Asama (The)

[GuitarDir]

Hi all,

I recently acquired this neck-thru sb beauty, plays like a dream and really well made. Pics below:



Specs are not the problem here. The thing is that so far I was unable to find any infos on this brand (The Asama). And no catalogs here, apparently.

I know they produced during the 80s some Gibson/Fender replica, and also made guitars featuring built-in effects. It seems Asama (is it the same?) remains a current med-quality drums maker (or, at least, brand).

Would someone know more about this brand and the guitars they produced?

[VintAxe]

Hi GuitarDir.

Asama is listed in the Guru's Guitar Guide by Bacon & Day but there isn't much information provided.

They say the guitars were built in Japan in the early 1980's and were good quality copies of American designs.

I think we already knew all that didn't we? I'll let you know if I find anything else. sb

[Bassassin]

The name is ringing a bell, but I can't place it at the moment.

However, I've seen 2 basses with identical construction & body shape to this guitar, and conveniently, they're both pictured & discussed in this thread on the Mat forum:

http://www.matsumoku.org/ggboard/viewtopic.php?t=3525

Unfortunately the original poster never came back to disclose what name he found under the brown paint on the 8-string.

I'll see what I can dig up about the Asama brand.

Jon.

[GuitarDir]

Hi, and thanks for your replies!

Does Tombo Co., a Japanese company, ring a bell to someone? I found a [unique and weak] source mentionning them as the manufacturer of Asama guitars.
Nowadays, Tombo Co. is apparently producing harmonicas.

[jedistar]

Tombo made Norma

[Sir Punk]

I am on the hunt for info about Asama as well. I found very little and it seems that here in the States nobody knows anything about them.

Since I am in the process of buying a MIJ LP and my uncle has one I wanna find out more about it.

Unfortunately my uncle is in Italy and I am the US and I'll be going home only in December. His guitar has 2/3 effects and from what I can remember it is similar to the description in this page http://www.geocities.com/stompbox2001/asama.htm

Now I am gonna email that guy, if he's still around and I told my uncle to check his guitar to see where it's made. He doesn't know much about guitars so I can't really ask him for an opinion, too bad. But at least he can tell me about fret wear and where it's made.

[theehman]

[lordbizarre]

Yo!
just got a The Asama today ,very simular as on http://www.guitardir.com/specs.php?Node ... &Context=3 ,but with a bolt-on neck .Nothing to be found on the pot's (only the value and a "D"prefix : so D250k) and the toggle switch is Japanese , a closed "Anuxdo"(or something like that )
So...again nothing much to be said about the Asama...but since the Asama is a mountain in Japan I presume a Korean brand wouldn't use a Japanese name ?

[VintAxe]

[Bassassin]

I pointed this out to Kees on a different forum:

http://www.fernandes.co.jp/others/catal ... 01/27.html

There's clearly an Asama/Fernandes connection going on - does anyone know definitively who was building Fernandes at that point?

Can you post some pics of yours, Ivan? I've never seen a bolt -neck version.

Jon.

[VintAxe]

Hey Ivan,

I presume you will take a few pictures of the guitar for the Museum. If you send copies to steve@vintaxe.com I'll host pictures of the Asama for this thread.

thanks, sb

[joy]

Hi! I just joined the forum in order to resurrect this thread. (I've posted an intro over at the Introductions board.)

I have the neck-thru Asama bass and am going to try to link to some photos. Please bear with me, as I haven't done this before. Please let me know if this works:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/103337517565 ... evkYqV-gE#

Although I'm a beginning bassist, I've had this bass for 30 years. My dad bought it for me when I was 19, but I can't ask him about it because he's died. I thought sharing my photos here might help us discover a little more about what seems to be an obscure vintage bass of Japanese manufacture.

Eager to hear what anyone might have to say!

Joy

[jedistar]

I came across this also
http://www.musictoyz.com/articles/tripasma.php

[Stratcat_70]

I've been looking for info about my Asama bass, and found this thread.. Just thought I would add that I have an Asama P-Bass clone, with a bolt-on neck.

What seems interesting is that the body appears to be made out of Oak (or another open-grained wood). It has a burgundy satin finish, with a maple fretboard. I put Seymour Duncan quarter pounders in it, but still have the original pickups.
It still plays pretty good!

[lordbizarre]

Yep , sorry Steve for the delay , but I've moved out from Leuven and now I've some time to revieuw all messages and so...
So here's my pic's from my The Asama bolt-on. Nothing special to mention . I presume it's a MIJ since the "AnuXdo"togle switch and the typical Japanese trussrod cover , the tuners are Grover copied ( with the spherical covers)...that's all for now , hélas !

Since ,on the sticker , the name of Bobby Sands is mentioned it could be from around 1981 ...????...
b.t.w....if someone has some spare parts , as the tuner knobs ,laying around : I'm interested !