Cobra Japan telecaster copy bass
 

hi, im looking for some info on this bass or even the company. im told its made in japan and from the 70s. thats about it, ha. thanks

edit: so these arent my photos and apparently theyre the size of a dime. anyway the headstock logo has a cobra snake as the c for cobra. it also has one pickup, not sure if its a small humbucker or what.

I like it.

The only Cobra basses I'm aware of were made in the UK in the '80s by John Birch.

If this is a Japanese bass from the '70s it's most like from Matsumoku. They built a ton of basses for a million different companies.

ok, got bigger pics...

others...

Me likey!

Me too!!!

I don't think this would be Matsumoku. Something about it reminds me of Global. That was a Hoshino-produced brand built (mostly) by Fujigen. Anyhow, it's a rare instance of a "1966 slab body" Precision copy, with a Tele-style headstock to boot. Might be a plywood body, but it's cool for what it is.

That Maxon faux-mini-humbucker pickup with 8 small screws was also on many of the Globals. I haven't seen one close up, but word is that they're really single-coils, and the screws have no function beyond decoration.

It's often hard to find any real specifics on the hundreds of Japanese export brands from the '60s and '70s, as various factories bought batches of necks and bodies from each other and sourced hardware from the same suppliers. In case of a production glut quite another company might be subcontracted to alleviate it, and so on.

That looks really flippin cool!

I like it. It's way cool. And it's in good shape.. sweet!