The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

My brother in law just "gifted " me an El Degas copy of a Fender prec. bass. It has Made In Japan on the plate, but no visible serial or model number. He bought it new around 1977, here in Newfoundland Canada.
I'd be grateful of any background info members could give me on it (where made, by who etc)

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Australian by birth, Newfoundlander by choice

Here's a link to mine on the elDegas site

http://www.eldegas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=129

You'll probably find more information on that site although there's not a lot of background info on elDegas. They got their products from a number of places (Japan, Korea, Romania) and I suspect different factories in each place. Some good, others....

I figure my p-bass is a good'un though

Dave

Hello shakin.
(El Dave just posted ahead ahead of me)
The El Degas guitars and basses from the early to mid 70's were top quality instruments. Many P-bass owner swear by their instruments, as do I with my Gibson 'Dove' clone. (For the benefit of those who don't already know, ED was primarily a Canadian distributed label in the 70's).

As to who made them, now there's the million dollar question! I tend to believe some of the MIJ Gibson models may have been made by Matsumoku, and others possibly Fuijigen. No one knows for sure and information we have is mostly speculation and deductive reasoning. Have a wander on over to http://eldegas.com/forum/index.php and look around. you find a few P-bass owners there, and the site owner, Charles, is a very helpful guy.

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"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
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Thanks for the info guys.
She's ina pretty rough state at the moment. Bridge and pup covers gone, neck seems to need a bit of work etc. It's been in storage for a long tme, albeit in OHSC.
I'll post some pics shortly.

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Australian by birth, Newfoundlander by choice

Here's some pic links

http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/k53 ... G_0604.jpg
http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/k53 ... G_0603.jpg
http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/k53 ... G_0602.jpg

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Australian by birth, Newfoundlander by choice

Got it all cleaned up, restringed, a couple of new saddles, knobs and a bridge cover. I've attempted to adjust the neck via the truss rod but there's still a bit of bow left. Tried to lower the action but can't go too low without a lot of buzzing. I'm not a great player, but having good fun ( and learning a lot!)

http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/k53 ... G_0644.jpg
http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/k53 ... G_0646.jpg

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Australian by birth, Newfoundlander by choice

That is a high action. Is the neck bowed? If so there are ways of increasing the pull of the truss rod. Carefully remove the nut from the rod. Clean and lube the threads. Then add a washer to the end of the rod. Re-assemble and slowly work the tension up on the rod.

A shim in the neck pocket could help too.

Thanks for the tips mate, I'll give truss rod option a go first.

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Australian by birth, Newfoundlander by choice