Does anyone know about this Marchis bass?

[javi_bassist]

Hello!!

 

A friend of mine gave me this bass the other day. It has been sitting in his rehearsal room for years. They bought it really cheap and it was in no use. So I asked him if he would sell it and he just gave it to me.

I kind of like it. It's short scale. And it feels cheap. The bridge is real garbage, like the tuners. However, it does not sound bad when soloing either pickup. Activating both I think it makes some phase cancellation because it sounds thin. The neck pickup reminds me to some Gibson designs (dark and bassy, but pleasant) and the bridge pickup sounds more like a P-bass. I like the bass and I want to make some upgrades and a nice setup.

 

Anyway, here is a pic

[Bassassin]

Yep - exactly the same as my first-ever bass, which I bought brand new in 1978. Mine was branded Grant, which was the name of the retailer which imported & distributed them.

 

Not mine but this is identical:

 

 

Mine was really a piece of junk & not an ideal bass for a beginner - I got a better instrument a year or so later & the Grant became a project/beater. Likely a lot of its problems were setup - shops would sell these without any kind of setup & adjustment, and the likes of teenage me had no idea how to make it better.

 

Anyway - old Japanese basses are something of an interest of mine & I do know a bit about these. Made in the mid 70s by Chushin Gakki, which was a very large-scale manufacturer, and sold worldwide under hundreds of different brand names.  Body is ply & pickups are single-coil copies of Hofner 'Staple' humbuckers.

 

Old Japanese stuff like this is becoming pretty collectable and yours looks like it might be in pretty decent condition for a 45+ year old bass. They do have some value these days so I'd avoid making any irreversible modifications to it if you think you're likely to sell it later.

[javi_bassist]

I probably won't sell it, but who knows. It feels cheap. Tuners and electronics are awfull. The bridge is a piece of junk. But I have to admit: it sounds good IMO. Sounds good if you select one pickup at a time. Both at the same time sounds weak. 

 

I didn't expect it to have more than 40 years... Wow. That makes it my oldest bass hahaha. Rhanks for the info!