Asia Bass
After a first phase, in the sixties and seventies, in which the Japanese replicas did not have much success on the market due to the poor production quality (with the notable exception, starting from the early seventies, of the Greco/Fujigen instruments. Today these are sought after for the high manufacture level of the replicas of the Fender and Gibson brands. Indeed it was not by chance that in 1981 FujiGen obtained the contract to produce with the Fender Japan brand), during the 1980s, in conjunction with the fall of the dollar, there was an explosion of Japanese industrial electric instrument making (and in fact who among us bassists who studied at that time did not start with an instrument from Asia?).
Ibanez, Yamaha, Aria were the brands that having assimilated the most advanced principles of the construction of electric basses, such as active pickups, neck-through body, 5 and 6-string basses, successfully conquered the market by providing quality instruments at affordable prices.
In 1979 the first successful series of a Japanese brand debuted: the Ibanez Musician. A sort of economic Alembic, neck-through body, active pickups, natural finish, the model with two magnets was widely used by Adam Clayton in the first part of the U2 career (oxygenated curly period…), but it became known to the general public especially thanks to the fretless version that Sting sfoggiava durante i concerti dei Police nel 1979.
IBANEZ MUSICIAN SERIES
The Aria Pro II SB1000, embraced by John Taylor of Duran Duran and Cliff Burton of Metallica, also contributed to the credibility of Japanese instruments.
ARIA PRO II SB-1000
Together with Ibanez, Yamaha is surely one of the most important companies for the production of electric basses. The production of its famous BB series began in 1978 and it led in 1984 to the realization of the BB 5000, which was brought to the public’s attention from Nathan East.
Among industrial basses, Yamaha has few rivals, as demonstrated by the 6-string sponsored by John Patitucci.
Another model of Yamaha that is very affordable but an excellent instrument for beginners (and not only), which was used for practicing by a generation of bass players at the dawn of the new millennium, is the RBX 170, with its typical configuration of the P/J pickups.
The economic RBX series was followed by the excellent TRBX, series, of a higher price range.
YAMAHA RBX 170
After Japan other Asian countries followed suit, primarily South Korea with Cort.
As you may remember, this company began to make a name for itself in the field of electric bass with the reproduction of Steinberger. Over time it has consolidated its credibility by producing basses of a certain quality at more than affordable prices, such as the A5 of the Artisan series, a neck-through body with Bartolini magnets.
Korea was soon joined by other important Eastern countries such as Indonesia (which stands out for the care of its production) and China.
Finally, the phenomenon of relocation also affected the bass guitar electric market, big brands, from Fender (under the Squier by Fender brand since 1982) to Tobias (with the new brand Michael Tobias Design, MTD), began to produce, under the directives of the parent companies, affordable versions of their instruments in Japan, Korea, Indonesia, etc.
