D'Agostino Bass

[cwhitten]

Can some one please help me? I have been all over the Internet trying to find out any thing I can about a guitar I just bought. It appears to have D'Agostino on the head, but I do not see anything on the internet about a D'Agostino Bass. I am getting very frustrated and would just like to know what I've got. Thanks so much for trying to help.

[VintAxe]

Hi cwhitten,

D'Agostino was an import company established by Pat D'Agostino. From 1977-1982, the guitars were built in Italy by EKO. From 1982-1984 the guitars were built in Japan and from 1984 to the early 1990's they were built in Korea. I can not tell what year your bass was made from the photos, but I can tell you it appears to have the same pickups as my 1978 B.C. Rich Eagle. So, at the moment, my money is on EKO. Looks like a nice instrument. sb

[cwhitten]

VintAxe,

Thanks!! I have posted to several forums and you have given me the most helpful answer by far...but I am more confused than ever. To me, the headstock looks "Pensaesque" (new word ) and the headstock has the logotype for "D'Agostino" on it. I may be completely off base, but wouldn't it be unusual for an importing company to brand a guitar? Seems like the Eko brand should be on it...or something else.

Also, did you notice the hole at the base of the neck (I assume it is for adjusting) does this offer any more clues? I don't know...but it has now become an obsession to know. LOL

[cheepaxes]

[quote="cwhitten"]VintAxe,

... I may be completely off base, but wouldn't it be unusual for an importing company to brand a guitar? Seems like the Eko brand should be on it...or something else. [/quote]

Actually there' a long history of import companies, music stores, etc., buying instruments and arranging to have their name put on them. Japanese, Korean and Italian companies have made guitars that have been rebranded for sale in the US and Europe. Fender (Squier) and Gibson (Epiphone) import Korean (Samick) guitars. This isn't that different than Kay and Harmony making guitars and selling them not just as Kay and Harmony, but as Silvertone, Airline, Holiday, Old Kraftsman, etc.

When you start reading the histories of the guitar companies of the world, and see all the affiliations between various companies and the rebranding that has taken place over the years, the idea of a company making instruments made entrirely by them, and sold only with their name on them, turns out to be the unusual one.

-Scott

[cwhitten]

Great information, thanks a lot Scott!

So any ideas what this guitar may be worth, or how I can better date it?

Is it just a piece of junk? I purchased it for aesthetics alone. Isn't that stupid? I just really have a thing for the lines on it.

[crowtown]

Thats a really nice bass!! I bet if you watch out for bids on ebay, you could probably get a better idea of what they are worth.

Better yet, take it to an apraiser. Particularly one that deals with music instruments.

I also wanted to say that I never really knew they rebranded guitars like that. That is helpfull to me also , as I am researching an old Japanese guitar.

[VintAxe]

Hey cwhitten,

I haven't had any direct experience with D'Agnostino's but I can tell you what the 2007 VG Price Guide says. They lump all Solidbody D'Agnostino's from 1977 to the 1990's into one category and value them between $225-$300. This indicates to me that they do not know much about these instruments either.

Frankly, I think your Bass is worth more than this. From what I can tell in the photos it has a decent finish, good quality pickups and what appears to be a knock-off Bad Ass bridge. Like you, I like the Burns-style curve on the horns and the maple neck. Unless the neck plays crummy or it has other issues, I wouldn't sell it for $300. Just my opinion. sb

[Bassassin]

That's a nice looking bass.

It's Oriental, my guess would be early 80s Korean, but might be late 70s Japanese - although my gut feeling says not. I'd like to see closer pictures of the bridge - is it brass/does it have brass saddles? Is anything stamped on the neckplate?

The headstock is very similar to early 80s Hondo Precision & Jazz copies (which I think were built by Samick in Korea), although these usually have full-size tuners. The tuners featured here can be found on millions of Japanese basses of all brands, from the early 70s onwards, and also appear on Korean-made basses too. Can't be sure but I doubt the control knobs are original.

The styling definitely says around 1980 to me - the mahogany (or stained to resemble it) body, maple board & cream pup, chunky bridge & non-Fender headstock. This was the era when the leading Japanese brands were moving towards original designs, but still very based on their copies - and like Ibanez's Blazer bass of that era, this is basically a re-styled Precision.

I've seen a few late-ish D'Agostino guitars, and these were rebranded Corts, from the early 80s. Construction was neck-through, with that Alembic/Matsumoku stripy styling popular in the early 80s (before everything went pointy!) and brass hardware, including large brass truss covers & 3-dot fretboard inlays. These were also sold as Targa, and lots of unbranded ones were sold in the UK.

Anyway, like most Oriental instruments of its era, this bass resides in a pretty much fact-free zone! I've typed my observations about the bass before reading the other posts on the thread - and it's interesting to see how different assessments can be. I wouldn't have considered it to be anything other than Oriental, for example, because of the hardware, and the styling dates it at early 80s, or even late 70s - which is completely inconsistent with Vintaxe's info about D'Agostino's production sources.

I'll just echo what Cheepaxes says about rebranding. My field of interest is mostly 70s Japanese - the copy era specifically - and it's fascinating to see how many different brands all seemed to come from 3 or 4 factories. Even the best-known names, like Ibanez or Aria, did not have their own production facilities, they simply contracted factories to build to their specifications. In the UK, Ibanez sold alongside a cheaper brand called Antoria - many of which were exactly the same instruments, even down to the model numbers.

Anyway CWhitten - not a piece of junk in my opinion, I think it looks great (I'm a sucker for the maple board/mahogany body look!) and if it plays well & sounds good - then that's your answer. As far as value's concerned - these things are really only worth what someone will pay. Me - I like cheap & unusual basses & guitars, which is why I have a ridiculously large & ever-growing collecton of JapCrap firewood (irony!) which has cost me less than many people will happily pay for just one bass.

There's a moral there somewhere, but I'm not quite sure what it is.


Jon.

[VintAxe]

You are probably right on this D'Agnostino bass Jon. My attribution was based on pretty shaky evidence.

I was taken in by the pickups, which look similar to my late 70's B.C. Rich and were also used on early 80's EKOs. Here is a picture of an EKO BX7 bass from an 82-83 EKO catalog.



However, other than the pups these two instruments don't have much in common. Thanks for your input. sb

[cwhitten]

All,

I never got any emails that there were responses posted and so I didn't know you all were helping me still. This is great! OK, I finally received the bass and have it in my hands and I am excited to give you all more information as you were making judgements with only what I knew at the time. The guitar is gorgeous!! The pictures did it no justice. The neck back plate looks new, but it is stamped made in Japan. The headstock is unmarked except for the D'Agostino of New York. It plays INCREDIBLY. I love it. I want to show you closer pics so you all can see more about what you were guessing. I suppose it may in fact be an early 80's Japanese made guitar. As you can clearly see now, the bridge is heavy brass. I thought it looked more Italian too, or maybe I was just hoping. Here is a photo and so I don't choke up the forum, more are located in my gallery, link below. Hope we can settle on what it may date. I'm thinking it has to have been refinished to look this good...the neck adjustment is at the bottom of the neck and uncovered...it's missing a pick guard right?

[Bassassin]

Well I'm glad you like the bass & even more glad you posted the pics - this is fascinating. Interesting to see I was right about some things but way off the mark about others.

First of all, I don't think it's ever had a pickguard (unless there are screwholes not visible in your pics) and I doubt very much it's been refinished - it's likely just sat under someone's bed for 20 years!

For me, the neckplate is the biggest clue to its origins - I've only seen that style of plate (with "Made In Japan" stamped on the lower half of the plate) on instruments from two factories, which are Fuji Gen Gakki - best known for building Ibanez and MIJ Fenders, and Chushin Gakki, a less-well known builder which has nonetheless produced some high-quality guitars under the Jackson, Robin & Azumi brands.

As usual with obscure & undocumented Japanese instruments, the more info we have, the more confusing it seems to become! I'm inclined to think it's not Fuji Gen, because none of the hardware (apart from the neckplate) or design is consistent with their early 80s output - you'd expect some common components to pop up. Fuji Gen didn't use those tuners much, either, particularly post 1975.

So - I'm going to hazard a wild & unsubstantated opinion that it was built by Chushin Gakki, probably between 1980 & 1984 - and that those aren't the original control knobs!

If you feel particularly inquisitive, you could try unscrewing the control cavity panel to see if there's anything tell-tale there, maybe on the pots, & have a look at the pickup - sometimes a factory can be identified by the pickup brand. Also possible there's some identifying mark (or something interesting, anyway!) on or under the bridge base.

If it was me, I think I'd just play it a lot, though - that's a lovely bass.


J.

[cwhitten]

Jon,

I knew you would appreciate the further pics to see the Japanese origin. I would just like to see one other guitar like it on the Internet so I could compare, but I have found nothing similar. One of my specialties is search engine optimization and so I am very familiar with doing Internet searches and understanding how to group keywords to get information I need from the indexes...but finding about the D'Agostino company is all but non-existant, and nothing surrounding this guitar I search pulls up anything like it. If it is a Japanese P-bass knock-off, then it wouldn't seem to me to be so difficult to find another. Weren't Japanese made guitars a dime a dozen in the 80s? Is this particular guitar rare, or did people just not talk about it because it was unremarkable. If anyone here finds a pic of any guitar that is similar to this one with the D'Agostino label, please share it with me. This is interesting to me. As I have searched, I have seen some plain to ugly designs in guitars. I would have thought that this one's design would be out there somewhere.

Oh, Jon I did open the control cavity panel when it first arrived. The pots are completely unremarkable to me, but I have photographed them as well as the adjustment hole at the neck. (in the gallery) Also, if you want to add to the things you have been right about, the finish does appear to be original and the factory spray can be seen in the opening of the control cavity.

[mrblanche]

Speaking as a cabinet maker/painter, I find the finish interesting. I can only guess at the wood, which appears to be oak or some such thing. But most guitar manufacturers seem to have the habit of filling the grain, then putting on a perfectly smooth, "piano-type" finish. Your guitar was clearly built by someone who had respect for the actual wood, and finished it with the grain unfilled.

To a real expert, that might be a clue. Me, I'm clueless!