1960s Decca Bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I don't always get around to blogging about guitars I'm watching on eBay before the auction ends. I try my best to feature guitars while the auction is still active just in case some of you guys want to place a bid or hit that Buy It Now, but I'm usually watching so many at any one time and it's not possible to feature everything at once.

Sorry, that's a long-winded way of me saying this auction has already finished. This Decca-branded bass had a starting price of 99c and sold for $261.79. It's a Japanese-made instrument, and the seller claims that:

It is clearly an early product of the Matsumoko (whose Guyatone bass guitars had these pickups as well) and the pre-Kawai owned Teisco guitar factories as it has recognizable parts from each of those plants.

Well, the neck definitely looks Teisco with those inlays along the bass side of the fingerboard. The metal control plate is an interesting shape and incorporates an angled outward output jack (NOT "input jack" - sorry, pet hate of mine) which calls to mind a Strat style output socket mounted upside down and inside out.

The seller believes that the brand ties in with the Decca records label and that this brand of instruments was primarily produced for sale to small record shops. All of which sound highly feasible, but is conjecture.

Does anyone out there remember the Decca brand or know any more about this?

G L Wilson

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