Tom Peterson's mystery 4-string

[Pekka]

This 4-string simple looking bass has bugged me for years. It seems he used it circa 1979:




It also looks a bit wrong being a sort of modern looking bass with a pointy headstock and neck-through construction, at least when compared to other more vintage and "cool" looking 4-string basses he used on stage at the time (T-Birds, '55 P-Bass, Fender Bass V).

[gearHed289]

I would guess it's something he picked up in Japan. Aria? The bridge looks familiar.

[Nocturnal]

It could be a version of something like this Aria:

https://reverb-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/a_exif,c_limit,fl_progressive,h_620,q_85,w_620/v1421965615/t0xjhfrwlhjeey8mongn.jpg

[cheyenne]

Looks like a vintage Westone Thunder bass.

[Pekka]

Thanks for the answers, Aria or Westone or something out of Matsumoko could be the right answer.  He also occasionally used a Greco EB-8 eight string bass at that time.

[Pilgrim]

Thanks for the answers, Aria or Westone or something out of Matsumoko could be the right answer.  He also occasionally used a Greco EB-8 eight string bass at that time.

Everything I have seen agrees with a Matsumoku origin. That one screams it. Nice look, too!

[Alanko]

Vantage VS Series bass? They seem to come with a mix of hardware, including some with 3-point Gibson-style bridges. Not seen any with a switch below the controls, but it could be series/parallel for the pickup? Probably OEM Dimarzios onboard.

[Alanko]

My absolute wildcard guess is a non-production Hondo Professional II model. The second image appears to show a bass with this headstock:



I once owned one of these in black. It was killer heavy and a bit of a diver, but sounded pretty nice. Hondo seem to have done Professional II guitars with that thru-neck appearance, and basses with a broadly similar control layout when they built instruments under license from SD Curlee. If Hondo were like Memphis, another Matsumoku brand, then the instruments aren't necessarily thru-neck even if they look it. That hippy sandwich look was pervasive! There is a gap in the catalogs I can find for any bass as lavishly appointed as some of the Professional II guitars. My total guess is that it was a prototype bass that incorporated some of the SD Curlee elements.

[Pekka]

Thanks Alanko for your survey. Interesting points. BTW, do you happen to have any connection to Finland? "Alanko" is a finnish surname.

I also chanced upon this photo and Jimmy Bain's bass has some of those same features too. Phil Lynott is playing Jimmy's Yamaha BB1200 (?).

[Alanko]

Thanks Alanko for your survey. Interesting points. BTW, do you happen to have any connection to Finland? "Alanko" is a finnish surname.

No Finnish connection here. My name is Alan, and a Slovakian friend of mine called me 'Alanko' as a term of endearment. Adding 'ka' or 'ko' is apparently common, though Alan isn't a name over there. My girlfriend has kept this odd tradition alive.

[ilan]

Adding 'ka' or 'ko' is apparently common, though Alan isn't a name over there. My girlfriend has kept this odd tradition alive.

My wife does the same with my name, it's Ilan (pronounced Elon, like Elon Musk).

[daan]

I'm a HUGE Matsumoku nerd. I probably could go on and on about these, but I'll try to keep it short: At some point in the late 70's Mats. started a Korean factory, and they made a bunch of their designs "over there" to kinda test out everything. That's where the "Hondo Professional" stuff came from. (I have a "Skylark" guitar, and a "HIIP" guitar, and they're 90% similar- the difference is kinda like a "Custom Shop" whatever vs. a Squier/Epi) Mats. was no different than other Japanese companies, they made stuff for whoever hired them, so one design could have 14 different brand names on it. Oh, and they made neck-thru, set-neck and bolt-on ("Bayonet mount") stuff all in the same design guitars, like the Skylark I have.

[amptech]

I remember spending years trying to find out what brand my friend's matsumoku fender copy bass was. This was before internet.
I was so happy when I walked into a shop that sold one : it had a logo! It was an Aria Diamond 1820.

And then I got somewhat puzzled again when I saw the Epiphone T280. Ah, the mysteries in life...