Bassassin

Interesting to re-read that, & unfortunately the detective work (mostly from heroically committed uber-geeks on the MIJ FB groups) hasn't progressed much in the intervening 5 years! Other than to throw doubt on previously-held assumptions about Matsumoku serials... But like I said, some Hondo H-1015s do turn up with Matsumoku-stamped plates, those, at least I'd be confident about the origin. Might be the case that ones with no ID on the plates were collaborative builds involving more than one factory - neck from one place, body from another, assembled at a 3rd.

He hasn't been here since October 2017, so chances are he'll have missed that. I guess @jacethebass wasn't interested in reuiniting it with its original owner, then...

That's what you find yourself strapped to, and tortured for all eternity by the application of oxyacetalyne blowtorch to the extremities. When you go to Hipster Hell.

I'd usually concede to NoelK27, but having seen several of these with Matsumoku-stamped neckplates, some at least definitely were. Replying to @Paul S - not sure any of them were MIK, as I understand it Hondo was trying to position itself as a higher quality brand and Samick, who made all the 70s copies, didn't have the best reputation at the time. Never owned one of these but they look pretty decent & follow what's a fairly typical format for MIJ originals at the time: symmetrical doublecut, single P, (usually OEM DiMarzio) 3-point Gibbo bridge, 2-a-side tuners.

Been there, ridiculed that: https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/336312-headless-precision/

That's a work of art, that is, quite beautifully executed. Also manages to be a single-cut that doesn't look fat & lumpy - which seems to be something most manufacturers/builders find beyond challenging. Too many strings, & to me it's aesthetically compromised by the humungously long fingerboard and the enormous cutaway needed to access it. Would be nice to see the same design with a bass-appropriate string count (5 or fewer!) and a more balanced body shape.

If there's any doubt whether the so-called SB300 is a genuine SGC Nanyo, rather than one of the reissues, the hardware - specifically those early 90s Gotoh tuners, strongly suggest it's 90s MIJ. The way prices of these seem to be going, that looks like a pretty good deal for £200 delivered.

I have no reason to imagine I would ever have picked up an instrument if it wasn't for punk. In 1978, at the age of 15, me and a bunch of schoolmates sneaked into a pub to watch a punky/pub rock act who'd been making a bit of a name for themselves locally. On the way home, ears ringing, little minds comprehensively blown, and emboldened by a pint or two of shandy, we formed our first band. None of us could play or had ever thought about being in a band before, but we chose our instruments and (eventually) went ahead, bought them & learned to play. I chose bass because I didn't think I'd get away with asking my parents to help me buy a drum kit - and because I was a big Stranglers fan & wanted to make "that" sound. Me & my schoolmates never played together (although we all carried on playing) and I've never played punk rock. Some of the music was great (at the time, I'd say) but more than anything else it was a gateway. The bands weren't "rock stars" or millionaires, they looked the same as the kids in the audience & spoke the same language. The music was straightforward and accessible - previously I'd been into the likes of Alice Cooper and The Who, I would never, ever have entertained the idea I could ever pick up an instrument and actually play Halo Of Flies, or The Real Me - but thrashing along to Pretty Vacant or Peaches was no bother. I always struggled (and still do) with tribalisation of music & genres - good music's good music whether it's 2.33 of three chords and shouting, or whether it's 17 minutes of existentialism arranged in four movements, with varying time signatures derived from the Fibonacci Sequence. And my metric of what's "good" is what I happen to like. Doesn't make anyone else's taste wrong but I do question some of the entrenched attitudes.

20 years of regular roughhouse gigs should do it... Funny - I'm absolutely fine with used basses that have signs of a well-gigged life, in fact I think it does give "character" (or summat) and I quite like it on an old instrument. However if I buy a new instrument, I hate it to get damaged or worn-looking in any way. It's like I don't mind someone else having kicked the crap out of a bass, but I'd feel like a monster to treat it that way myself.

Very nice - Matsumoku-built Ripper, looks like it needs a wipe & a squish of switch cleaner, but otherwise tidy & complete. Someone very probably got a bargain there.

Highly unlikely. They will just be brand names used by distributors, probably completely unconnected to each other, who bought mass-produced instruments from the same factory. They will have coincidentally ordered the same instruments from the manufacturer's range, and had them badged with their own logo. The luthier branded example (and tbh I've never heard of him) is 99% likely to be the same - whoever owns or uses that trade name just bought some guitars from the same mass production factory. Worldwide there are likely dozens of different names on these instruments.

Slipped through a wormhole from a parallel universe where perfectly good & inexpensive headless hardware does not exist. Baffling.

Like it a lot, looks way better than the standard cheap-looking white. Puts me in mind of the original 1950s 4000, which had gold plastics. IMO works really well with Fireglo.

These basses with that headstock, and the 3-part laminated neck with the stripe up the fretboard were all over Ebay about 10 - 12 years ago. I remember this P/MM hybrid thing and an LP-shape too, which might've been a semi-hollow thing with F-holes. The brands were indeed Wolf & Mazeti but as they were about £200 brand-new, I seriously doubt they were luthier builds. I suspect that either the neck designs are straight copies of Thomas Bruneteau's, or that the luthier himself imported some of the same Korean/Chinese/Taiwanese (or wherever they came from!) mass-produced instruments with his name on. Much as I like a bit of oddness in a bass, I really don't think that headstock works, either aesthetically or in any practical sense. On the other hand the maple board with dark centre stripe looks great, IMO.

Until next time...

Looks well enough executed to me. Controls could've been better thought-out, by the looks. Don't really get the guitar/bass double-neck thing, but this looks pretty decent.

My old rock covers duo (bass/vocals, guitar/vocals, pre-recorded backing. F-off big PA) got a booking in a dodgy, out-of the-way little pub we'd never been to before. Small but decent crowd, went OK. During the 20-minute break between sets the two shadiest looking punters in the room came over and started chatting - and ended up offering to sell us the gear they'd robbed from the last band that played there! Needless to say, afterwards we packed the van in shifts, and never went back there again.

Excluding import duty nonsense (and ignoring CITES nonsense!) this one would be about £800 shipped!

Always loved the look of the Surfcaster and that one's gorgeous. Only wish they'd used the same snowdrift inlays on the bass that the guitar had. Someone on here was selling an utterly stunning Surfcaster guitar a year or so ago, bit of a bargain too. Anyway - purveyors of overpriced Chinese knockoffs Eastwood now do an overpriced Chinese knockoff Surfcaster bass. You might want to be sitting down before you look at the price. https://eastwoodguitars.com/products/surfcaster-bass /