I just love vintage Japanese guitars. I mean, talk about thinking outside the box. There just was no box to begin with. No preconceptions about what should be, and what should not be. Case in point is this bass that I picked up for a measly $65.00.

It is labeled: Mansfield on the headstock, but had many traits of a Japanese maker. A little internet research told me that Mansfield was a label branded for Peate Music in Canada in the 1970's. I was able to contact Rick Peate who told me the bass appears in the 1975 Peate Catalog, so it was an early/mid 70's model. He believed it was made by the company that later evolved into Ibanez.

Even a quick look at he guitar lets you know that something strange is going on. It has a Tele shape body, but is a bass. A 30" scale bass to be exact.

It has two nice, bright sounding pickups, each with an on/off switch, as well as maser tone and volume controls. The bridge looks much like a Fender bridge, with a very nice chrome cover. The body has a rather lame attempt at a sunburst finish, with only a few hairline check marks.

When I got it, it was dirty as all hell, and I completely stripped it down. The fretboard took some time to clean and oil, the frets needed polishing badly, and everything else had that old sticky grunge of years of cigarette smoke and dirt. In the end, the bass polished up very nicely. Once the truss rod was properly adjusted, the bass was a good player as well., with a nice bright tone.

As neat as this bass was, it readily became apparent why Leo Fender did not simply slap a bass neck on a Telecaster body: neck dive. Yep, even with the short 30" scale neck, with no top horn the bass is unbalanced and you have to literally hold the neck up in the air as you play. This can get very tiring very quickly.

But, for $65, I really could not complain. It was neato, and ¢heapo.



Fakenbacker part II

OK, so as much as I liked the ASPEN Fakenbacker bass, I was two weeks shy of heading to London for vacation, so I sold it.

London was great. I spent time buying old 45rpm records, and even stopped into Denmark St: London's Tin Pan Alley which is still the home to a number of guitar shops. At one shop, I spied quite a lineup of Ric 330's, so I sautered over. Wait a minute! What does that truss rod cover say? "Rockinbetter"? So these were Ric copies. I tred one out, and was pretty impressed. It felt pretty good, and sounded Ric-ish, but not quite right. It needed the usual of setup of course, but was a pretty neat guitar otherwise. The clerk at the shop seemed anxious to sell me one (there were 6 afterall, plus a lefty), but I really was not too keen on schlepping a guitar on a transatlantic flight.

That night, I did some research on these Rockinbetter guitars. It seems they are produced in Indonesia by Tokai. They are copies of Rick 330's, and they produce 4001 Basses too! Due to Rickenbacker's strict persuit of their copyright, clones are not imported to the US.

A few days later, I stopped back in, and cut a deal. Now this guitar was no $200 ¢heapie, and it was brand spankin new. I ended up paying $450 US after all was said and done. The flight home was not anywhere near as bad as I thought. As soon as I boarded the plane, the flight crew directed me to place the guitar in a closet, which already had two guitar cases in it!

So after playing it a few days, knew I needed to do something about the sound. So I decided, if I wanted it to sound like a Ric, it needed real Ric parts. I ordered a set of genuine button top pickups, and a five nob wiring harness.



I drilled a fifth hole (the pickguard was drilled for a four knob setup), soldered everything together, and there she was!

After another setup, new strings, and some intonation adjustments, I have to say that I am very pleased. I am especially pleased to get the sound I have wanted for years, while spending only 1/3 of the money... So even though this was not super ¢heapo, it was comparatively ¢heapo, which does OK by me.

Fakenbacker

A funny thing happened to last Saturday... I stopped into a local "Antique" shop that sells collectibles and, well... higher priced junk. In their basement section, I spotted this:

 I scrambled over, thinking that I may have hit the deal of the century...

Unfortunately, this was not a bona-fide Ric. Despite my disappointment, I was pleased to see that is was a Matsumoku produced Ric 4001 copy with the ASPEN brand name on the headstock. There was no pricetag, so I brought it to the front desk and asked. The Lady who owns the place says to me: "I have been looking online, and Aspens go for about $150". I then proceded my song and dance about this being a cheap Japanese COPY of a gen-u-ine American Guitar. Also, it was banged up, very, very dirty, missing the bridge cover, had 4 mismatched strings, and had a home made, ill fitting ric-ish truss rod cover. Then, I went in for the kill: I had her sight down the neck at the considerable bow. I told her, only someone experienced in guitar repair could fix the neck. Then I offered $100, and she took it with no hesitation.

So, after explaining to my patient Wife why I came home with ANOTHER guitar, I plugged it in: no sound from the neck pickup. Yikes! I tramped down the basement and completely disassembeled every bit of the bass. It was really dirty, so I cleaned every inch inside and out. Then I polished then waxed the body. Only then did I set at the electronics. Both pickups ohmed out at about 5K, so I knew the pickup was OK. Whew! Careful checking showed me that the bridge pickup volume pot was bad. Out came the soldering iron, and in went a new pot. Then I assembled everything, put on a new set of steel strings, and plugged her in...

I was very relieved that the neck pickup worked. I quickly tuned up, and played a few minutes. The bass has a great trebly tone, and is a fair copy of a real Ric. All in all, it was a good day...

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Vintage on the ¢heap

So my birthday was coming up, and my Wife was bugging me: What do you want for your Birthday? I mean, NOT a Guitar....

Well, I had no idea, until I spotted this at a local mall based guitar shop: the kind that sells Samick guitars to parents who do not know any better.

Henway, they had this lil' puppy sitting there, with a a sign that read "USED: Must Go" and a bunch of missing/wrong parts (gibson speed knobs, Kramer (!) neck plate, no pickguard, missing trem parts). The guitar had been well set up. There was no neck bow, and it played and sounded pretty neato 60's cool. The price was $299, but I knew that was too much. After doing some research, I found out that this "Epiphone" is actually a Matsumoku (Aria) built guitar from 1974-5. I also got an idea of how much it would cost me to restore. So the next day I went back to the shop and dealt directly with the owner. I pointed out all of the guitar's faults, and then whipped out two $100 bills. My strategy worked, and she is now mine.

My birthday was coming up, and my Wife was bugging me: What do yu want for your Birthday? I mean, NOT a Guitar....

Well, I had no idea, until I spotted this at a local mall guitar shop: the kind that sells Samick guitars to parents who do not know any better....

Henway, they had this lil' puppy sitting there, with a a sign that read "USED: Must Go" and a bunch of missing/wrong parts (gibson speed knobs, Kramer (!) neck plate, no pickguard, missing tram parts). The guitar had been well set up, there was no neck bow, and it played and sounded pretty neato 60's cool. The price was $300, but I knew that was too much. After doing some research, I found out that this "Epiphone" is actually a Matsumoko (Aria) built guitar from 1974-5. I also got an idea of how much it would cost me to restore. So I went back to the shop, dealt directly with the owner. I pointed out all of the guitar's faults, and then whipped out two $100 bills. My strategy worked, and she is now mine.




Based on my internet research, I do not believe that this guitar is not a Japanese copy of any Gibson or Epi. The narrow bound neck, and the odd shaped pickups convinced that this is actually a copy of a Vox Aristocrat

I have some parts coming already, but am still looking for original knobs and some trem parts. The guitar does sound cool, and when I crank up the fuzz, it feels like I am in 1967...

When the world turned upside down

Back in the 1990's thing got a bit strange in the guitar world. Squier produced guitars that looked like Gibson LPs and ES-335s, and Epiphone produced guitars that looked like Strats and Teles. Seriously. What were they thinking? Recently, an Epi strat style guitar arrived in a local shop. With a Strat style body, and a "hockey stick" headstock, this guitar attracted me as something that was just not quite right. The color scheme also really got to me. Unlike the example on the pic below, the guitar I tried had a red body, and a black pickguard with cream pickup covers and knobs. It looked pretty darned cool.

As you can see, this is an odd fish. I sat down, plugged it into a Fender twin, and went at it.

The guitar was not bad. It actually played about one notch above a Squier Affinity Strat. The pickups had the distinctive ceramic magnet/ice-pick sounding "scoop" to them, and the action was pretty low. The neck had an ever so slight curve that could easily be tweaked with a 1/4 turn to the truss rod, or it could be left as is. To top it off, this neato oddity was ¢heap: $112.00

Unfortunately, I am in the "no buy" doghouse right now, so I had to pass on it. But if I could buy it, I would swap out the electronics, give it a good setup, and have a real head turner for under $200.

Cheaper by the dozen

How much have you paid for strings lately?

$6.99? $12.50?

How much for bass strings? $20? $40?

How about $1.99? Yeah... $1.99.

First Act is having a blowout sale and clearancing their strings for $1.99. Even the bass strings.
Check the below link:

http://shop.firstact.com/PublicStore/catalog/Guitar-Bass-String-BLOW-OUT,193.aspx

Now, First Act may not be your first thought when it comes to strings, but how many times have you had an instrument that just needs to be strung? Maybe you picked up a guitar at a garage sale or from CL and after a setup you are trying to flip it. You may want to grab a few sets just to have them in case of emergency.

In all honesty, that is why I started using First Act strings, but I have to say that they are OK. I have no problems using them versus more expensive brands. Of course I only buy them when they are on sale, because I am so darned ¢heap, but that's OK.

Myself, I picked up 8 sets of bass strings.... for about $25 including shipping.

Now that is ¢heapo.

Testing the Prime Directive, or Patience, Grasshopper

Yesterday I was at a local shop, and saw that they had the new Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar bass. I was have heard good things about it, so I tried it out. The bass was well put together, and was well balanced. Compared to other basses, it was rather light, but not too light. Once I plugged it in, and played it a few minutes, I was impressed with the varying tones I could achieve. It felt right too. I really WANTED this bass. It was a good deal at $299. I even had the cash in my pocket to get it right then and there. Not credit, but cold hard cash. 

So why didn't I buy it? Because it would have violated the Prime Directive of ¢heapo guitars: Never, EVER buy a new guitar. Why? Because once you buy a new guitar, it is USED. Even if it is in perfect, flawless shape. Even if you babied it and polished it every time you played it. Even if you stored it in the best conditions possible, and never even played it. A USED guitar is worth about 30% less than a new one, simply because it is used. So, why would you pay an extra 30%?

A few pegs down from the Squier Jag bass was a great case in point: a USED Classic Vibe 50's Precision bass. I took it down and tried it out. The first thing I noticed was that the bass was perfectly set up, with nice, low action and no buzz. It was "Like New" with no dings, bings, scratches or, well, anything. It looked new. When new, this bass has a list price of $549, and is available for $349 nationwide. The "Like New", well set up but USED bass I held in my hands was marked $199. This is actually 43% less than the new price. No one ever actually pays list price, but why would anyone pay $349 when you could just buy a used one and pay $199?

The answer is simply a lack of patience. In order to get the best value when buying guitars, it is important to not succumb to GAS or hype about the newest model. If you are patient, someone else will get bored with their new toy, and you will be able to snap it up for a fraction of the original cost.