Anyone know anything about Cimar basses?

[TankJon]

Hi guys. I picked this up for a tenner today, which by my estimation is a bit of a bargain. Missing a string and is a bit beaten up but my god does it play well ...sounds pretty good too.
Anyway, as far as I know Cimar was the cheap Ibanez range in the late 70's early 80's but thats all I found. It does explain why it looks like an Ibanez Blazer though. Does anyone know anything more about these bases?

Cheers,
Jon

[Happy Jack]

Paging Bassassin. Paging Bassassin.

[Pete Academy]

Basically Ibanez. Good purchasing.

[Bassassin]

[quote name='TankJon' post='835530' date='May 12 2010, 06:21 PM']Anyway, as far as I know Cimar was the cheap Ibanez range in the late 70's early 80's but thats all I found. It does explain why it looks like an Ibanez Blazer though.[/quote]
A tenner? you're worse than me.

That's about it, what you've put. Cimar started as a separate brand in the 70s, using Hoshino (Ibby brand owners) for distribution, it seems in the late 70s Hoshino took over the brand completely as a sort of budget Ibby range. Interestingly some models are identical to their Ibanez counterparts - the Cimar Stinger is the same instrument as the first Blazer design. At this point they were coming out of Fujigen Gakki, the same factory as Ibanez, but later ones, which are actually branded as "Cimar by Ibanez" appear to be quite low-end Korean stuff.

Anyway yours is one of the good 'uns and we'll let Mr Hoshino tell you about it:



Looks like all it needs is strings, a couple of chrome knobs and a hose down and it'll be sorted out.

Jon.

[TankJon]

Awesome! Thanks for the info Bassassin.

I dug out some new strings but after fitting the E string I ordered some new tuners for it as they are utterly shagged. Its missing a neck mounting screw too ...Im currently scouting ebay for some new ones. Other than that its solid as a rock ...its about the same weight as one too ...a bloody big rock at that!

[k-sad]

I used to have a mapple jazz... I tried it and offered to buy it at low cost as it sounded real cool, really vintagish tone, not too heavy... I put barts on it and it still sounded pretty cool...

Good value for the money, but not on the market ^^

[Mr Rabble]

My father had an SG imitation by Cimar
Nice woods, horrible electronics

[Munurmunuh]

No apologies for bumping this rather than starting afresh 😋

Bass Gallery have this nice Ibanez-Blazer-reminiscent Cimar P bass for sale. The neckplate seems to say Made In Japan. The nut looks relatively narrow for a P. 

Will these Cimars have the same Dimarzio-copy pickups as in the Blazer?

 

Edited June 20, 2021 by Ricky Rioli

[Bassassin]

4 hours ago, Ricky Rioli said:

No apologies for bumping this rather than starting afresh 😋

Bass Gallery have this nice Ibanez-Blazer-reminiscent Cimar P bass for sale. The neckplate seems to say Made In Japan. The nut looks relatively narrow for a P. 

Will these Cimars have the same Dimarzio-copy pickups as in the Blazer?

 

That's nice, but I'd think for £350 you could probably pick up an actual Blazer. The stock pickup's not the same as the Ibanez 'Super P4' unit, & if you look close you can see it doesn't have the hex poles an Ibby unit would have. This does look very clean (oddly, apart from the headstock face) & everything original, apart from the bridge & possibly the knobs.

Neckplate strongly suggests it's a June 1984 Fujigen build, and having done a bit of digging (so the Gallery didn't have to!) I've found this 1983 brochure, confirming it's a model 2210, the original bridge was a BBOT type with brass saddles & the specs tell us it has a 'laminated mahogany' (ie plywood) body.

http://www.hoshinogakki.co.jp/pdf/ibanez/catalog/1983Cimar_Leaflet.pdf