Bassassin

This is very interesting - it's not a Ripper copy, it's a G3, and I've absolutely never seen one before. Without seeing under the scratchplate, tbh I'm leaning towards thinking it's a (fairly common) standard Grabber copy that's been modded to G3 spec with the scratchplate & pickups. That said, the pickups are interesting because they're neither real, nor copies of G3 units by the looks, instead they're very close, if not identical to the transparent covered single-coil types fitted to Marauder guitar copies made by Chushin Gakki - the factory which made Maya. If it's a factory G3 copy then I'm surprised at never having come across one before - Chushin were incredibly prolific and sold under dozens of different names. Highly curious.

There were good Avons & not-so-good ones. That's a good one. And a potential bargain.

"Canglewood" is awesome. Still doesn't quite measure up to "Squizz", though.

Sadly they'd need to do that from beyond the corporate grave! Ibanez, on the other hand, were selling their 2388B models over 10 years before JH's Rickenbacker International Corp even came into existence, and nearly 30 years before he stole, sorry - registered - the design trademarks to RIC... Proper can of worms, if anybody ever wanted to open it!

Not presently in a gigging band but in my last band all the songs were co-written between me & the vocalist. Now in a composing/recording project with the same singer and all the songs are co-written by me & 'er. In addition as well as the bass, it now falls to me to play the guitars, program the drums & play/program the pretend keyboardy bits too. Oh, and misproduce the result!

That's what I assumed. Interesting about the bridge, I've seen plenty of 3D-ish copies which were very similar but lacked the roller saddles, never seen a dead-on clone though.

Interesting thread - I didn't know the original Alien also had the alu neck components like the Kramer. Someone in the thread suggests the Aliens & Dukes came from the same factory. So did Kramer outsource production to Samick in Korea? That's where the Hondos would have come from. No surprise to me that they were available with different brand names, this was common practice with Korean factories such as Samick & Cort, and also many Japanese manufacturers from this era.

Actually, I don't! Can't profess to be much of an expert on Dukes/Aliens, but I do know they were both bolt-neck - typically you'd be able to ID a Duke from the neckplate. If there were through/set neck versions of either, then I've never seen one before. However I'm inclined to err in the direction of Hondo with this one, aside from the Schaller bridge, hardware looks lower-end, and I think the Kramers had a hex-pole DiMarzio pickup. It's sort of cool, but a bit of a mess for £170.

I've seen the guy from D.A.D's version before - not sure why, but there's something about these that just makes me want to punch whoever thought this was a good idea.

The worst of it is, it strikes me that I think I know what this is. Or rather - what it used to be. Should be in the "Grants Are Pants" thread.

I'm calling fake - not because I'm any kind of authenticator of ancient rock 'n roll signatures, but because this bass isn't 60s MIJ, as claimed, but I'm pretty damned confident is actually 70s (probably '75 or later) Korean. And last time I checked, Brian Jones died in 1969.

Pretty sure there used to be links to old catalogues & specs on the Fetishguitars page I linked to. Can't find them now. Gah.

Not 100% clear on this as I've only owned SRs, but I think the SRX range was meant to be a more rock/metal-oriented version of the Soundgear series. Not sure whether they have the same thin/narrow neck as the standard SR but if not, it will feel very different. Like every bass, the action depends on how it's set up, how good the fret job is, and personal preference. I play quite aggressively & a very low action tends to produce more unwanted clattering and clanking, so I tend to tweak it up a bit.

That's a properly cool little rarity for a tenner. Looks pretty intact from the pics, and should scrub up nicely.

This is definitely the most ludicrous thing I think I've seen masquerading as a bass. Took a screen grab to try & work out what's going on, and am left with the sneaking suspicion that this might well turn out to be a prop knocked up from random bits of plywood & tinfoil. And stickyback plastic, obvs.

Perhaps a wealthy Rickenbacker fan / Faker hater will buy, it just for the joy of being able to remove it from circulation and burn it. Someone message Mr J. C.Hall (retd.) of Birmingham...

And Entwistle (a big influence of mine when I first picked up a bass) claimed McCartney as an influence. So it goes on...

That - if you read my post, is my entire point. And why the sentence you quoted contains the word "direct".

I'm not a fan of either McCartney or The Beatles - probably because they have no direct influence on my musical DNA, I've always felt fairly indifferent. However, it really bugs me (or "triggers" me, if we're gonna be all 2019 ) when this term "overrated" gets thrown around in relation to artists who are indisputable originators - absolutely pivotal and seminal in the evolution of both music as a creative & cultural force, and in the development of the role of the bass. McCartney is one such - his influence, direct or indirect, is enormous, it's probably entirely reasonable to say that without him & his band, none of us would be playing the music we play now, wherever we sit on the musical spectrum, or however we personally feel about McCartney. Fair enough to say you don't like him/them, or you think so-and-so would have done it better - but "overrated"? Look it up.

And now you've hurt its feelings. In fairness - it was the victim of a catastrophic headstock break, as well as me, 35 years ago, not being able to afford a proper headless...

Guilty as charged... It's worse than you think, though, it's actually flourescent yellow - you wanna see it under UV light... On second thoughts, you probably don't, do you?

Having gone through life (thus far) having avoided glass-related self-abuse I'm going to be wilfully different & say no. Or at least, not necessarily. Hard to really tell from the pics, but it does look like it's been competently done, and if the bass still plays OK then that's fine. Also depends why - if it suffered catastrophic headstock damage then this might've been the best way to rescue it. Have to say I might have a different view if the bass was an original 80s MIJ BB, though... Also bear in mind this is the opinion of someone who once did this to an unsuspecting SG copy:

They are - I'm a fan! I've had 3 Indian-made Mustang Strats from my local car boot. Most expensive one was £28, and was a superb player, should never have sold it, particularly since I only got £60 for it! A guitarist mate has another that I picked up for £5, with a bit of cosmetic water damage. Once it was properly dried out & a bit of lifting lacquer sorted, it was fine, nice player. Gave it to my mate for his birthday! The reason I chose them was that IMO they're the perfect bargain-basement bass/guitar - and I was gobsmacked to see that one listed for what is absolutely ridiculous money. There is no way on earth he'll get that, no matter how tidy it is. Could've used Westone Thunder 1As to illustrate the point, the Ebayers who list them for £350+ clearly don't check the sold listings, where they typically go for give or take £150, and often a lot less.