You will never slag your bass off again...

[itsmedunc]

I came across this on youtube and now I appreciate how lucky I really am. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDn5DXX_1Tg

[ezbass]

Oh the horror!

[BetaFunk]

Just put Flats on it then it will sound the same as an exotic boutique bass with Flats costing many thousands of pounds.

P.S. That sounds like it should be in Viz 'Handy Hints' now i come to think of it.

Changes voice to very posh and serious....... "hey! Johnny Bass Player! Fed up that you can't afford a very expensive boutique bass guitar with quilted maple top? Then you need Wizzo Flatwound Strings. They will make your 1965 Top Twenty bass guitar that your Granny bought you for Christmas in 1965 sound just like a £5,000 custom bass guitar"

Edited December 31, 2013 by BetaFunk

[itsmedunc]

Perhaps a block of flats.

[Dingus]

I fully expect to see some daft bugger with a beard and a chequed shirt playing this thing backing up Pete Docherty on Jools Holland in the near future, and to read the self- same bearded bloke waxing lyrical in his interview with Bass Guitar Magazine about its' naturally warm vintage passive tones. I just hope he paid a fortune for it. .

[BetaFunk]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1388518667' post='2323061']
I fully expect to see some daft bugger with a beard and a chequed shirt playing this thing backing up Pete Docherty on Jools Holland in the near future, and to read the self- same bearded bloke waxing lyrical in his interview with Bass Guitar Magazine about its' naturally warm vintage passive tones. I just hope he paid a fortune for it. .
[/quote]
I'm hoping that the same will happen to this. In fact it's the only reason i watch Jools nowadays in the hope that my car boot Kay (complete with flats) like the one in the video that i splashed out £35 will become the stuff of legends backstage at Later with Jools after it's been played by some trendy indie types.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZkyw-r34HA

[gjones]

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1388515674' post='2322998']
Just put Flats on it then it will sound the same as an exotic boutique bass with Flats costing many thousands of pounds.

P.S. That sounds like it should be in Viz 'Handy Hints' now i come to think of it.

Changes voice to very posh and serious....... "hey! Johnny Bass Player! Fed up that you can't afford a very expensive boutique bass guitar with quilted maple top? Then you need Wizzo Flatwound Strings. They will make your 1965 Top Twenty bass guitar that your Granny bought you for Christmas in 1965 sound just like a £5,000 custom bass guitar"
[/quote]

Hee, hee!

[chriswareham]

[quote name='itsmedunc' timestamp='1388515198' post='2322988']
I came across this on youtube and now I appreciate how lucky I really am. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDn5DXX_1Tg[/media]
[/quote]

Be very, very wary of anything that was made behind the Iron Curtain. I saw a Russian punk band many years ago in St Petersburg, and had a go on their bass guitar. It was absolutely awful, and I was told it was representative of the terrible instruments that were available under Communism. Amusingly, Soviet synthesisers are now considered desirable, but just like Soviet guitars they are poorly designed instruments with appalling build quality. The exceptions are some of the Vermona stuff from East Germany, which while primitive often has redeeming qualities, and Jolana from Czechoslovakia who managed to build quality instruments.

[BetaFunk]

[quote name='chriswareham' timestamp='1388600258' post='2323897']
Be very, very wary of anything that was made behind the Iron Curtain. I saw a Russian punk band many years ago in St Petersburg, and had a go on their bass guitar. It was absolutely awful, and I was told it was representative of the terrible instruments that were available under Communism. Amusingly, Soviet synthesisers are now considered desirable, but just like Soviet guitars they are poorly designed instruments with appalling build quality. The exceptions are some of the Vermona stuff from East Germany, which while primitive often has redeeming qualities, and Jolana from Czechoslovakia who managed to build quality instruments.
[/quote]
It wasn't just guitars and basses that were poorly made. The same can be said for nearly all household electrical goods.

The link below is a great resource for Eastern Bloc guitars and basses.

http://www.cheesyguitars.com/

[chriswareham]

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1388521584' post='2323136']

I'm hoping that the same will happen to this. In fact it's the only reason i watch Jools nowadays in the hope that my car boot Kay (complete with flats) like the one in the video that i splashed out £35 will become the stuff of legends backstage at Later with Jools after it's been played by some trendy indie types.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZkyw-r34HA
[/quote]

I've got one of those! As someone points out in the You Tube comments, it's not US made as the guy in the video claims, as the Kay brand name was used in the 1970s for Japanese made basses from Kawai/Teisco. The model he's playing is a K-20B, which is obviously a bit of a Rickenfaker. It's not exactly the finest made bass guitar in the world, but with a decent setup and a set of roundwounds it makes a servicable short scale bass.

[chriswareham]

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1388601958' post='2323918']

It wasn't just guitars and basses that were poorly made. The same can be said for nearly all household electrical goods.

[/quote]

Yup, television sets being just about the worst - they had an appalling reputation for exploding, sometimes when they were just connected to the mains rather than actually switched on ...

[Fionn]

[quote name='itsmedunc' timestamp='1388515198' post='2322988']
I came across this on youtube and now I appreciate how lucky I really am. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDn5DXX_1Tg[/media]
[/quote]


Hahaha!!! that is hillarious

[BetaFunk]

[quote name='chriswareham' timestamp='1388602679' post='2323931']
Yup, television sets being just about the worst - they had an appalling reputation for exploding, sometimes when they were just connected to the mains rather than actually switched on ...
[/quote]
Yes i can imagine!

What i find fascinating is that a lot of Russian basses (and guitars) have been really butchered by their owners. Where just a small screw was maybe needed it usually has a six inch nail which is strange because these instruments weren't cheap for the Russians to buy in those days.

[BetaFunk]

[quote name='chriswareham' timestamp='1388602293' post='2323922']
I've got one of those! As someone points out in the You Tube comments, it's not US made as the guy in the video claims, as the Kay brand name was used in the 1970s for Japanese made basses from Kawai/Teisco. The model he's playing is a K-20B, which is obviously a bit of a Rickenfaker. It's not exactly the finest made bass guitar in the world, but with a decent setup and a set of roundwounds it makes a servicable short scale bass.
[/quote]
You'll appreciate this then chriswareham if you are an owner of one of these.

My one is exactly the same as the one in the video and has a sticker which says 'Model: K-20B Made in Taiwan' and as you say they are not bad playable basses. I've kept the flatwounds on that i bought it with. I think that they are as old as the bass!.

I do love the way that they wax lyrically about it though!

[odysseus]

Ye Gods... the first bass I ever picked up was a Kay. Bloody awful, it was. You could pass a ham sandwich between the strings and the fretboard without disturbing the Branston. The second bass I ever picked up, an Encore Coaster, was a delight in comparison.

[chriswareham]

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1388603492' post='2323952']

You'll appreciate this then chriswareham if you are an owner of one of these.

My one is exactly the same as the one in the video and has a sticker which says 'Model: K-20B Made in Taiwan' and as you say they are not bad playable basses. I've kept the flatwounds on that i bought it with. I think that they are as old as the bass!.

I do love the way that they wax lyrically about it though!
[/quote]

Hmm, mine doesn't have a sticker saying made in Taiwan, but it would make sense. By the early 1970s Japanese companies had started to farm out construction to factories in Taiwan and elsewhere as labour costs were increasing in Japan. The founder of Ace Tone and Roland went into some detail about this in his autobiography (not a great book - I was hoping for more insights into design of Roland classics like the Jupiter synths, but it's more of a business manual).

[molan]

Someone bought a bass in to the shop I help out at for a set up.

It had a neck like a banana and fret ends that, quite literally, could shred the tips of your fingers. Th neck was fastened to the body with massive flat head rusted wood screws.

The killer thing though was that the fret markers ran 3 / 5 / 7 / 9 / 11 / 13. . .

[Roger2611]

Paging he who must not be named.......he who must not be named to casualty please

[Bassassin]

[quote name='chriswareham' timestamp='1388602293' post='2323922']
I've got one of those! As someone points out in the You Tube comments, it's not US made as the guy in the video claims, as the Kay brand name was used in the 1970s for Japanese made basses from Kawai/Teisco. The model he's playing is a K-20B, which is obviously a bit of a Rickenfaker. It's not exactly the finest made bass guitar in the world, but with a decent setup and a set of roundwounds it makes a servicable short scale bass.
[/quote]
Betafunk's right - these little comedy Rick copies (Rickenjokers?) weren't Teisco/Kawai products, and to be honest I've not yet encountered any confirmed Japanese-made Kays. Kay was originally a fairly respected US-made budget brand, but around 1970-ish ceased manufacture & farmed out production to the cheapest sources. The early 70s ones like this K20B were Taiwanese and the later, better-built ones were from Cort in Korea, including the sexy through-neck doublecuts that every Ebay seller insists are Matsumokus. I have seen East German-made Kay acoustics so presumably production went anywhere cheap!

Decent enough budget instruments, though - never had a K20B so I can't vouch for their quality but the old Taiwanese P copies were rock-solid, sound good and can play OK after a proper setup, and the Corts - if you get a good one - are pretty close to late 70s Japanese quality.

Back on topic, I still have some GAS for a Jolana D (Rick copy) or a Jolana Disco Bass, a sort of Gibson RD Artist clone, too bad they hardly ever turn up! I was in Berlin a few years back & found an ancient-looking Musima Strat-ish guitar at a flea market. This would have been made in East Germany some time in the 70s, really curious thing it was, quite remeniscent of the object in the first video although maybe not quite as crude! Good sense (and no practical way of getting it home) made me put it down & walk away, but there's a certain fascination about these odd Soviet-era instruments. Possibly closer to agricultural folk-art than anything you could make music with.

Jon.

[itsmedunc]

[quote name='odysseus' timestamp='1388603696' post='2323954']
Ye Gods... the first bass I ever picked up was a Kay. Bloody awful, it was. You could pass a ham sandwich between the strings and the fretboard without disturbing the Branston. The second bass I ever picked up, an Encore Coaster, was a delight in comparison.
[/quote]

A guy I know bought a brand new Kay Precision in about 1979. It weighs a ton and sounds and plays terribly. However, it is still in showroom condition and he likes it. I don't think he has played it for 20 years and believes it will become priceless one day!

[chriswareham]

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1388664306' post='2324457']
Betafunk's right - these little comedy Rick copies (Rickenjokers?) weren't Teisco/Kawai products, and to be honest I've not yet encountered any confirmed Japanese-made Kays. Kay was originally a fairly respected US-made budget brand, but around 1970-ish ceased manufacture & farmed out production to the cheapest sources. The early 70s ones like this K20B were Taiwanese and the later, better-built ones were from Cort in Korea, including the sexy through-neck doublecuts that every Ebay seller insists are Matsumokus. I have seen East German-made Kay acoustics so presumably production went anywhere cheap!

Decent enough budget instruments, though - never had a K20B so I can't vouch for their quality but the old Taiwanese P copies were rock-solid, sound good and can play OK after a proper setup, and the Corts - if you get a good one - are pretty close to late 70s Japanese quality.
[/quote]

Seems the (very little) info I could find on the web about Far Eastern made Kay guitars was wrong then! Regarding the quality of the K-20B, it looks pretty crude but a straightforward setup made my one as playable as the brand new Gretsch Electromatic short scale I had until last Summer. I wonder if the differences in humidity and so forth would account for why so many of these Far Eastern budget instruments have a reputation for being in an unplayable state even from new. I know that's why Hammond teamed up with a Japanese consortium to make organs in the Far East, as their US made instruments suffered a similar problem - they would be fine in the typical temperate climates of the US and Europe, but would suffer badly from the humidity in places like Japan.

[Grassie]

I see Mark D Phillips has started making video adverts......

[BetaFunk]

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1388664306' post='2324457']
Back on topic, I still have some GAS for a Jolana D (Rick copy) or a Jolana Disco Bass, a sort of Gibson RD Artist clone, too bad they hardly ever turn up!
[/quote]
I'd love to get hold of a Jolana Disco Bass Jon. The last one i saw for sale was in that bright red/orange colour but someone had painted it with an off white emulsion and was in poor condition otherwise i would have bought it.

[MiltyG565]

As if the bass wasn't bad enough on it's own, but that video! Wow! I thought mine were bad!

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1388609880' post='2324060']
The killer thing though was that the fret markers ran 3 / 5 / 7 / 9 / 11 / 13. . .
[/quote]

Haha! I would have laughed all day at that! A lot of folks get their bearings from the 12th fret - imagine them playing that!