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Post subject: Hisonus Excellent Bass, 1970's Japanese P-Bass copy help
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 3:24 am
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Hi guys I was looking at a P-bass copy on ebay and I don't know anything about the brand Hisonus, does anyone know anything about these guys?
Thanks.


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Post subject: Re: Hisonus Excellent Bass, 1970's Japanese P-Bass copy help
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 9:16 am
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I've never heard of them. I have pasted some parts from a couple articles that popped up online.

Hisonus guitar was distributed by the Weston music in 70's. The manufacturer is Chushin Gakki.

Chushin did good works. Well, list price is JYE 65,000 for over 30 years ago.
It is almost same price with other model-upper class guitars.

The sound is I felt it has much long sustain compare with current Fender Japan.
The tone is a bit warm.


Chushion Gakki:


product types:
electric guitars
acoustic guitars
bass guitars

Information:

The Chushin factory was established in 1948 by K. Miyazawa to make educational instruments. During the 1950s the company started making electric guitars and by 1961 it was making electric guitars only. In 1972 Y. Miyazawa (the son of the founder) joined the company.

Chushin Gakki made OEM guitars for Charvel, Jackson and Robin in the early 1980s, as well as their own designs, such as Bambu and El Maya (EM series).

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Post subject: Re: Hisonus Excellent Bass, 1970's Japanese P-Bass copy help
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 9:51 am
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1960 till 1980 was the "GOLDEN AGE" of Japanese guitar production. During this period a handful of plants were producing instruments by the ship load under multiple brand names. Sometimes the exact same instrument would be made under dozens of different brand names for different contractors. Some stores and chain store operations had their own brands. There were easily over 500 brands produced in about 10 of the largest Japanese plants.

Many, if not all, Hisonus instruments were made by Chushin Gakki, which last I heard was still in operation in Nagano, Japan. Chushin has historically even made some brands that are FMIC products. It is possible that the Hisonus basses were made at Matsumoto much as Fender always did. I'm only saying that is POSSIBLE, but I really don't know if they followed the form of Fender Japan who always had Matumoto make the basses while making the Spanish electrics at several different plants in different cities, primarily the Fender electrics were made at the Fujigen, Tokai and Dyna plants. Chushin could have made both Spanish electrics and basses for all I know.

Chushin in Nagano does (or did) appear to be associated with the Matsumoto giant now known as Fugigen. During the Golden Age period Chushin turned out instruments branded as Bambu, Cobran, El Maya and Hisonus as well as some Charvel, Fresher and Jackson badges. Some cosmetic associations point to the Chushin plant possibly making some guitars with the Aztec, Maya and Robin brands. I would bet the rent that there are at least 50 other brand names turned out at Chushin that I have no idea about. Some, but not all, Golden Age Chushin made instruments are on par with the better Japanese plants and their late 70's Strats are apparently considered to be especially desirable. Like every other Japanese plant of the day they had varying quality levels depending on how much the contractor wanted to spend per instrument.

The Chushin plant in Nagano made Hisonus branded instruments under contract from Weston Music Distributors who owned the Hisonus brand. Today Weston Presidio is a stakeholder in FMIC. However I don't believe there is any connection between the Weston Music Distributors who let the contracts for Hisonus gutiars during the Golden Era in Japan and Weston Presidio which currently owns a chunk of FMIC. Weston is a fairly common name. Weston Presidio and Weston Music Distributors are in no way associated so far as I know. Weston Presidio is a huge capital investment firm and I doubt that would have grown out of contracting a few thousand Japanese guitars in the 1970s anyway.


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Post subject: Re: Hisonus Excellent Bass, 1970's Japanese P-Bass copy help
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 9:49 pm
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Thank you very much for the info.


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Post subject: Re: Hisonus Excellent Bass, 1970's Japanese P-Bass copy help
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 10:36 pm
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Not sure if the Chushin factory ever produced guitar and bass amplification for ELK.

ELK is nowadays affiliated with Fender Japan.


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Post subject: Re: Hisonus Excellent Bass, 1970's Japanese P-Bass copy help
Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 7:56 pm
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chromeface wrote:
Not sure if the Chushin factory ever produced guitar and bass amplification for ELK.

ELK is nowadays affiliated with Fender Japan.


Elk guitars and amps were made by Miyuki Sangyo Industries of Tokyo which eventually spun Elk Amps off into its own company sometimes called Elk Gakki. Elk made their own amps first then progressed to guitars and then abandoned the guitars to concentrate on amps again. I don't think they are still in business. Elk badged guitars were mostly sold in Japan to wealthy or pro-level players but some do show up in the USA now in the collector market. They copied the clear Dan Armstrong designed Ampeg branded instruments for example. They also made some cheaper Strat knockoffs.

Some guitars and amps sold as Elk brand in Japan were re-badged with other names like Luxor, Royal or Echo for export. Those were all Miyuki brands. Some Elk amp models were cosmetically very similar to Fender's, but not all. Their VIKING bass amps for example looked nothing like Fender's bass amps ever did. The ones that were similar to Fender's amp cosmetics included the Sonic, Twin and Guitarman series. Even the ones that did seem to be Fender clones weren't exact copies but very similar cosmetically down to the model name scripting, yet used totally different circuits. For example they favored the EL34 tube in high power tube amps. I don't know what FMIC's current affiliation with Elk Amps might be. or even if Elk Amps is still in business. However for the brief period between Fender Fullerton's demise and Fender Corona's opening at least some Fender badged amps were said to have been made by Elk. Elk was a good choice for filling the gap during the 1983/1984 transition since they had pretty much been copying Fender cosmetics anyway and they had the highest quality amps produced in Japan at the time. If I had to have a Japanese amp, an Elk Viking 100 (100 tube watts) would be my first choice. In fact probably the only real pro level choice in Japan. By all accounts they were well made amps and Japanese pros like them and many are still in use today. They are rare and fairly collectible in the USA.


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Post subject: Re: Hisonus Excellent Bass, 1970's Japanese P-Bass copy help
Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 9:34 pm
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The FS series are silverface knock-offs.

Image


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Post subject: Re: Hisonus Excellent Bass, 1970's Japanese P-Bass copy help
Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 2:22 am
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chromeface wrote:
The FS series are silverface knock-offs.

Image


Yeah that would be another one, probably later than the ones I mentioned. I think the ones I listed are more blackface Fenderish.

From the Sonic series:
Image

From the Twin series:
Image

From the Guitarman series:
Image

Elk also did the tilt-back legs thing on some of their cabs. Not sure what held the head onto the cab when you tilted it back. Always wondered. This is a Custom series stack with your basic Fenderish tilt-back legs on the cab:
Image

By comparison a Fender Japanese transition period (1983/1984) amp quite possibly made by Elk, but I'm not 100% sure and please don't quote me on that. I'm basing that upon the fact that Elk for sure made the Fender Squier 15 Reverb Japan amps in 1985 and the cosmetics and power cable setup was precisely the same as on the Fender Japan Sidekick Bass amp plus the hardware configuration for different style jacks used for inputs and headphones. I found the power cable routing to be oddball as the power cable went in the bottom right corner of the back of the combo amps:
Image

I've played through the Fender Sidekick 65 that a friend owns It was very bassy and lush sounding amp, surprisingly so for a solid state Japanese amp. It would absolutely make a great recording amp as it was dead quiet with no noise whatsoever and sounded quite rich. It also had never been serviced. Amazing since it was nearly 30 years old.

By comparison, here is the by all accounts the most awesome Elk if you are a Japanese bassist. The ELK VIKING-BASS head which was 100 all-tube-watts from an EL34 quad pushed by two 12AX7's and one EL84. I've been looking for one of these to try for about 15 years. No luck. I suspect it sounds a lot like my old Marshal SuperBass:
Image

There is also supposedly a 135 watt Elk Viking-Bass amp, but I've never actually even seen a photo of one and I don't know if they really exist or if it is just a myth. In general Elk amps are super scarce in the USA, but you'd think eventually you'd run across everything. So far no dice on finding a Viking-Bass head of some sort but I did see a Viking 100 guitar head once. Elk gear is REAL scarce in the USA but apparently tons of Elk amps are still in use in Japan. Considering they stopped amp production by the mid-80's that is pretty good service. There are still loads of those Fender Japan transition amps around too. I see them often.


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Post subject: Re: Hisonus Excellent Bass, 1970's Japanese P-Bass copy help
Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:45 am
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FS stands for (F)ender (S)ilverface.

These silverface copies are completely different animals in their own persona, electronics-wise.


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Post subject: Re: Hisonus Excellent Bass, 1970's Japanese P-Bass copy help
Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:48 pm
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This is all speculation on my part, but I think the 135 was a legit amp. I question if it was a production amp, however.

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Post subject: Re: Hisonus Excellent Bass, 1970's Japanese P-Bass copy help
Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 11:32 pm
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affprod wrote:
This is all speculation on my part, but I think the 135 was a legit amp. I question if it was a production amp, however.


I've seen photos of the Loch Ness Monster, but not of the Elk 135!

You surely have seen this one of Nessie with her Fender Stratobass prototype:

Image


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