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Look at this Weird 70s Bass


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[quote name='FlatEric' timestamp='1456734357' post='2991728']
Jon, Hi.

I've got one - branded as "Morris".

Bought it on a whim, years ago - still got it and it plays nice and has "a big bottom" :D

Deep, deep, thud - with clarity.

Just one of those oddball things I acquired that turned out to be quite a find.

I'll dig it out and get some shots.

:)
[/quote]

Cool, would appreciate that. Interesting that yours is a Morris, if it is exactly the same bass. Morris was (and still is) house-brand of Moridaira, a manufacturer in its own right, so that might shed some doubt & confusion over the origin of these things! :lol:

Speaking of doubt and confusion, do you have an "Azumi" branded bass or guitar in your armoury, Eric? If so, does it have a serial number of any sort? There's some discussion going on about whether these were Chushin or Yamaki builds, which seems to hinge on serials rather than sensible things like hardware details...

J.

Edited by Bassassin
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[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1456753801' post='2991901']
Cool, would appreciate that. Interesting that yours is a Morris, if it is exactly the same bass. Morris was (and still is) house-brand of Moridaira, a manufacturer in its own right, so that might shed some doubt & confusion over the origin of these things! :lol:

Speaking of doubt and confusion, do you have an "Azumi" branded bass or guitar in your armoury, Eric? If so, does it have a serial number of any sort? There's some discussion going on about whether these were Chushin or Yamaki builds, which seems to hinge on serials rather than sensible things like hardware details...

J.
[/quote]

Drifting a little of the original thread but have a look here - this should help you.

[url="http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/seiwa-jazzman-bass.html"]http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/seiwa-jazzman-bass.html[/url]

and this as well, shows there are more than one!! :lol: :lol:

[url="http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/seiwa-jazzman-bass-take-2.html"]http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/seiwa-jazzman-bass-take-2.html[/url]

Cushin, I believe.

What do you think?

:)

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Definitely Chushin as far as I can tell. The hardware is Cushin's own in-house kit.

This is based on a discussion on the Daion FB group, which I joined to try & find out about my lovely Daion P copy. A guy who is a bit of an obsessive researcher has basically drawn a lot of (imo) quite far-fetched conclusions about the origin of some instruments based almost entirely upon serial numbers, rather than (to me) more clear differentiations, like construction & hardware.

I could give lots of examples but my question derives from two identical guitars with identical build & hardware, one branded Azumi & one branded Onyx. According to this guy, the Onyx is indisputably a Yamaki build because it has a stamped serial number, while the Azumi is probably Chushin, because Chushin used serial stickers which fall off. Clearly to my eyes the two instruments are identical and I have no reason to think they came from different factories - particularly since they both have the same idiosyncratic Chushin hardware.

I would assume that one has a serial because whoever commissioned the production run (the Onyx brand-owner) asked for serial numbers.

But then, I don't know nuffink, do I? :lol:

J.

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  • 3 years later...

I've seen a few of these basses, both in real life and on the interwebs.

One thing I always noticed was that the pickups are very rounded on the corners, and I remember that this shape was the same as the shape that some of the earlierr Cimar basses had. I don't know if this gives any hint to the origin of the instruments, as it's possible that different companies sourced their pickups from a single supplier, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

I'd love to own one of these. The first time I ever saw one, the instrument was offered to me for sale, however, the effects weren't working at all, and the seller said something like "oh, I'm sure it's an easy fix, probably just a wire needs to be re-soldered", and I thought what I always think in situations like that - "if it's so easy, why didn't you do that yourself"?!!!! :D So I passed on the sale, but always hoped I might come across another.

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14 minutes ago, bassaussie said:

One thing I always noticed was that the pickups are very rounded on the corners, and I remember that this shape was the same as the shape that some of the earlierr Cimar basses had. I don't know if this gives any hint to the origin of the instruments, as it's possible that different companies sourced their pickups from a single supplier, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

I'm fairly confident the round-end J pickups were used by different manufacturers, having owned 4 or 5 different basses fitted with these.

Despite years of research the vintage MIJ community has found very little info on different electronics & hardware suppliers during the 70s / 80s era. We're pretty much limited to Nisshin Onpa (Maxon) and Goto/Gotoh for pickups - simply because these have brands marked on them. There's a vague assumption that Matsumoku wound their own pickups because many late Mat instruments have MMK-stamped pickups - but that's not exacty conclusive.

Hardware's the same - we know Chushin & Gotoh made tuners, bridges & other fittings only because they put their brands on the parts. Chushin was also a major instrument manufacturer in its own right so it's possible they produced in-house electronics too.

I think it's beyond doubt there were numerous other, smaller manufacturers of components, just as there were numerous instrument builders that are now gone with little or no record.

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2 hours ago, Bassassin said:

I'm fairly confident the round-end J pickups were used by different manufacturers, having owned 4 or 5 different basses fitted with these.

Despite years of research the vintage MIJ community has found very little info on different electronics & hardware suppliers during the 70s / 80s era. We're pretty much limited to Nisshin Onpa (Maxon) and Goto/Gotoh for pickups - simply because these have brands marked on them. There's a vague assumption that Matsumoku wound their own pickups because many late Mat instruments have MMK-stamped pickups - but that's not exacty conclusive.

Hardware's the same - we know Chushin & Gotoh made tuners, bridges & other fittings only because they put their brands on the parts. Chushin was also a major instrument manufacturer in its own right so it's possible they produced in-house electronics too.

I think it's beyond doubt there were numerous other, smaller manufacturers of components, just as there were numerous instrument builders that are now gone with little or no record.

Thanks for the info Bassassin. I find this period of manufacture so fascinating, but it's a little like trying to research some parts of ancient history - there's these gaps in information that'll never be uncovered.

I actually have a friend locally who's also really into this sort of investigation, and a while back he said "wouldn't it be great to write a book on this", and I remember thinking "sure ..... if you want to go insane"!!! :D

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11 hours ago, el borracho said:

I like it when old threads like this reappear.

I recall seeing a bass like this on Youtube - took a bit of searching but here it is - this one's called a Belamy

 

That was the name on one of the basses I saw in real life. It stood out to me as I'd never seen the name before, and also because it was a really English sounding name - a lot of the Japanese instruments tend to have Japanese inspired names.

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