I’m not one for selfies for the camera and I do not get along most of the time as I’m not photogenic at all. But it had been a while since I taken a shot of myself with my bass and decided to correct that error. And how could I not take a picture of myself playing bass without a Black Sabbath t-shirt on? It’s a rule.
My bass was manufactured in Japan by Conrad in 1973 and I’m the sole owner of this guitar since I bought it in 1973. Conrad called this the “Professional Bison” bass and it is a decent copy of the Gibson EB3 with slotted headstock. It was such a good copy that Gibson gathered up all the other guitar manufacturers of the time and sued all the companies in Japan who were stealing their designs. So 1973 was the last year that Conrad was able to use the Gibson SG style for their guitars and basses as the lawsuit was successful in protecting the American guitar designs.
Being that it is from the “lawsuit era” of knock-off guitars, my bass is a bit of a collectible. I once had a music dealer offer me $2,000 for it. I obviously refused his offer. I sincerely doubt this bass is worth that much today, but I do know it is very rare, especially in the excellent condition I’ve kept this bass. I have the neck straighten like once every 5 to 10 years and have the electronics checked out. Still plays nice and is a very smooth sounding bass. So you can see why I chose my bass to be Bud’s bass, even though I do not use the slotted headstock on his version.
And as they say, now you know.
I even found the original catalog page from 1973 that features my bass along with the other “Bison” line of guitars.
I’ll avoid calling you a little crusty crab who needs love or joke that you won the war by giving the Germans and Italians a good crabbing (Actung das crabber phish). Telling my nieces and nephew that grand pa scared off the dinosaurs. Or saying a little thing who needs love unless you want to be loved while being crabby.