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Flying Samurai


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For years I’d go pokin ‘ round the interweb looking for a Flying Samurai , oh you could usually find them for sale in Tokyo , but I didn’t want to brave that. I’d see the occasional one in the US , sometimes one might surface in the UK or Australia. But I was reluctant do deal with international shipping , duties and taxes. And one day I noticed one pop up in Toronto , and I had some cash available in the musical emergency sock … and I got it. 
It’s much like a Jazz , on steroids. Not too heavy , sits nice on a strap, real good player. This is the long scale reissue , and although I generally play short scales now I make an exception for this darling. 
We have a little instrumental project coming up , I’ve decided this will be the one . My backup will be another classic Japanese surf bass , my UniVox HiFlier. I’m going retro cool. 
Been putting some time in on this , and I like it.

1FC4C82C-8BFA-488C-9C61-3C419BEFAEF3.jpeg

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18 minutes ago, Agent 00Soul said:

They never stop being cool!

 

I'm a big fan of Group Sounds, and the original versions of these were big parts of that scene.  They were also the instruments of choice on the first two albums of one of my favorite bands Go!Go!7188.

 

 

Nothing quite like a nice girl with a Samurai and an SVT! 

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Had mine maybe 15 years now, bought it off a guy on here who went through an odd phase of collecting them - he had every colour of SBV500 (the common J/J version) as well as the SBV550 P/J and some other variations, including a couple of the original 60s SB5s or 7s. Mine was a duplicate! Reversibly modded with a hi-mass bridge I had lying around & home-bodged red pearl scratchplate, because the I thought white looked a bit cheapo & nothing like vulgar enough.

 

sbvfull1200.thumb.jpg.99db9217fe1c8e11135976fcaa99c868.jpg

 

Definitely a keeper - like the OP says, sounds like a Jazz on steroids and with a 38mm nut width, plays a bit like one too. One of my 3 go-to basses for recording, not too heavy & nothing like as neck-divey as you might think. I've gigged it a few times, although paradoxically, playing prog rather than surf.

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If you are interested in getting one remember that the re-issues are all long scale while the original 60s models are short scale.

 

I used to own this:

DSC03062.jpg

 

The rarest of the all the basses in this shape made in a limited edition of 50 as the signature bass for Terry & the Blue Jeans, a well-know Japanese Surf band. There as also a T&tBJ limited edition guitar in the same shape. It is essentially a TRB5 with the SVB shape, so it doesn't have much in common with the 4-string versions. Unfortunately it didn't get used much as it was far too big the wield on most of the stages I was playing at the time, without putting the rest of the band and the audience at risk of injury. Also it was massively heavy.

 

The SVBs seem to have been popular with girl bassists in Japanese bands - Fumi from Polysics uses one and Miki Furukawa of Supercar even has her own signature model.

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3 hours ago, BigRedX said:

If you are interested in getting one remember that the re-issues are all long scale while the original 60s models are short scale.

 

I used to own this:

DSC03062.jpg

 

The rarest of the all the basses in this shape made in a limited edition of 50 as the signature bass for Terry & the Blue Jeans, a well-know Japanese Surf band. There as also a T&tBJ limited edition guitar in the same shape. It is essentially a TRB5 with the SVB shape, so it doesn't have much in common with the 4-string versions. Unfortunately it didn't get used much as it was far too big the wield on most of the stages I was playing at the time, without putting the rest of the band and the audience at risk of injury. Also it was massively heavy.

 

The SVBs seem to have been popular with girl bassists in Japanese bands - Fumi from Polysics uses one and Miki Furukawa of Supercar even has her own signature model.

 

I think it was Ako, the bassist in that video that started the trend around 2000.  She was an official endorser and they band was major label successful at the time, leading to a large female following that they had until they broke up.  I went to two of their gigs in Japan at the end of their career and the girls outnumbered the boys by quite a bit.

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14 hours ago, TheGreek said:

I like them. There's one currently available on either eBay or Gumtree - I keep looking at it - around £600 IIRC. 

 

I'm even more tempted now that I've read this thread....I HATE YOU ALL!!

 

It's times like this that I'm glad I'm a lefty, otherwise I would be GASsing too!

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They were inexpensive new. But because they’re out of production they fetch what people are prepared to pay, I will say they sound good , and are fun to play.

Found mine for a good used price. 

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An old friend was the local Yamaha rep around this region for years , so I asked him about local Samurais. He said they are some around but I’ve only heard of a couple , and those were not for sale. 
Occasionally I’d see them for a good price in the US  but those sellers were not willing to ship internationally. Sometimes you might see a US seller willing to ship , but those were usually asking inflated prices. I was reluctant to order from Tokyo. So , for the longest time , I didn’t think I’d find one. The odd one would surface in the UK one Australia , usually at a premium price.

I spent some years watching and waiting.

And then one popped up in Toronto for a good price. No taxes or duties. 

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