Diamond, made in Japan, but by wich company, and when?

[spellonyou]

Hi all,

I'm trying to find out more about the origins of this old jazz bass i bought yesterday.
It sais Diamond on the headstock and on the metal plate supporting the neck screws it sais:

Steel adjustable neck, made in Japan, and a serial number 1069264.

it seems to be one of those fender standard jazz bass copies they made in those days, but i canot find reference of this particular brand name on any of the websites that lists the japanese manufacturers of those days.

I hope someone on these forums is willing to help.

cheers,
Sandor

[voxpop]

Can you up load a few pictures.

[chaypup]

Steel Adjustable Neck usually means it's Matsumoku in origin.

Edit: yes, Diamond was part of an Aria range [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsumoku"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsumoku[/url]

[url="http://www.matsumoku.org/models/aria/bass.html"]http://www.matsumoku.../aria/bass.html[/url]

Edited September 30, 2012 by chaypup

[RhysP]

The Diamond range was made by Aria.
Age-wise it's probably from the mid to late 70s.
Pictures would be useful

Edited September 30, 2012 by RhysP

[spellonyou]

Thanks guys; it seems to be a model 1540. It's got some dings on the body and the pickup guards and finger rest are missing, but otherwise it looks like the original.
I'd love to post a picture but haven't got the means right now.
It plays like nothing i've held in my hands until now, after only a little cleaning and setup. The truss needs a bit more tightening and the top nut could be somewhat lower, but i'll take things slowly with this old lady :-)

[spellonyou]

In its current state:

Edited October 1, 2012 by spellonyou

[Did]

I have the same question 

 

[therealting]

2 hours ago, Did said:

I have the same question 

 

That plate alone indicates Matsumoku factory. 

[Bassassin]

100% Matsumoku - the "Steel Adjustable Neck" plate was exclusive to that manufacturer. Diamond was an Aria (Shiro Arai Co) sub-brand, the pin-badge on @Did's guitar is widely found on late 60s/early 70s examples.

Worth mentioning that like most Japanese brands from this era, Aria was never a manufacturer, only a brand, and although the vast majority were Matsumoku products, they weren't exclusive - examples made by Kasuga Gakki & Fujigen have turned up, although they're uncommon.

To further complicate things it's not unusual that different factories would make different parts - a neck from one builder, body from another, hardware & electronics outsourced, and everything assembled in another workshop. There's reason to suspect that some MIJ guitars were even shipped as components to Korea, and assembled there, to dodge local tax regulations.

It's a proper can of worms...

[Grahambythesea]

On 22/06/2019 at 09:55, Did said:

I have the same question 

 

That looks like the old Harmony guitar which I think Keith Richards used in the early days.