Identify this bass?

[ZeroTheExiled]

A friend contacted me about identifyng this bass, can someone help me out?

Any sort of information is useful!

 

[Volker Kirstein]

Other than 80s "no-name" Japanese SG style body w/Fender-style headstock, not a clue. Hard to say if it left the factory like that, or if someone replaced the neck after a headstock breaking tumble. It doesn't help that the headstock logo is defaced. Hard to say if the pickguard is original, or someone's metal shop project.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Yes sir, 70’s Japanese. Most of them came out of 2 or maybe 3 factories at the time. They used several different brand names and, like the Chinese today, if you bought enough you could get any name you wanted on the headstock. They were, however, all pretty much variations on the same instrument or a mix and match of parts from the same instruments. The tuners, bridge cover, 5 bolt neck plate and pickup are all classic 70’s Japan. I have seen that pickup on basses badged ZenOn but, again, it’s difficult to be certain. If the neck can be straightened and everything set up reasonably well they can be pretty fun instruments.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Get a close-up on the headstock - might be able to figure the brand name by what's left.

 

[cdef]

My guess would be a mid-'60s Kingston, built by Teisco.

Here's a pic of another such headstock, where you can see the residue of an oval sticker as used on Kingstons for a while:

Here's a body shot of the same model in redburst :

Kingston is far from the only possible brand name here, but not unlikely.

 

[GretschWretch]

As usual, @cdef nails it. Sixties. The five-bolt neck plate helps identify provenance, but the date-cincher is the gold-foil pickup (minus its foil). By the late sixties this model had been superseded by an enclosed chrome pickup.

 

[ac100X]

I saw on line, maybe E bay, where someone was selling the oval Kingston headstock sticker. This photo is from my bass.