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Odd extremely short scale bass I found


Twunkbass

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Found this odd little thing and got it for free. I think it's from catalogue in the 70s? 

The scale length seems to be shorter than a regular fender guitar which is baffling to me. I'm going to attempt to restore it, the electronics are really fragile and odd. 

 

Anyone know anything about it, and whether it's worth putting some effort into? 

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Korean-made cheapo from the late 70s, I think made by Cort. Not a catalogue bass, Eros was a brand owned by UK distributor Rosetti, mostly starter/midrange electrics.

 

I had what was pretty much the guitar version of this a few years back (£6.50 from my local car boot) and it looks like the bass is essentially the same neck/body but with different hardware. If you can make it play OK it might be a fun little curiosity, & a lot of people these days seem to like this sort of lo-fi approach. Certainly worth giving it a wipe down, a squirt of switch cleaner & maybe even some new strings.

 

Here's the guitar I had, definitely part of the same family.

 

 

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20210923_170323.thumb.jpg.a14d676ca4c0a19b1e9242372db84e9d.jpg.827213b25518ef0b38ec8407c6f46100.jpg

 

My Jedson equivalent from the 70s, slightly modified! However the 24" scale is ridiculous, not so much a bass as just a guitar with thicker strings. Also a terrible instrument, intonation is appalling above the 9th fret, and not enough string tension at this scale to tune to regularly. 

 

Is it worth restoring? Depends on how much you like it but it's never going to be worth much money and given it's scale length (what were they thinking, it's a toy scale length!!) it will play like shyt. Having said all that, i love my Jedson for all its idiosyncrasies and would never sell it.... still plays like shyt tho.

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I’d love to find one of these old things in a boot sale/charity shop/skip.  It’s be a fun project just to make it useable without spending any money.  And if it showed some sort of usefulness, sting tension could probably be sorted with the right sort of strings from Newtone.

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31 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

I’d love to find one of these old things in a boot sale/charity shop/skip.  It’s be a fun project just to make it useable without spending any money.  And if it showed some sort of usefulness, sting tension could probably be sorted with the right sort of strings from Newtone.

Interestingly given the toy scale length of 24", I put on heavy gauge nylon short scale strings (stringing thru the body is a must to use up some string length) and the tension on low E wasn't quite there but it's ok tuned solo at F#. Putting on light gauge Bass VI roundwounds and the tension on low E was ok but the sound was not as deep. Also the nylons intonation above the 9th fret gets very iffy, whereas the roundwounds faired better. 

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7 minutes ago, whynot said:

My first bass was a lefty Jedson from a shop that sold a bit of everything in Camberwell, London. Short scale but was longer scale than the lefty guitar version sitting next to it. Both £22 new, in old UK money.

Camberwell! My old manor for many years, man & boy.

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On 11/02/2022 at 02:02, Bassassin said:

Korean-made cheapo from the late 70s, I think made by Cort. Not a catalogue bass, Eros was a brand owned by UK distributor Rosetti, mostly starter/midrange electrics.

 

I had what was pretty much the guitar version of this a few years back (£6.50 from my local car boot) and it looks like the bass is essentially the same neck/body but with different hardware. If you can make it play OK it might be a fun little curiosity, & a lot of people these days seem to like this sort of lo-fi approach. Certainly worth giving it a wipe down, a squirt of switch cleaner & maybe even some new strings.

 

Here's the guitar I had, definitely part of the same family.

 

 

front1.jpg

 Do you reckon these pips were real gold foils?

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14 hours ago, NikNik said:

Leather?? How did I miss that?😆

#Specsavers.

When I had mine I did briefly toy with the idea of buying a pack of 20 Benson & nicking the foil to replace the fake leather - obviously the fags would go straight in the bin.

 

Hardly worth twice what I'd paid for the guitar though!

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