Which Japcrap p-bass?

[sgt-pluck]

Hello there, new to this forum, relatively new to bass.

I've been enjoying following the 'JapCrap on ebay' thread on this forum, and have a question.

I love old basses, particularly the P/J variety ( can't afford the originals ). A couple of years back I decided to 'upgrade' from playing g**tar to bass, and so I took a punt on a knackered-looking thing on ebay that claimed to be a 70's Tokai Jazz Sound. It was pretty rough but I restored back to really good playing order, and it turned out actually to be a genuine Jazz Sound, although I date it to about 84 rather than 70's. As a bonus, it came with a Badass II bridge, and it has Dimarzio pups which both myself and my guitar-restoring father ( albeit acoustics ) believe to be factory fitted. I read somewhere that Tokai had a deal with Dimarzio for a short period of time during the 80's, anyone know anything more about this? Anyway, the bass is wonderful, I love it, sounds fantastic, everyone who hears it comments - it's just oozing with, I dunno, character. Oozing with cool! Still need to do a final tweak on the neck but it's basically there.

Anyway, I blather. My question is, I'm looking to 'compliment' my Tokai with a 'vintage' P-Bass copy, partly because I want to try a thicker neck, and also because most of my favourite bassists used P's and I like the sound. Original Tokai's (Hardpuncher in this case) are getting harder to find now and the s/h values seem to have shot up even since I bought mine just 2 years ago. So which makes/models would you recommend I keep an eye on that will get me close to the quality of the Tokai's, without costing the same, but having that same 'thing' about them?

Cheers.

Edited December 13, 2007 by sgt-pluck

[paul h]

I am sure Bassassin will be along shortly with his encyclopedic knowledge of all things jap and Crap!

In the meantime get some pics up of the Jazz Sound. We can be a shallow bunch and need visual stimuli!

paul.

Edited December 13, 2007 by paul h

[sgt-pluck]

[quote name='paul h' post='103811' date='Dec 13 2007, 12:32 PM']I am sure Bassassin will be along shortly with his encyclopedic knowledge of all things jap and Crap!

In the meantime get some pics up of the Jazz Sound. We can be a shallow bunch and need visual stimuli!

paul.[/quote]

I don't need asking twice, I'll take some tonight

Edit, actually I found some shots as it was before I restored it. I'll do an 'after' shot tonight.

Edited December 13, 2007 by sgt-pluck

[Bassassin]

[quote name='paul h' post='103811' date='Dec 13 2007, 12:32 PM']I am sure Bassassin will be along shortly with his encyclopedic knowledge of all things jap and Crap!

paul.[/quote]

- Predictable, ain't it?

I have to admit to not knowing a huge amount about Tokais - however, go over to [url="http://www.tokaiforum.com/"]http://www.tokaiforum.com/[/url] and you'll likely find the answers you want about your Jazz Sound. The Tokai Registry site (which the forum is attached to) has a good archive of vintage catalogues so you might be able to identify your bass from there.

As far as good Japanese P copies - well I can definitely recommend an Ibanez 2366b, cos I've got one & it's lovely - satisfies most of my P-related GAS. The problem is, I've never seen another one for sale since I got mine (from a member of the old BassWorld board), and being an Ibanez, they're likely to be pricey.

However - Japcrap P copies are pretty common, and ordinarily don't tend to go for much - they seldom get into 3 figures, and quite often seem to go for around the £50 - £60 mark. This means you can take your pick, and if it's not what you want you'll get your money back easily enough, & try another.

The low prices aren't necessarily a reflection of quality, either - what's interesting about the 70s Jap stuff in the UK is that much of it carries importers' brands, rather than the "known" names like Ibanez & Aria. The basses branded as Columbus, Avon, Satellite etc were often as not from the same factories as the "big" names. Obviously there's a fair amount of dross, but many of these old basses have survived 30-odd years simply because they are good instruments.

Jon.

[sgt-pluck]

Thanks for the info Jon. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled then for some of those brands you mention. I really like the idea of breathing life back into older instruments, especially if they were decent enough to begin with . Pity I can't afford the kind of money some vintage Fenders are fetching - I'm sure they can't be [i]that [/i]much better ( minus general kudos ) than some of the better replicas. Anyway - I'll let you know how I get on.

Here's a few shots of my pride and joy as it is now.

Work I did was:

Take furious bow out of the neck.
Considered refinishing the paintwork, but I like the 'used' look and it's not so bad so left as it I found it.
Clean electrics and replaced the tone cap.
Replaced rusted screws and the rusted pole-pieces with some new ones which Dimarzio USA kindly found and supplied completely FOC, even covered the postage!
Stripped, cleaned, greased and reassembled tuners.
Bought a really nice 4 ply celluloid tortshell scratchplate ( bit unneccessary really, it certainly wasn't the cheapest option ). It came without a scratchplate so I'm not sure if the original would have been tort, but I've seen pics of this bass with a tort guard on so that's good enough for me.
Shimmed the neck to allow for the BadAss II it came fitted with, which hadn't been set up properly.
Thats basically it! General clean-up, new strings, set up action height, intonation etc and away you go - good for another 20 years worth of abuse!







Cheers, Neil

Edited December 14, 2007 by sgt-pluck

[mr pablo]

Thats done nothing for my J bass gass except inflate it to near bursting point

very nice bass dude.