Hello everyone,
today I found a listing for aYamato SG bass from 1970 for the price of 590 $ - bass is in excellent condition and I will go to try it in the next days, but I can’t find almost any information about it I woulnd’t like to spend that money just because is Japan made.
Would anyone know if it is a good deal or if should let it go?
On my limited research, seems to be from around 1972 and to be very well thought of. I think it was made by a Japanese company named “Tombo” and reading the reviews it has gotten very good remarks for build quality, sustain and the pick-ups appear to be very hot. You will probably need to check the pots and neck and set it up. But it should be a great bass.
Tombo:
exclusiv: Morris
Just production: Norma
Brands: Angelica, Asama, Columbus, Condor, Duke, Horugel, Kinor, Montaya, Queen, Regina, Schaffer, Yamato
Not clear to determine who is the maker:
exclusiv: Hitachi, Kyowa, Terada
more brands: Ayar, Astrotone,
Beetone, Bradford, Bruno, Conqueror, Calif, Canora, Cipher, Coronado,
Cutler, Demian, Eros, Fresher, Holiday, Intermark, Lero, Mako, Marlin,
Master, Matador, Mellowtone, Memphis, Montaya, Orlando, Pleasant,
Regent, Sigma, Solola, Tamaki, Trump, Truetone, Westminster…
Hi @rss.lrnz
Welcome to the group. Don’t forget to drop a line in the introduce yourself thread.
When you get a chance post a pic of the bass you got please. Always fun to see basses that were not part of the mainstream.
By the name I would say it’s worth a look.
Yamato was the name of the tribe that conquered the other tribes and became the Japanese people. In their belief Yamato is one of the greater Kami. Not a name you would throw around.
Are you looking for an SG style bass? Vintage bass? Or just another bass? That’s a pretty specific niche there, even by Yamaha standard.
Not Yamaha, Yamato
Hi everyone and thanks a lot for replying! So, I currently own a Jolana D bass from 1987 made in Czech Republic, which is a a copy of the Rickembacker 4003. I love this bass, but is quite big, so I was thinking about getting a short scale to pair it with. I found some new Godin or Fender Mustang that sound and look great, but I’m I’m a bit bored by these “new instrumets” (I’m sure you knwo what I mean), so I saw this post of a Yamato SG from the 70’s and got interested.
I spent the last hours doing some research and as @EddieJones wrote it seems as it was produced by Tombo, along with other brands. I checked the other brands produced by Tombo and I found out that they basically made the same bass with “Columbus” ( I attached a picture of both so you can see). Apart from that, no big review or information on Yamato, I also tried to check some Japanese website but I just found that is probably made of plywood and that the quality was varying a lot over the years.
The Yamato in the picture is actually the one I will try
At this point I cant wait to try the bass next week!
Beautiful bass that is not seen everyday. I hope it is as good as it seems to be for you.
I’ll keep you posted next week, my main concern is that I often play with the E string tuned to C# and I’m not sure a short scale would handle that well, hopefully doesn’t get too sloppy
It might be a bit of trial and error. Try out some different strings that will give you higher tension. That and you might have to play with string action and setup to allow for string movement.
It will be fun to experiment without the usual measurements that we repeat.
I found this listing for one in Hamburg, Germany. A few things caught my eye.
$590 US sounds too high. Considering the one in this listing is just under $400.
It says they were produced with Maxon pickups. I’ve never heard any Maxon pickups but they are a reputable company that’s still around. Maxon gained fame as the designer of the Tube Screamer for Ibanez.
The pickups are, according to this, single coil pickups in a humbucker housing. Not bad, just unexpected. It also means if you like everything else but the pickups, it should have enough space in there to swap them out for something else.
Hi everyone,
and thanks again for all your inputs and replies! unfortuntely the seller decided to not sell the bass anymore, so I won’t even have the chance to try 
I guess I will keep looking for some other vintage bass 
