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Jedson Bass?


Chordite

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Never heard of them but the example you gave was selling for about US$94. A cheap bass made 40+ years ago wouldn't necessarily inspire confidence but it would depend on the care it had received. For a while our church owned an old National hollowbody bass from the 60's and it had definitely seen better days. Here on this side of the pond Peavey and Ibanez are usually good bets at the low end. Yamaha isn't bad either.

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OK checked it out, in poor shape. Missing bridge, broken nut and switch gear missing. My general impression was of a short scale Bass in the 'Teisco' bracket.

Left it,

I'll probably just pick something like the Marlin Sidewinder bass I lent to a friend and never saw again. You all know that story I'm sure :)

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OK checked it out, in poor shape. Missing bridge, broken nut and switch gear missing. My general impression was of a short scale Bass in the 'Teisco' bracket.

Left it,

I'll probably just pick something like the Marlin Sidewinder bass I lent to a friend and never saw again. You all know that story I'm sure :)

 

Makes you wonder just what "Solid and fully 'Manson Serviced'" means, dunnit?

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I remember them years ago. They were made in the 70's just after Univox made it into music shops as a low end brand. The Jedsen was a clone of a clone you could say. They were a very inexpensive Japanese imports sold in department stores like Kmart and Bradlees around Christmas time for kids. If the kids showed any musical talent with a toy instrument the parents would typically upgrade their kids to a real instrument and sell those things by the bushel in garage sales and flea markets for practically nothing.

 

They typically had a new wave of these kinds of beginner instruments come out each year, all made by the same companies with a new name slapped on them. I don't think that one even hit the music stores and if it did it was some mom and pop shop that only had two or three models of instruments hanging in the front window in some dinky strip mall and that sold those to beginners taking lessons.

 

I found one at a Flea market I fixed up. The neck was bowed pretty bad from only having two strings left on it. Frets were in horrible shape. Low end instruments are typically badly maintained by children who don't know jack about instruments. I was able to get it playable but it was a very cheezy build so I didn't waste any money on it besides strings. The pickups sounded like total garbage. Tuners, pots switches all real junk.

 

I'm surprised that one looks as good as it does. Actually buying it to play, man I wouldn't give you $5 for that piece of crap. Just save your money and buy a real bass. There are so many great buys on really decent basses even in the $100 range. You don't need waste your money on toy instruments sold to children.

 

Back then you only had a few choices in instrument grades - You had instruments which were essentially toys loaded with flaws and sounding like garbage. Some could be tweaked by a luthier to make it acceptably playable. You'd then have some brands in the mediocre price ranges then your top level instruments. You didn't have a gazillion different mediocre brands to choose from like you do today and buying used was pretty much pot luck. You'd drive from store to store to see what people traded in on a better instruments.

 

Instruments like this one the store owners wouldn't even take as a trade in because they had zero worth. They'd fix them up often enough though. People would throw money at them thinking they could be made to sound better. Today you have people buying them just because they are old. I suppose the best way of knowing is to simply let people get burned before they understand, just because something's old doesn't mean it was any good. Stringed instruments can be like wine. Your best wines can taste better with age and your cheap wines poorly stored turn to vinegar.

 

Set your sights higher buying an instrument. If you run across a cheap junker like that for peanuts they can be good for educational purposes, learning how to re-fret and repair. That's about it. You want something to play you can easily buy a much higher quality instrument in the same price range and actually sound good playing it.

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I remember them years ago. They were made in the 70's just after Univox made it into music shops as a low end brand. The Jedsen was a clone of a clone you could say. They were a very inexpensive Japanese imports sold in department stores like Kmart and Bradlees around Christmas time for kids. If the kids showed any musical talent with a toy instrument the parents would typically upgrade their kids to a real instrument and sell those things by the bushel in garage sales and flea markets for practically nothing.

 

They typically had a new wave of these kinds of beginner instruments come out each year, all made by the same companies with a new name slapped on them. I don't think that one even hit the music stores and if it did it was some mom and pop shop that only had two or three models of instruments hanging in the front window in some dinky strip mall and that sold those to beginners taking lessons.

 

I found one at a Flea market I fixed up. The neck was bowed pretty bad from only having two strings left on it. Frets were in horrible shape. Low end instruments are typically badly maintained by children who don't know jack about instruments. I was able to get it playable but it was a very cheezy build so I didn't waste any money on it besides strings. The pickups sounded like total garbage. Tuners, pots switches all real junk.

 

I'm surprised that one looks as good as it does. Actually buying it to play, man I wouldn't give you $5 for that piece of crap. Just save your money and buy a real bass. There are so many great buys on really decent basses even in the $100 range. You don't need waste your money on toy instruments sold to children.

 

Back then you only had a few choices in instrument grades - You had instruments which were essentially toys loaded with flaws and sounding like garbage. Some could be tweaked by a luthier to make it acceptably playable. You'd then have some brands in the mediocre price ranges then your top level instruments. You didn't have a gazillion different mediocre brands to choose from like you do today and buying used was pretty much pot luck. You'd drive from store to store to see what people traded in on a better instruments.

 

Instruments like this one the store owners wouldn't even take as a trade in because they had zero worth. They'd fix them up often enough though. People would throw money at them thinking they could be made to sound better. Today you have people buying them just because they are old. I suppose the best way of knowing is to simply let people get burned before they understand, just because something's old doesn't mean it was any good. Stringed instruments can be like wine. Your best wines can taste better with age and your cheap wines poorly stored turn to vinegar.

 

Set your sights higher buying an instrument. If you run across a cheap junker like that for peanuts they can be good for educational purposes, learning how to re-fret and repair. That's about it. You want something to play you can easily buy a much higher quality instrument in the same price range and actually sound good playing it.

 

Speaking of Univox basses. I had a buddy that had a Univox Rickenbacker copy.

 

It was kind of nice for the price.

 

My buddy's was in Fireglo, but here's on in black.

https://reverb.com/item/229534-vintage-univox-rickenbacker-4001-4003-tribute-neck-thru-stereo-bass-1976-jetglo-matsumoto-mij-1976-jetglo

 

 

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Speaking of Univox basses. I had a buddy that had a Univox Rickenbacker copy.

 

It was kind of nice for the price.

 

My buddy's was in Fireglo, but here's on in black.

https://reverb.com/item/229534-vintage-univox-rickenbacker-4001-4003-tribute-neck-thru-stereo-bass-1976-jetglo-matsumoto-mij-1976-jetglo

 

That's more than I paid for most of my Rics. Of course, the price has gone up on them, too.

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Univox in the 70's were a step up from Toy guitars but they were still the cheapest instruments sold by most musical instrument dealers. You'd have a hard time finding anyone but a beginner buying or using one. Dealers typically didn't sell instruments that were exact clones because it jeopardized contracts with the major manufacturers gear they sold. You probably wouldn't have found that Ric copy being sold in music stores. Rickenbacker was very aggressive against people selling clones even to this day.

 

Univox in the 70's weren't quite as good as the Fender Squire or Epiphone's made today. Their amps during that era were a joke too cheapest transistorized garbage and horrible sounding speakers mounted in particle board cabs. The company was obviously cashing in before they cashed out. From what I see the company made amps back in the 60's. Univox was one of the first to fill the bottom tier in music stores followed by a whole slew of imports jockeying for that bottom shelf spot.

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You may be misremembering Univox slightly. Back when I was in college in the 70's I knew two different guys who gigged regularly with Univox instruments, one with a Univox hollowbody bass and the other with one of their electric pianos. Sure, I knew guys (and gals) who had Gibson, Fender, Martin, Gretsch, Hagstrom, Sunn, and other pro level gear but not every musician could afford it. Most of my acoustic brethren were lucky to play Yamaha, Alvarez, or Sigma.

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Misrepresenting? I don't think so. Anyone whose played one and compared it to other instruments knows they were simply beginners gear. I played in a band with a guy who bought one new. It sounded OK and the build was better then most of the imports back then. When he found out I could have gotten him a mint condition used LP for the same price he was like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.

 

Allot of people buy inferior gear simply because they don't know any better or some slick salesman talked them into it.

Granted he didn't have allot of cash. Not many musicians in my area did. He bought it because he could put it on layaway and pay them $25 a week.

If he had to buy used its often cash on the barrel.

 

I worked a whole summer making pizzas and flipping burgers on the Jersey shore boardwalk working 12 hour shifts 6 days a week I was 17 and bought the first rig I paid for completely by myself which consisted of a Marshall Plexi Head and deluxe Gold Top. I used my Fender Bassman cab with it before later getting an Ampeg 4X12. Cost me $600 for the pair used and I had to pay for my own auto insurance and gas. That's allot of mullah when you're only making minimum wage.

 

Point here is when there's a will there's a way. You want something bad enough you'll get up off your ass and work for it. May take awhile but as a young guy I never had any problems with passion driving me to get decent gear. Gets easier as you go too because it still has worth when you want to upgrade and only need to dig up the difference.

 

In this thread I simply cant see any value in one of those cheezy builds, The Hardware, the electronics and even the wood of the neck are all the same as Teisco. Wouldn't be surprised if it was made in the same factory. Man I couldn't give those thing away back in the days when I repaired them. I'd buy one for $25 with missing parts, fix it up and make a whopping $10. Not like I didn't have customers looking at it either.

 

What are the percentages of bass players that would actually want a cheap bass. I read there might be between 1~2 million people who can play bass and maybe 1/10 are professional. When you consider there's about t billion people that's about 1/10 percent of the people may play bass and I can gurantee you most would rather play a Fender compared to a Cheap import, especially when you can buy both about the same cost.

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Misrepresenting? I don't think so. . . .

Try this:

mis·re·mem·ber

ˌmisrəˈmembər/

verb

gerund or present participle: misremembering

  • remember imperfectly or incorrectly.

I never said you were "misrepresenting" anything. Before you accuse me or anyone of something, make sure you've actually read what we posted. Thanks in advance.

 

And I'm glad your Jersey Shore summer job bought a Goldtop and a Plexi but it doesn't always work out that way. A college friend also worked all summer, in his case on a highway crew, and ended up with a beat-to-hell Hagstrom bass with nothing left for an amp.

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