The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Anyone heard of thee basses I just bought one off ebay they appear to be somwhat of a Steinberger LB ripoff made in Japan in the mid 80's and reintroduced in the early 90's. The bass says Riverhead (Product Of Headway) on the front of it. Supposedly sold for just under 1,000.00 at the time. 2 pickups one single coil and one switchable Humbucker in the back, passive electronics, headless set neck. I guess Michael Manring bass player of the year 1994 plays one. I picked it up for 250.00. Hope I got a good deal on it. Any info would be appreciated.
Thanks, fleapepper

Interesting to see a post about Riverhead here given that I was going to ask if anyone thought Quest instruments might be an Uncle Matt product. Riverhead and Quest were both distributed by a company called Primo from Marlboro, MA., which also had the distribution rights to Vox amps and a brand of drums called Trak. Primo apparently didn't stay in business too long, as they only managed to get a couple of fairly small ads in summer '85 issues of Guitar Player for Quest and Riverhead and no more after that. Reportedly Riverhead was a brand name in Japan before and after Primo marketed their instruments over here. As for Quest I have no idea. One of the local pawnshops actually has a couple of Quest Atak 1's, which were sort of a mutated Strat design. Too pricey in my view, as one is 255 bucks and the other is 295!(Canadian of course.) You'd definitely want to haggle over those. Interestingly the Quest ad in the June 1985 issue of Guitar Player claims 27 different models of guitars and basses for the Quest line, but I'd guess that no where near that many actually hit our shores.

A surprising endorser for Riverhead basses was Dave Pegg of Fairport Convention/Jethro Tull fame. The bassist for John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, whose main claim to fame is the movie Eddie and the Cruisers, appeared in a Quest ad playing a bass that was obviously inspired by the classic Rickenbacker 4001 but somewhat more "clunky" in shape.

Riverhead basses were made by a company called Headway in the town of Matsumoto, so perhaps there is a connection. Certainly the quality of the Riverhead basses that I have played is at least as good as the Matsumoku guitars of that era. They're still around, still high quality, and still in Matsumoto, although the Riverhead brand is no longer the figurehead -- the company's now called Deviser, and their top-of-the-line instruments are released under the Bacchus brand. See http://www.deviser.co.jp