Vintage MIJ (formerly J@pCr@p) Spotting

[Bassassin]

That auction went up on Sunday - I messaged the guy to inform him that it's not Japanese - Melody was a 60s/70s (and possibly later) Italian brand, and there's a P copy pictured in a Melody catalogue on the Fetishguitars site:

[url="http://www.fetishguitars.com/img/italiane/melody/catalogo/melody.pdf"]http://www.fetishguitars.com/img/italiane/...logo/melody.pdf[/url]

He didn't bother responding or amending his ad - so the truth plainly doesn't suit his sales pitch.

Not that I think he's got much chance of getting £160 for that, no matter how pretty the wood is.

J.

[Ou7shined]

Ha ha oddly enough the neck looks the most legit bit to me. You can clearly see the Melody logo burned in and I'm sure we've seen wheel adjusters on F copies on here before but I can't recall which make. Right enough about the machine heads though.

There's what looks like to me to be a planer mark on the rear of the upper horn which somehow looks out of place (would they let that go in the 70's?) and the whole body is a composite which kinda makes it look to me like one of those ash Eden bodies that's been stained and to give it it's due finished quite nicely.

Just my 2p - I'm dead amateur at this.

[b]edit :[/b] Ah tish and pish I was hoping to get in before Jon came in to sort us all out.

Edited August 26, 2008 by Ou7shined

[noirpunk]

That melody is identical to that P-Bass I picked up, albeit a darker stain
This one has the thumb rest and bridge cover mine is missing - same scratchplate holes aswell.
So my P is Italian then?

[Kev]

looks nice, shame its priced at about twice as much as what he could get for it

[noirpunk]

[quote name='BassManKev' post='270800' date='Aug 27 2008, 10:02 AM']looks nice, shame its priced at about twice as much as what he could get for it[/quote]

Aye, I quite willingly paid £60 for mine on spec - the necks solid maple so it was worth it for the parts.

[Bassassin]

[quote name='noirpunk' post='270788' date='Aug 27 2008, 09:33 AM']That melody is identical to that P-Bass I picked up, albeit a darker stain
This one has the thumb rest and bridge cover mine is missing - same scratchplate holes aswell.
So my P is Italian then?[/quote]
Based on the fact it's near identical to this 'un, I'd say yes. Obviously this means the plot thickens - more of the unbranded stuff that usually gets assumed to be Jap or Korean might in fact be Italian.

There's a possibility of course that there was an importer sticking their own Melody logo on Oriental stuff (much like there was a 70s brand called Status, nowt to do with Mr Green), but I don't think so. The pic of the bass in the Melody catalogue is crap, but you can see some details that match - dot markers stop at 17th fret, zoom in on the logo, I'd say it's the same as what's been on this one, and I think I can see a square notch in the scratchplate for the truss adjuster.

J.

[noirpunk]

There's mine for reference. as you can see it's the same but mines missing the thumb rest and bridge cover.
Same notch in the scratchplate for the truss

[Ou7shined]

See what I mean about the body? Yours is single slab while that ebay one is a laminate. I'm sure it's an Eden (or similar).... I have a Jazz one that I've been working on (off and on) for months now and that wood looks mighty familiar.

[noirpunk]

It's a 3 piece mine. You can see better with this pic

[Ou7shined]

Oh right enough :blush:
But that other one is a 5,6 maybe 7 piece. Aye?

[noirpunk]

haha aye probably.
to be fair mines put together very well. the pieces are dovetailed together

[SJA]

funny how they chose not to put a dot marker at the 19th fret.

Eko also used the wheel trussrod adjuster in the 70's.
ironically EB Musicman and Peavey use it now on much more expensive instruments.

[Bassassin]

[quote name='SJA' post='271163' date='Aug 27 2008, 04:48 PM']funny how they chose not to put a dot marker at the 19th fret.

Eko also used the wheel trussrod adjuster in the 70's.
ironically EB Musicman and Peavey use it now on much more expensive instruments.[/quote]

That's very common on early/mid 70s JapCrap, and was one of the reasons I assumed Noirpunk's P was MIJ. That wheel adjuster also appears on some early Jap guitars, but more usually Kawai/Teisco 60s type originals. It's pretty common on Koreans - lots of Hondos have it.

J.

[Bassassin]

We might have to change the title of the thread to TallyCrap Spotting:

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=260280891144"]Another Melody P copy[/url]

Is the light attracting them or what?

J.

[kevbass]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='272931' date='Aug 29 2008, 11:20 PM']We might have to change the title of the thread to TallyCrap Spotting:

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=260280891144"]Another Melody P copy[/url]

Is the light attracting them or what?

J.[/quote]

That ones even more expensive! And looks to be even cleaner than the other one. So perhaps the other guys one is fairly original, or perhaps they've both had the hardware changed over the years. I think I prefer the dark stained one.

Edited August 30, 2008 by kevbass

[noirpunk]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='272931' date='Aug 30 2008, 12:20 AM']We might have to change the title of the thread to TallyCrap Spotting:

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=260280891144"]Another Melody P copy[/url]

Is the light attracting them or what?

J.[/quote]

That ones exactly like mine - minus the thumb rest and bridge cover of course.
Looks like I got mine on the cheap! Won't cost much to add the missing parts with aftermarket ones if I really wanted to either.

[Happy Jack]

In all fairness, this last one includes a hard case and it even has the pickup cover still in place.

Assuming there's an Italian cult of collecting copies of American instruments (not that WE'D ever do such a thing, of course ) then this bass should be going into someone's collection.

[sgt-pluck]

Anyone here nab this little [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110286764522&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123"]beauty[/url]? Someone BINed it in nanoseconds!

Pluck

[Bassassin]

Didn't see it but £185 isn't a fantastic bargain for one o' those IMO. Reasonable price but pretty much the ballpark.

J.

[beerdragon]

I dont know if this qualifies as Jap crap as the as its from a japanese seller. He says its an invention by a legend

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Greco-PB750-1970-s-Tetsu-Yamauchi-model-ex-Faces-Free_W0QQitemZ290258960910QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item290258960910&_trkparms=72%3A12|39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A12|240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Greco-PB750-1970-s-T...id=p3286.c0.m14[/url]

[Bassassin]

From what I've read, the actual bass touted as having been designed by Tetsu Yamauchi is actually the somewhat more stylish Ibanez 2369B (the one on the left ):



There are a couple of people on here who own, or have owned Ibby 2369s.

Although that Greco's rather nice too, and at the time this was in the range (mid 70s) Greco was built by both Fujigen & Matsumoku - both of whom produced versions of this bass, seemingly identical down to the odd pickup. This one's the Matsumoku version.

J.

[Happy Jack]

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ibanez-Jazz-Bass-Customized-with-Hard-Case_W0QQitemZ140265618054QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item140265618054&_trkparms=39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A1%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ibanez-Jazz-Bass-Cus...id=p3286.c0.m14[/url]

Real?

[Bassassin]

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='286896' date='Sep 18 2008, 10:36 PM'][url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ibanez-Jazz-Bass-Customized-with-Hard-Case_W0QQitemZ140265618054QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item140265618054&_trkparms=39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A1%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ibanez-Jazz-Bass-Cus...id=p3286.c0.m14[/url]

Real?[/quote]

A BCer who lives locally to the seller & was considering going for a butchers asked me my opinion of this a couple of days back. I doubt he'd mind if I copy & paste my response:

[quote]You could start by asking exactly how he's identifying it as an Ibanez. The only thing that makes an Ibanez an Ibanez is if it says so on the headstock, now I've looked really hard at this and all I can see is a couple of naff stickers.

Ibanez Jazz copies came from Fujigen Gakki - this one I'm 99.99999% sure didn't: it would have a 3-piece neck construction, it wouldn't have those tuners, and it would have originally had a small white plastic truss rod cover - which would have had much closer screwhole spacing than this is showing.

He's not showing the neckplate clearly enough to tell - but it should have MIJ on the lower half, with a serial above it if it's 1975 or later. This one looks plain, but I can't really tell. The pup rout & scratchplate indicate that it originally had the round-end pups we see on lots of Jap & Korean Jazzes - I've never seen these on an Ibanez/Fujigen.

Finally, if you do go & have a look - check to find out if it's ply - I'd bet it is, and that would suggest it's originally been a Columbus, or worse still, a Satellite (Korean trash) and he's just playing the usual Ebayer "if it's old & (maybe) Japanese - it's an Ibanez" trick.

Dunno how much an unmatched pair of pups & a new bent-tin bridge cost him, but more than £120 - £150 for this would be crazy. If it was an Ibanez, and all original, and in top condition - then it might just go to £300 (unlikely in these recession-hit times) but that would still be high.[/quote]

J.

Edited September 18, 2008 by Bassassin

[Happy Jack]

Cheers Jon.

[Musky]

A couple of Mats
[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vox-White-Shadow-bass-guitar_W0QQitemZ290261173122QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item290261173122&_trkparms=72%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vox-White-Shadow-bas...id=p3286.c0.m14[/url]
Currently at £30, but it's got a reserve.
[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WESTONE-SPECTRUM-ST-BASS-GUITAR_W0QQitemZ270275633487QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item270275633487&_trkparms=72%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WESTONE-SPECTRUM-ST-...id=p3286.c0.m14[/url]
£140, which I reckon is top wack for a Spectrum, but it's in pretty good nick

And a bit of an oddity, which I'm not entirely convinced is either 70's or Japanese.
[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Early-70s-Jap-Bass-by-Granada_W0QQitemZ120306300619QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120306300619"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Early-70s-Jap-Bass-b...tem120306300619[/url]