columbus jazz bass

[diskwave]

All that is old and glistens etc....I had one in 78, heavy and, I was young and brawny back then, and I dont recall it sounding that great. Todays Squires especially the CV's cannot be compared on any level.

[Waddo Soqable]

I had one of those black / maple neck Hondo ll  P basses that I actually liked and did the job ok.. The neck was a baseball bat but I quite liked that. tbh with a bit of a tweak i'd use one of those again at a push !

I've actually seen the same ones a few times on ebay fairly recently for 50 quid ish, which is nearer the kind of price you'd reasonably expect for these olde plywood jobs... if cheap enough, I could see the point of the jap crap guitars as a cool thing to hang on the wall 

[Bassassin]

8 hours ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Satellite were another similar thing of the time, possibly the same group of manufacturers, they were what they were, basses people could afford...

I laugh to see the prices people want for these things on ebay, ridiculous for what they are. I guess you might get an old bloke wanting one as he had one in his youth, but as a playing bass not worth the candle !

Satellite (as the attentive reader will know, me having pointed it out a couple of posts up! ) was from the same distributor, FCN Music, Korean-made and even cheaper & tackier. Columbus was posh by comparison!

Back in the heyday of Ebay, for about 5 years or so I made a few bob buying & selling old 70s MIJ & MIK stuff, I always did a 99p no reserve auction & people did sometimes bid things up to downright silly money. Like many us, I started out playing this sort of thing, and while very little of the old Columbus, Avon, Hondo etc stuff was exactly pro-standard, I did appreciate how much poor setup & lack of any ability to fix it had held me, and I would think most of us, back, 30 or 40-odd years ago. Of the ones I worked on to sell, I'd say it was only one or two instruments that couldn't be made perfectly playable, due to problems such as warped necks.

[Waddo Soqable]

What were the ones they sold in Woolies then ? I seem to recall they were about 30 quid brand new !   Kays catalogue used to do a bass (and a guitar no doubt) for similar money I think.

I did borrow for a while ( circa 78/79) an unmarked unnamed jap jazz bass copy that was really good, it was black/tort with maple neck / black block inlays, everything on it was decent quality well fitted... I was extremely narked to have to give it back, the owner didn't even play really either..

[Bassassin]

Top Twenty was the Woolies brand, probably sold elsewhere too as that was Rose-Morris' ultra-cheapo brand beneath Avon & Shaftesbury.

Anyone's guess what the Jazz was, there were loads of unbranded instruments & literally dozens of different factories making good ones.

[tegs07]

1 hour ago, Bassassin said:

Top Twenty was the Woolies brand

I think The Cure’s first couple of albums were recorded with a pickup from a Top Twenty guitar. The record company apparently refused to let him use the guitar so he bought a Fender and swapped the pickups out.

[Waddo Soqable]

1 hour ago, Bassassin said:

Top Twenty was the Woolies brand, probably sold elsewhere too as that was Rose-Morris' ultra-cheapo brand beneath Avon & Shaftesbury.

Anyone's guess what the Jazz was, there were loads of unbranded instruments & literally dozens of different factories making good ones.

Top Twenty, that's very familiar !.. I remember Audition named stuff as well in the mega cheapo bracket.

That jazz was I'd say of a similar standard to one of the better Squiers now, as I remember it anyway, after I had to give it back I was stuck with a rather naff nameless P bass copy for a bit. ( then i got a real Rick..bear in mind you could get a well used one for about 200 quid then! )

[Maude]

5 hours ago, tegs07 said:

I think The Cure’s first couple of albums were recorded with a pickup from a Top Twenty guitar. The record company apparently refused to let him use the guitar so he bought a Fender and swapped the pickups out.

I think Three Imaginary Boys was recorded with the Top Twenty guitar. He then got a Jaguar after seeing Elvis Costello with one but was never entirely happy with the sound so put the bridge pickup from the Top Twenty in the middle of the Jag. Or something like that I remember. I think he was still using it, among others, up to the Head On The Door album. 

[NancyJohnson]

Just re-reading this thread.

By way of observation, I remember back in the 70s the only exposure we seemed to have of gear was through Beat Instrumental or the Bell catalogue; there was no way (on a paperboys wages) that I was going to be able to stretch to a Fender, so copies were the way forward.

I have zero memory of there being Precision copies at all; in truth this is the one I wanted.  I'm sure there were P-bass copies, but it always seemed to be Jazz copies.  

[FinnDave]

41 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

I have zero memory of there being Precision copies at all; in truth this is the one I wanted.  I'm sure there were P-bass copies, but it always seemed to be Jazz copies.  

I agree - I wanted a Precision but there were no affordable ones in the shops in the first half of the 70s. My first few basses were pretty dreadful - the Columbus Jazz was an object of unrequited lust!

[PaulWarning]

On 02/07/2021 at 12:28, Waddo Soqable said:

I had one of those black / maple neck Hondo ll  P basses that I actually liked and did the job ok.. The neck was a baseball bat but I quite liked that. tbh with a bit of a tweak i'd use one of those again at a push !

I've actually seen the same ones a few times on ebay fairly recently for 50 quid ish, which is nearer the kind of price you'd reasonably expect for these olde plywood jobs... if cheap enough, I could see the point of the jap crap guitars as a cool thing to hang on the wall 

sounds like the Hondo I've still got, it's a decent bass, good pickups, like you say worth about £50 on ebay, but it's sounds so much better then that, (I can get nearer to the Stranglers bass sound with it that than my Fender P) which is why I've kept it, heavy though, I assume because of the ply body.

I also had a Columbus P copy, someone had stripped the paint off it, not a good idea with a ply body 😂, I bought it because it was cheap and a lefty, it didn't sound or play that badly, but I soon moved it on

[Waddo Soqable]

23 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

sounds like the Hondo I've still got, it's a decent bass, good pickups, like you say worth about £50 on ebay, but it's sounds so much better then that, (I can get nearer to the Stranglers bass sound with it that than my Fender P) which is why I've kept it, heavy though, I assume because of the ply body.

I also had a Columbus P copy, someone had stripped the paint off it, not a good idea with a ply body 😂, I bought it because it was cheap and a lefty, it didn't sound or play that badly, but I soon moved it on

Yep, I wish I'd kept the Hondo P bass, certainly they're a hefty lump but that doesn't bother me tbh ...I think I got about the usual 50 quid for it when having stupidly ill advised "clear out"  

[Munurmunuh]

On 03/07/2021 at 16:34, Maude said:

I think Three Imaginary Boys was recorded with the Top Twenty guitar. He then got a Jaguar after seeing Elvis Costello with one but was never entirely happy with the sound so put the bridge pickup from the Top Twenty in the middle of the Jag. Or something like that I remember. I think he was still using it, among others, up to the Head On The Door album.