Continuation from the topic:
A point of view from eastern Europe ...
And this time I'll uncover the Defil hardware !
TUNERS:
(copied from the Lolipop thread)
During the first years, till political change, the machine heads looked like that:
(those three, the 4th one is replaced)
Imperishable tuners, great work. Standart clover leaf like look. Overall all the guitars were made different way, than during next years, as I explained in other topic.
When a head of country has changed, mostly every production has changed. The guitar manufacturing also had changed, and so the little hardware too. The machine heads gone in well known style:
The covers and head were made of plastic. All to make the production cheaper, because of the production plans (times, when everything was made to complete the plan, even guitars). Their life was mostly shortened due to bad threaten by users (yes, those guitars have been falling recently).
Another change was also a small hardware change. The machine heads gone fully metal again, but their construction was simple as hell. Also the screw holes fitted the previous ones, to make replacements easier (while the oldest tuners had completly different type of screwing)
Again a simple flat clover leaf design, very good durability. Those tuners were produced till the end, later alongside with another ones.
Those were made by the same manufacturer. More like a Fender tuners construction, but with original head (btw how do ya like it ?).
Later, another manufacturer (PRESTO) started to make a hardware for Defil. As you can see on the photo:
The look is nearly like the Fender ones, with clover leaf head, but if you look closely, the rest is nearly the same like the MUZA tuners. All because of mass sold of the production machines (the MUZA factory was a national factory, not a private one, and after the transformation in 89/90 most of the factories were sold off to private hands). Why the change ? Just to make it more Fender lookalike - as I said earlier, Fender was glorified by most of Polish musicians, and still is (but to me its not THAT good).
BRIDGES:
Nearly all Defil bass bridges are roller tune-o-matics. Starting with Lotos, the eldest:
thru the Baston
Luna
and Aster Bass 2 with STB system:
Aster Bass 1 actually had a Fender like bridge, that is well known:
Hollowbody bass bridges were the same, but with wooden elements:
Thing that changed mostly, was actually (as you can see) a string holder. Also Aster Bass 2 wasnt a roller, but standart LP like bridge, but with 4 saddles. The late Defil bridges (like tuners) were made by PRESTO manufacture.
KNOBS:
Nothing much to write here. Nearly all Defil knobs were a simple design knobs:
Colors: black or white, depends on bass. Sliding pots didnt used knobs, but standart buttons. Aster Bass used stratocaster or nickel Precison-like knobs made by PRESTO.
OTHER HARDWARE FACTS:
All Defil basses were a bolt-on construction, every bass had a 3 bolts in triangle configuration (except early Lotoses, and Aster Basses that had 4 bolts). There wasnt ever a serial produced Defil with a set-in neck.
Defil bodies were made from beech, alder or maple, some from birch, top was often a mahogany. Necks made of maple or beech, often with 2 mahogany stripes. Fretboards mostly from rosewood, but not always. Some Luna's and Aster Basses, had maple fretboard, some fretboards were made of mahogany, some of walnut, and some of ebony (I have an electric hollowbody from 72' and the fretboard is a 100% ebony, so maybe basses from this period had ebony as well).
Most necks had a C or D neck profile, most fretboards had dot markers, except for the "2" and "22" series, that replaced it with squares.
Binding was present in every hollowbody bass, but no solidbody bass had it. The 60's and early 70's model often used neck binding as well, but again in hollowbodies only.
Every Defil from "2" series didnt had a trussrod, but an aluminium bolt inside the neck. Defil Baston22 (as the only "22" represents) actually had a trussrod, even the guitar version (Jola22) didnt had it.
Every Defil from "2" series (including the first Luna) had a big picguard, that holded full electronics system. Baston22 as the only solidbody Defil had a picguard to cover the pots, but had uncovered pickups.
Only one model of guitar strap was produced during almost 40 years of factory production (sorry for no photo).
Only the "Aster Bass" model had a one side tuners configuration, every other Defil had a 2+2 configuration, with often symetrical headstock (except the Baston one).
Defil produced only 4 string basses.
Defil had never made a semi-hollow body bass - only full hollowbody or solidbody.
There wasnt a hollowbody Defil bass with flat top and back.
The same wiring diagram from 60's hollowbody Defil's used with no-Defil parts (pickups, pots, capacitors etc.) didnt worked, while Defil played well.
I hope this thread would be interesting as well as the others :P
