition & mods. Not sure why but the MIJ Silver Series stuff from the early 90s always seems to be a fair bit cheaper than the mid/late 80s E & A serial instruments from the same factory.

Scrubbed up nice! Did a similar hose-down on a Thunder guitar a few years back: Not bad for five quid.

Definitely cracked; visible on the rear of the head - one along the lower side of the centre lamination, and a second through the G & D tuner holes, running down in the direction of the nut. I think that second crack is visible from the front, despite the headstock face having a decorative lamination. From some of the lacquer chipping it does look like the head's sustained a hefty whack at some point. However it's not catastrophic damage, would be an easy fix, and doesn't look new, suggesting it's stable.

Walked right into that one, didn't I? Quite literally, in fact - thanks for your kind (and timely) advice... Don't know what the pickups are, but they're not DiMarzios. If you Google Wotan Shark bass though, some of them do have Model Ps - like a lot of Kasugas.

Used by loads of manufacturers from obscure 60s Japanese & Italian cheapos through to Music Man. I think the only P copies with this are Musima & Italian-made Melody 5000.

Very interested in this. At first glance I thought it looked like a Kasuga build, did a bit of Googling & there appears to be the suggestion this was designed by French luthier Kamel Chenouay - whose thorougly bizarre 80s Apex guitars are well-known to be Kasuga products. Been hankering after a P/P for a very long time and have some quite worrying GAS for this. Probably won't go for it (no band, no room) but you never know...

As you wish: Proper Road To Damascus sh!t right there...

Think you'd get away with it, Sonny Jim?

Thought I should give him the benefit of that on his Ebay listing:

Was I polite enough?

"Faker than the tits on a stripper" - pure class! Anyway - if you think Mateyboy would benefit from more info, I can not only confirm that it's not a Fender, but I can in fact tell you what it is - it's a Musima, made during the Cold War era in what was then East Germany. These are easily identified by the wheel-type truss adjuster (which as any fule kno, never appeared on any vintage Fender) and the use of nice quality Gotoh Res-o-lite tuners. There are loads of unbranded examples, most sellers assume/pretend they're Japanese. Never seen one masquerading as a Fender before. So as copies go, it's an interesting curiosity but not even that collectable as a knock-off - these tend to go for under £150. Nice tuners, though.

Some models are old enough that the original trademark/copyright owners are long-gone and the ownersip of the design with them. Others (like this Epi) are obscure enough that I'm guessing Eastwood are assuming the current brand owners won't bother hassling them. Some designs have likely lapsed into the public domain, from being copied previously & those copies going unchallenged. Some they clearly think they'll make enough money on before they get a C&D - like their forthcoming Yamaha SG ripoff. Rant:

That's crazy cheap for that, some nice touches like the wooden contol cover & trc. It's an ugly bugger, mind, and I'm usually a sucker for a neckthrough. Very tempted but no - don't want a 6er, I already have a 5-string which is functionally a 4 with a very long thumbrest.

Pop a shim in the neck pocket of the fretless - this will angle it back a little. A small tilt makes a fairly big difference at the bridge, and will bring the action down & give some adjustability to the saddles. Also check for relief in the neck - typically on a fretless you'll be looking to get it pretty much dead flat.

Post-US Kays were rebrands of budget instruments from several countries & manufacturers. Japanese Kays were made by Teisco, which was itself by that point owned by Kawai Gakki. Not sure of dates but production of these models was subseqently transferred to a factory in Taiwan, owned by Kawai - this will be where the Taiwanese Precision, Strat, LP and those weird shortscale Rick types came from. Later Kay electrics were made by Cort in Korea (the 1980-ish through-necks are really nice) and some acoustic models were East German, probably made by Musima. 1969 is nothing to do with the year.

Not sure what the number refers to but it's definitely not a date - accurate copies simply weren't around in 1969. If you look at the very earliest Japanese Fender copies from 1971, they didn't use proper P or J style pickups, because at that time no-one made them. I don't remember any numbers on the two I had, but I did once find a Kay Strat copy, same body & neck construction as the basses, and I *think* it had 1967 in the pocket. Chances are they're factory model numbers, or something like that.

That's a Kay KB24, made in Taiwan. These are mid 70s & later - there were no remotely accurate copies as early as 1969. I've had a couple of these, and they're certainly rough & ready, but both of mine played quite well after a setup, and sounded surprisingly good - very loud, punchy pickups. That neck construction looks weird but was quite common on budget Japanese guitars in the 60s - it's basically ply, sometimes called "strip mahogany". Apparently some early MIJ guitars were prone to necks deforming due to inadequately seasoned wood, so it seems this was used as a cheap way of making a more stable neck.

Doesn't look like it is, though - a lot of these marks look like the bass has been abused and battered - the cracking around the control area looks like it's the result of an impact, as do the big fractures on the back near the bases of top & bottom horns. Pretty confident there's wood damage there. In the unlikely event it's not been kicked half to death the only thing I can think of that would result in this sort of cracking would be use of inadequately seasoned wood, which over the years has expanded or contracted under what looks like very thick poly lacquer. Either way, it's enormously overpriced.

Digital game sales massively outstrip physical copies these days - in fact Microsoft has recently launched a digital-only version of its current XBox & it's expected that other manufacturers will follow suit with the next console generation. The industry in general is very much in favour of moving towards digital-only, for various reasons, not least of which is the elimination of the secondhand market & retail discounts, which clearly only apply to physical product. The music business unfortunately remained stuck in the 20th century while the world moved on & has failed to capitalise on any of the potentials the digital market might have offered.

If my experience of "rock" was limited to the sort of slobbering, 4-chord badboy-wannabe, smackhead-chic moronic cliche garbage that seems to have typified Mr Gillespie's contribution to the genre, then I think I'd be inclined to agree with him wholeheartedly. It's probably not unreasonable to assume that this is what informs his opinion in the first place. I'm no expert (and neither am I a hater) but rap, grime & drill are all sub-genres of hip hop, which is a musical genre whose origins can be traced back to the early 70s. As somebody currently quietly despairing at the ravages of time and encroaching decrepitude, I take a little personal comfort & reassurance knowing that the pioneers of what's apparently the cutting edge of contemporary musical culture (according to Bobby G) must all have their bus passes by now...

These tuners were really common on Japanese basses from the 70s and early 80s, sets & individuals turn up on Ebay from time to time, I've even seen a couple of OEM sets in their original Gotoh packaging. They did come with two different sized backplates - the ones on your Epi are the smaller type. Some Korean basses had identical-looking tuners but these have chromed plastic buttons instead of the cast metal originals - these break quite easily so it's worth making sure what you're getting! If you don't need them to be the original style but just fit the original holes, these look like they might do - but measure up first: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-a-side-Vintage-Electric-Bass-Guitar-Tuners-No15/132288733875