Where does my "Bird Electric Bass" come from?

The three screws on the pickup are a giveaway. I'm just not sure for what factory. Someone on here knows. Might be Matsomoku.

 

The "lipstick" pickup isn't. It looks more like a Telecaster guitar style neck pickup but with the three mounting screw arrangement of the Telecaster bridge pickup...Like this Matsumoku I found on Reverb...

 

I edited my post with a photo as an example of the pickup in a Tele style guitar by Matsumoku.

 

All I can add is plywood body - see how the black extends over the contours to cover the layers that would otherwise be exposed. Typical of most generic Japanese copies of the time.

 

I have seen that style of pickup in old Ibanez basses that were purported to be original. I don’t remember who made Ibanez back then, maybe Matsumoku. That’s the thing, it’s all a little murky from back then with Japanese manufacturers. The same instrument was sold under a variety of names. Heck, if you ordered enough they would put “BikerMouse” on the headstock.

 

Oh, I’m sure the Chinese would be happy to put whatever name on instruments for you...

 

If you are just wanting to test the bass electronics for functionality, a guitar amp will suffice. If you are trying to get good sound out of your bass, a guitar amp isn't suitable.
Good luck!

 

The bridge and tuners say matsumoku I had an 70s epiphone that had them.

 

My bench amp is one of those little tuck and roll Kustom Darts. Everything gets checked with it. Keep the volume low and it should be fine. May not sound great but shouldn’t hurt the amp.

 

I only saw this name of a Six String Acoustic once

this is what I found out for you.

It appears to be one of the many hundreds of brands japan made for export in the late 60's and early seventies . seems like a lot of the bigger music stores and Merchandise stores had their own brand ( very common at that time ). The name Bird on the top may of been from a Japanese store or quite possibly the original manufacturer in Japan

 

Looks like you have Charlie Parker's bass.

 

I went through this entire thread that was started back in 2009
not one person I saw posted a Bird badge out of 43 pages but hey I could have missed it happy hunting
Post your vintage Japanese basses

 

I will use my superpower.

(summoning guys that know way more than me)

@cdef
@Thornton Davis

 

I found another Bird bass for sale in the Netherlands

 

Let’s get @GretschWretch involved