Bassassin

A few less strings & some cheat lines and it might! Reminds me quite a lot of the "One Bass To Rule Them All" design idea I knocked up about 10 years back: Having since owned a twin-neck in real life, I'd scale down the body a lot to reduce weight. Done right it could be quite manageable...

Aria have previous for this sort of thing: 1985-ish SB-R60, unusual but original finish. I think it looks great. Apart from the bodged repositioned strap button.

The ad describing it as "very little use" might have put a few people off...

Funny thing is, that body shape & minimalist design would work really well on a full-scale headless build. I did say "99% of singlecuts".

Having one of those "wish I hadn't looked" moments.

Contracting elsewhere - Aria have never had their own factory. No idea who makes them now - most of the Japanese manufacturers who were prolific & respected in the 70s & 80s are long-gone. From memory, Fujigen, Iida, Dyna, Moridaira, Tokai, Terada are still going, and there will be others. The classic MIJ Arias were predominantly from Matsumoku but examples have turned up that are from Kasuga & Fujigen. After Matsumoku closed in '86, apparently some high-end MIJ production went to Tokai, while midrange & lower went to Korea.

If I remember the first listing did describe it as a Fender. That was pulled & it was relisted after the "error" was pointed out by several on here. So even if he doesn't know what it is (which he does, because I told him exactly what it is), he knows perfectly well what it isn't. Interesting that it's "sold" previously, been relisted and immediately bid up unfeasibly high for a beat-up copy. IMO quite obviously shilled to buggery.

I find 99% of singlecut basses absolutely foul to look at - would not be seen dead playing such a thing - even if it was a £15000 Fedora. Really don't know why theses vile, bulbous, lumpy things, with their extra 2kg of unnecessary wood, seem so popular with people who spend huge money on luthier-built basses. Likewise basses with more than 5 strings - which funnily enough seem to go hand -in-hand with a massive exotic-wood body-plank shaped like Snoopy's head. You just know someone's going to pick it up and start endlessly noodling out anaemic, bloopy-sounding, atonal "solos" don't you?

I think I've seen the document you're referring to, someone (can't remember if it was here or one of the FB guitar groups) linked to it quite recently. I've had several Hohner-branded instruments and was interested in researching them - but found two of them (an HVX-45 guitar, MIJ and from around 1982, and a slightly later Korean-made HTB-3B bass) did not appear in the list. I'd imagine it was collated from whatever existing records they still had, so various models were not included. As I say, I bought my B2A new in '85 - both the active & passive versions launched simultaneously. I remember drooling over them in my local guitar shop for a while before I could afford to get one!

The later Arias are surprisingly good, I'd say underrated, guitars. I have an odd thing which I found out was a Korean-made PE-DCW T, apparently only 100 were imported. I bought this very cheap with a view to flipping it for a profit (back when I did that sort of thing a lot) but found it to be such a playable, unique-sounding guitar, I still have it, 15 years later: I also picked up this about 10 years ago: It's an STB-GT, basically an Aerodyne-style P body with a Jazz neck, Stingray-ish electronics, all with a fancy bookmatched top & pearl block inlays. I bought it because it was cheap & pretty, kept it because it plays & sounds great. I think at the time Aria were experimenting with better specced versions of their lower-end copies - if I remember there was a "Rosie" version of this (like the Rosie IGB above) and a 5-string too.

I don't think Aria ever stopped making high-end basses - they just haven't been exported much outside Japan, presumably due to the apparent lack of interest in anything that doesn't look like a Fender from the 50s or 60s. I do like the sparkly blue & silver IGB, but then I'm a sucker for a bit of tacky vulgarity. The other one is (I think) their current take on the RSB - these have been available for the Japanese market for a good few years. Don't particularly like the shape (the original RSBs were the same shape as the classic SB) but the finish is lovely. More of a fan of the home market version tbh.

Might be 1986. Mine has an 85 prefix - I bought it new in 1985. I'm not 100% certain but they might have first appeared in' 84. These were made in Korea by Cort/Cor-Tek. Not sure there's a recognised serial scheme for these but the year prefix would make sense. The Hohner-branded B2 range was licensed by Steinberger to use the design & hardware - Cort used the same components on their own (unlicensed) designs too.

There are links to them in the new Ibby range, & a PMT preorder listing upthread, posted on Jan 1st. No fretless version though.

I'm a big fan of the aesthetics of a neck-through build - I own several - but I don't think the construction makes any appreciable difference to tone. Conversely there are various reasons (many of which have been mentioned already) why a bolt neck is a more practical & versatile choice. I've owned & seen several through-necks where a low action was either difficult or impossible to achieve, either because of a poor construction decision (insufficient height between body & top of fretboard) or because a neck has moved over time. Early Rick 4001s are prone to this - the position of the neck pickup route creates a weak spot where string tension can cause the bass to effectively bend at this point. These issues don't affect bolt-necks because the neck angle can always be changed with a shim; or in extreme cases, the neck can be replaced.

Presumably because there's not a F*cking Stupid Guitars FB group. Yet.

Can't see the "H" but otherwise might be just the thing for a church bassist...

They'd only take it down on that basis in response to a complaint from the brand owner. Ebay doesn't know it's not a Fender any more than half the people who've bid on the various listings for it do.

I remember being gobsmacked by the sheer awfulness of that "devil girl" mess at a guitar show probably 15 or so years ago. The other thing is OK by the usual standard of wonky home-made stuff. Looks like a competent woodworker's been having a go at basic luthiery. A few things make you go "why?", considering how easily available decent, inexpensive components are, but otherwise it's a good effort. About £200 too dear, mind.

Wonder why he's now decided it's 80s rather than 70s? That's the only bit that was right in the previous ad.

Related to that one - @fleabag posted the Reverb link & I dug up that thread in response. Seller is a conscience-free gouger who paid a woman £400 for her dead husband's unique bass & is now trying to flip it for £2500.

Why has the thread about this in the Ebay folder appear to have been deleted? Weird...

Always though a guitar/bass double neck is really only any use for showing the guitarist what he's supposed to be playing. So - actually very useful indeed, then.

Eros was a UK importer brand owned by Rosetti, and sourced instruments from several manufacturers. Early Eros were Japanese, I've had two that were Matsumoku builds and one that was a Fujigen. Later examples - such as this - were Korean, so clearly nothing to do with Matsumoku or any other Japanese manufacturer. Likely to be late 70s/early 80s and from Cort or Samick. As far as value's concerned - this is plainly a low-end beginner's bass. I'd say £80 for something as crude as this is wildly over the odds & probably about twice what it's worth. However if you really like it, knock yourself out!

Like many of us I've gone past the point of finding a whole lot of new music that makes me go "wow". However a couple of years back a mate dragged me along to see these guys: Forgive me if I've banged on about Lifesigns before (which I have) but blown away was an understatement! Quite exceptional to see musicians of this calibre playing such gorgeous, expansive music in a local pub that I've played dozens of times myself. They're probably my current favourite band - and thoroughly lovely human beings to boot.

Guess I'll be hanging on to my stoopid bright orange plastic EDA900 after all. And I'm absolutely fine with that!