Need ID on this c. 1970s Jazz Bass

[Big Beat]

Here's an unbranded Jazz Bass, certainly Japanese and most likely from the 1970s. ID'ing is made more difficult by all the missing parts. But it has a very distinctive 6-bolt neckplate which should be a good clue. Any idea who made it?

[VintAxe]

Well, I don't know who made this bass Big Beat, but I think we can eliminate Aria as a possibility. I've looked through all the 1970's Aria literature available to me and the only black block inlay I found was on a Les Paul copy. Clearly, I don't have all Aria literature from the 70's but I have a pretty good sample. I always like to start with Aria on a mystery guitar since the were a primary Japanese exporter in the 1970's. In this case, I see no evidence that they produced this bass.

You are right that the 6 bolt neck is a great clue, it is just not a clue that helps much when looking at guitar literature since companies rarely showed the back of their instruments in advertising. The 3 piece "butcher block" body and the 2 piece headstock certainly indicate a budget instrument, but the black block inlays are a nice upgrade.

The search goes on

[Bassassin]

First of all, every Japanese copy manufacturer/brand had a maple/black blocks Jazz in the 70s, I'd say these were more common than the rosewood & pearl block versions. Conversely, dot-neck Jazz basses, either maple or rosewood, really weren't copied at all during the 70s.

Anyway, Vintaxe might be interested to know that Aria is a possibility. It's generally assumed Aria sourced everything from Matsumoku but evidence suggests this wasn't the case. Neckplates are often (but by no means always) a clue to a factory of origin - for example Matsumoku seemed to be the only factory to use the "Steel Adjustable Neck" type.

So clearly these are common on Aria basses, but I have also seen this six-bolt type before. This type is also common on early Morris-branded guitars, Morris was (still is, actually) the house-brand of Moridaira, who are thought to have been a manufacturer also, although this is not 100% confirmed.

So it's probable it was made by/sourced from Moridaira - actually it looks from the pics that it's never had a brand name but if it did, Morris, Aria or even Hohner - who sourced from Moridaira before moving to Cort in the early 80s - are possibilities.

A bit of Googling found this discussion on TalkBass, with a few Morris J pics:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/morris ... cs-495495/

No maple/blocks necks but the neckplates check out, and the truss rod covers on these look right for the screwholes on your bass.

And a bit more Googling yielded this:

http://www.sulit.com.ph/index.php/view+ ... 1975+model

Pretty sure your bass is a Moridaira.

Jon.

[VintAxe]

[Bassassin]

[VintAxe]