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Marlin Basses

Need a little help. Trying to gather as much info as I can about Marlin Basses.
I'm looking to buy one and it's a 70's hollowbody. Please if anybody can give me any reviews/opinions/complaints, please post them here. Thank you guys for your help, you're awesome
 
comady1 said:
Need a little help. Trying to gather as much info as I can about Marlin Basses.
I'm looking to buy one and it's a 70's hollowbody. Please if anybody can give me any reviews/opinions/complaints, please post them here. Thank you guys for your help, you're awesome

They used to sell plywood guitars called Marlin in catalogs here. They were one of the worst things ever. I'm really not kidding. Terrible.

We're not talking about Squier guitars here. Some of them are really quite good. There were no good Marlins.

I'm not sure if this is the same one as you're looking at... not sure about 70s ones (you sure it's not an 80s model?) but the later ones had pictures of fishes on the fretboard.
 
this one is a semi-hollowbodied bass with pearl inlayed frets. No fish logo on it. Friend wants to sell it for around $800. Can anybody else throw in their 2 cents. I know they were made in Japan and that's about it.
 
velvetkevorkian said:
i still see the odd marlin (basses and guitars) floating about in the squier price range, with the fish fret marker. my dad has one of their precision copies, and yeah, it ain't great...

hmmm, maybe its a scottish thing, dlloyd? :P

I think they might be something to do with Hohner (who actually make quite nice basses)
 
comady1 said:
this one is a semi-hollowbodied bass with pearl inlayed frets. No fish logo on it. Friend wants to sell it for around $800. Can anybody else throw in their 2 cents. I know they were made in Japan and that's about it.

The early Marlins of the sort I know were Japanese...

...and they fetch around $50, maybe $60. I wouldn't pay that much for one, and I can't get drunk for that price.

Maybe I've overlooked a second company that were producing basses in the same area at the same time under the same name... basses that were far superior than their better-known namesakes... or maybe this guy is less of a friend than you think he is.

Don't take my word for it. Play the thing. Decide for yourself. $800 is a lot of money to risk relying on the opinions of people who live thousands of miles away from you.


http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data4/Marlin/