Vintage Japanese Tele bass

[NickS]

An old friend asked me to take a look at her late husband's bass that she found was still in the attic. She'd "thrown away the wires and the pedal" because she thought the guitar had gone.

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[MattK]

Love it - amazing condition. Aria were putting out these kinds of shortscale Tele basses in the mid-late 60s, I've always fancied one. I think maybe there were some branded Lyle/Pan as well?
http://www.rexbass.com/2010/09/aria-tel ... -bass.html
Apparently they were available thru Sears and Roebuck: http://www.talkbass.com/threads/old-ja ... e.1379142/

[NickS]

Thanks for that, Matt, title edited accordingly. I'll get the controls off to look at the date codes on the pots later. Though the chrome is immaculate, the sticker on the back covers some paint damage and there are a couple of paint cracks around the pocket. Action and intonation are both poor at the moment and I haven't checked to see of the neck has twisted at all.

[NickS]

Well, the pots aren't going to help as they've been replaced (incompetently) at some time.

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In fact, one of the earth wires fell off the pot when I touched it.

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Another dead giveaway is that the pots have splined spindles and the knobs have screws, always a recipe for disaster.

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I haven't measured the pickup DC resistance or opened the can yet. The third wire must be to earth the case.

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The output cable seems to have been knotted and attached to a stiff piece of wire. Not sure whether that is the bridge earthing wire or what.

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The neck pocket gives a good view of the laminated (i.e. plywood) construction. It's very tight on the neck. The neck itself appears to have suffered a bit from someone not getting a screw in the right place. There was a very thin shim in the neck pocket that in no way was going to help correct the terrible action. The truss rod adjuster seems to be seized; I've given it the smallest squirt of WD40 in the hope that it can be persuaded to move at some point. It seems to be a 5mm hex socket.

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The screws are a mixture of fine and fine-on-the-surface-but-rusted-into-the-wood. The neck screws worry me most - removing those resulted in a significant amount of dust. I'm hoping there's still enough left in the holes for them to hold securely. Matchsticks (or hardwood skewers) may be required.

[MattK]

Yeah a few toothpicks and wood glue will stabilise the neck screws - be cautious, mahogany isn't as bulletproof as maple! If the screws are significantly rusted they can easily snap, might be worth seeing what you can get as a replacement.
If you gut and rewire the electrics you'll most likely end up with a good looking, anemic sounding shortscale bass. I like the kind of woody sound that those underpowered pickups give, it made the 70s "Esquire" EB-3 copy I found sound like an acoustic double bass.
Have patience with the truss as well - if the nut is iffy, assuming you can get it undone, it can help to physically hold the neck the way you want it and then snug up the nut rather than using it to apply force. If all else fails there are tools designed to get a purchase on hex sockets which are stripped out.

[NickS]

I asked for some wiring advice on Basschat and someone suggested that Aria might not be correct,but it does look very like the one on the Rexbass.com page. The pictures there aren't good enough to make out whether the logo is a plastic moulding tacked on or a decal.
This is another Aria T-bass:
http://reverb.com/uk/item/86643289-ari ... -pre-owned
They also set me looking at old catalogues:
http://vintagejapanguitars.com/
and Aria seem to have a similar T-bass in their 1971 catalogue, but with a plain black decal logo.

[NickS]

My latest speculation is that it could be Ibanez. There's a patch of darker wood on the headstock between the two pin holes that could be about right for a logo like this one on eBay:

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[Bacchus]

Loving this thread. I had downloaded a stack of early mats and aria catalogues at one point, and this reminded me of the sort of thing you saw in the earlier ones, before they started designing their own guitars.

I love the weird itch of trying to work out exactly what it is you have and from when.

[MattK]

You may well be right - there is a mutt bass in this thread: http://www.talkbass.com/threads/vintag ... e.1448362/ which has a transfer logo (so a year or two later) but the shape, truss rod cover and the sole original tuner (G) match the ones on yours.

EDIT: BINGO! It's an Ibanez 2352 late 60s / early 70s.
http://reverb.com/ca/item/81546060-iba ... 70s-blonde
http://www.gbase.com/gear/ibanez-solid ... 1969-white

[NickS]

Yes, I have seen those and both of them have the strap button on the inside of the top horn (as does the Aria in their 1971 catalogue). Comparing them shows that sometimes Ibanez-branded models used the bevelled string tree and sometimes the stepped one.

[NickS]

Looks like it's a Columbus; I think the pins in the badge on this one probably match up.
http://flatericbassandguitar.blogspot. ... s.html?m=1

[MattK]

Nice - I mean they are literally identical instruments off the same production line, just rebadged for whichever importer placed the order.

[NickS]

Well, it's passed to a new owner, Miles, who I would guess is in his 20s and currently owns a Mustang bass. It's been interesting to work on it but I felt obliged to sell it for a fair market price on behalf of our friend; she told us to go out for a meal on the proceeds, which we won't, so I think it will be quite a pleasant surprise. These may not have been the highest quality but they're not two a penny and don't come up for sale that often.

[Ankhanu]

Glad it'll get some use. Neat as hell bass!