Kent bass id help

[embellisher]

I'm looking at a Kent bass, but I can't find one like it online.

Anybody familiar with this model? It looks like a righty based on the headstock and body shape, but the controls are on the wrong side.

It also looks as if the body has been modified to make it look less awkward when played lefty. It is currently strung up for a lefty, belonged to a local player (Pine Bluff AR) who was left handed.

Thanks!

 

[Iridescentone]

...."Paging Dr Frankenstein, please....Paging Dr Victor Frankenstein"....

 

[Matt Liebenau]

The neck, bridge and pickups are 70’s Japanese, so yes probably the original Kent. I suspect the body is custom made since someone apparently needed a lefty.

 

[embellisher]

The neck, bridge and pickups are 70’s Japanese, so yes probably the original Kent. I suspect the body is custom made since someone apparently needed a lefty.

So it's not a 60's Kent, which is how it is advertised. Supposedly the original owner bought it in the late 60's.

 

[cdef]

It seems to be a '60s Kent neck (and maybe pickups + bridge), grafted onto an indeterminate body that's been crudely adapted for a left-handed player.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

So it's not a 60's Kent, which is how it is advertised. Supposedly the original owner bought it in the late 60's.

Could be. The neck and pickups look like 70s Teisco but late 60s definitely isn’t out of the question.

 

[mikewalker]

Those tuners could be as early as '68-69 or so, that neck is probably the only 'Kent' part in that rather novel assemblage

 

[Bushrod Johnson]

Why?

 

[J Wilson]

I can't un-see it. Arrrgggghhh . . . . .

 

[robassable]

AVOID

 

[newfuture]

Probably late '60s, maybe early '70s. I have a very similar bass in a jazz righty.

Pickups/bridge/tuners/neck certainly are. Likely 30" scale. FWIW, I ended up changing the bridge and tuners on mine because they were garbage. Also changed to Vol/Tone/switch, potting the pickups, and adding a 3 - string tree because there were other, shall we say, deficiencies that needed to be addressed

 

[TeeSee]

It was not uncommon back in the 70's for us cag handed (lefties) to flip a bass. Most guitar makers back then only provided to the 90%. If you could get a LH bass then it was loads of money. I couldn't afford one so I learned to play RH. Jimi didn't convert his strat controls to be on the bottom so he just flipped it. Later on those lefties did flip their guitars but had a custom made control cavity on the bottom to where they played, there would probably be a empty cavity where the original was. The chopped off horn on your pic looks like it was done to balance the guitar for a left handed player as otherwise the neck dive would have been an issue. Nowadays many manufacturers cater for us 10% thanks to CNC.

 

[devnulljp]

If it's more than $20, I'd walk away

 

[embellisher]

Why?

$80, possible birth year bass. Birth year isn't looking so likely now.

 

[cdef]

Probably late '60s, maybe early '70s. I have a very similar bass in a jazz righty. ...

View attachment 5403179

View attachment 5403178

After perusing some photos I believe that's the model, flipped upside down and refinished after the controls were relocated and the longer horn shortened.

Here's a Kent-branded specimen:

 

[Matt Liebenau]

$80, possible birth year bass. Birth year isn't looking so likely now.

Even with a serial number, which I’d be slightly surprised if there is a factory number, it would be difficult at best to determine an exact year of manufacture. The Japanese factories who were making guitars and basses at that price level at the time were turning out thousands of instruments with minimal thought or effort of record keeping.

 

[newfuture]

After perusing some photos I believe that's the model, flipped upside down and refinished after the controls were relocated and the longer horn shortened.

Here's a Kent-branded specimen:

View attachment 5403628

Thanks for posting this, fun to see one branded... mine has no markings other than the word "Japan" on the neck plate. Meant to mention, mine is unsurprisingly plywood.