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Showing results for tags 'japan'.
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Now that's a hell of a title. I think that's it's fairly well-known that I've somewhat of a fascination with Japanese instruments made from 1976-1986 in the Matsumoku factory under the Aria Pro II banner. For the last ten years or so I've been making replacement preamp modules for their classic SB-1000 basses, and doing a few complete restorations for clients. The SB-1000 was an active single-pickup four-string bass made in two versions '76-'80 and '80-'86. It was made beyond this time in various forms, and is still made by the current incarnation of Aria Pro II, however the classic period for this bass was when they were made at Matsumoku. The 80s version introduced a slight geometry change, new headstock shape, finishes, switchable passive mode but fundamentally it was the same instrument. 70s SB-1000 (thumb rest not original) 80s SB-1000 During the 80s, APII also made a dual pickup flagship version of the SB-1000 called the SB-R150 with better appointments and flashier wood laminations. Something I'd imagined a while back was to take the basis of the SB-1000, add in appointments from the SB-R150 and move it up into 5-string territory. In recent years, Aria Pro II have also made a 5-string SB-1000 however I have zero hands-on experience of those. -
I have a Tempo Guitar 4 bolt neck Japanese early 60s https://imgur.com/a/9wYxH Isn't it pretty? The jack is shot, feels weird when you put in the 1/4 inch and all you get is amp buzz, and the neck is warped a bit. Original case. Feel drawn to this little one and have some vacation time to restore it and make it sing again. What neck should I buy if it can't be trussed back into position? I took the truss cap off and it does have a truss rod. But I've never adjusted one so I'm nervous. I'd love some general advice as to how you would approach this. Thanks!
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I recently purchased an Ibanez prestige S1220 body and there seems to be a crack on the surface that runs through into the body cavity. It seems stable enough for now although I worry for the future, I fear it may enlarge or even cave in the whole pot. (see picture) Any advice on reinforcing the area around the pot, possibly from inside the cavity? I was just going to cover the whole mess with a decal until I realized that it cracked through, I'm sure it happened because of the thin profile of a saber or someone over tightened the pot or both... Thanks for the help
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Hi all from Yokohama, Japan! I play (bad) bass for my church band, and enjoy my MusicMan Stingray a lot. It's got the piezo pickup, and can make a nice blend, but ... it's heavy! At just a tad over 11 pounds, my aged back has been asking for a bit of relief, so decided to try my hand a building a bass ... or two. A while back, I found this slab of wood on Yahoo!Auction, our equivalent of eBay. It was supposed to be a table top, but warped a bit, and the big knot in the center was not terribly attractive ... I was the only bid at about $30 including shipping. I had no idea what to do with it. Btw, it's called Chinaberry, or "sendan" in Japan, Melia azedarach, and the berries are mildly poisonous ... and gets birds high as a kite. And I had a Hohner B2B (Steinberger licensed headless "broomstick" bass) that is light, but the strap button location and full scale = neck dive galore. I also have a 5-string Steinberger Spirit bass with a horned body that is great, but never use the low B, so took some design cues from that and thought to re-purpose the Hohner neck and bridge ... and found that I could have TWO bodies from that slab ... why not? I am working on the headless one now, and will post some pics of my progress. The second one will be a short scale (30") with a Japanese Mountain Cherry neck ... still kind of in the planning stage Warning! I am a carpenter, not a luthier, or even a luthier wannabe. My idea of tools is a hammer with a pounding end and a "fixing" end, a circular saw, and a chalkline. I love working with wood, and this is a new challenge for me, but really not out to make drop-dead gorgeous instruments so much as solid-but-interesting players. If it happens that they are attractive as well ... Yay! Cheers, all! cj
