LeftyBassist.com

Thanks Paulo…

Saw your post, recognized this from several design/ manufacturing hallmarks as a Kawai bass from 1965-1968 period (bridge/tailplate assembly, pickup, string retainer, 3-piece neck construction, etc.) and figured hey- a vintage 1960’s Japan lefty, 15 minutes from my office- gotta go check it out (quite a bargain if decent- if not, only a wasted lunch break).

It was covered in a thick layer of nasty grime, but complete- solid, electronics and truss rod fully functional. Got it home, disassembled and cleaned everything, dressed and polished the frets, gave it a proper set up, and it’s good to go. Sounds and plays great! And it cleaned up very well… bit of pitting on the chrome adds to the vintage patina of this 60 year old. Having a lot of fun with it and happy to bring it back to life!

Looking really good after the clean up, congrats!!

That's a great find. reminds me a little of the old Hagstrom HBII basses. Were these similar in scale?

Yep, a similar short scale 30.5". It has no visible brand name- thus impossible to determine exactly where it was sold, but this and a Hag II likely would have been competitors in the late 60's department store/ catalog house guitar boom.

I know there's folks that tend to assume that most of these 60's era Japanese instruments suffered from poor workmanship or uncorrectable playability issues, but it's amazing how many have proven to be extremely durable. I was surprised to see Kawai was using 3 piece neck construction like this on what was probably an entry level model- seemed a bit ahead of it's time. And a lot of these old axes that were hastily assembled back in the day actually play quite well when given proper care, adjustment and setup. If you look very closely, you can see where I moved the entire bridge/ tailpiece assembly back approx. 1/2 inch in order to correct the intonation and lower the action to modern standards... once that was done, it now plays like butter!

I saw a lot of 60s style Garage Rock bands in 2000s Japan who played similar era instruments and they always sounded and looked great.

Such a great clean up job on a really cool find !! Nice !!