Hi all - just thought I would share this one with you... Also to say: Don't buy cheap instruments from Asia unless you are ready to do some work on them to make them... We are soooo spoiled with the quality from Warmoth 
I found this bass on E-bay in Germany and at first I could not figure out where I had seen that body shape before... Then I thought: Is that a copy of a Ritter bass..? Yes it is..! The bass is made by Tokai (the lawsuit company) as a one-off show piece for NAMM 2012. Somehow it ended up at this guys place in Germany who sells Tokai instruments. I don't need it, and I was sure that the quality would be nowhere near the level I'm spoiled with from my Warmoth basses, but I could not resist - so I bought it. They only made this single piece, so it's also unique.
The body is a thick top of zebrano, over rosewood, over swamped ash. The neck is layered quatersawn maple with ebony inlays. Fretboard is rosewood. The pick ups are unknown, so is the preamp. The pick ups has EMG 35 soapbar shape, and I happen to have two of those... Hmmm... Just need an EMG preamp and this might be good..!
The build quality of the body is actually amazing, the neck -hmmm- needed a bit of work. There were actually several issues with the bass when I got it, and it was obvious, that it had been put together more as a showpiece than a bass for playing.
... The battery was wired directly to the preamp, so when a battery was installed it would draw power. I installed a stereo jack to get the on/off switch.
... The angle of the neck pocket was all wrong, so the neck pointed ''up'' meaning crazy high action. I have carefully sanded and leveled the pocket and action is now good.
... The frets were the worst I have ever seen. Looked more like old nails or something they had thrown in the thing as a last resort before bringing the bass to NAMM. It was almost impossible to play on. Yesterday I replaced the frets with SS6150 that I bought from Warmoth. Still need to level them (need to get the proper files etc as I have never done this before and have no tooling for it).
... The headstock had the shape of the Ritter headstock, but for some reason not the rounded edges (one of the really cool features of the original), so I did that as last night and repaired the edges with clear coat. Still need to carefully sand it to blend with the satin lacquer of the neck.
... Finally another cosmetic issue, they have managed to drill the hole for the *E* tuner several mm off. I don't know how one can put together such nice woods, make such a nice finish and then drill a simple hole way off..!? I will move the hole slightly.
Here are a bunch of pics of this weird bass. As mentioned I got it cheap, so I see it / use it as a ''platform'' to learn DIY stuff such as working with frets etc etc etc... It's fun and a good learning experience (so far).

I found this bass on E-bay in Germany and at first I could not figure out where I had seen that body shape before... Then I thought: Is that a copy of a Ritter bass..? Yes it is..! The bass is made by Tokai (the lawsuit company) as a one-off show piece for NAMM 2012. Somehow it ended up at this guys place in Germany who sells Tokai instruments. I don't need it, and I was sure that the quality would be nowhere near the level I'm spoiled with from my Warmoth basses, but I could not resist - so I bought it. They only made this single piece, so it's also unique.
The body is a thick top of zebrano, over rosewood, over swamped ash. The neck is layered quatersawn maple with ebony inlays. Fretboard is rosewood. The pick ups are unknown, so is the preamp. The pick ups has EMG 35 soapbar shape, and I happen to have two of those... Hmmm... Just need an EMG preamp and this might be good..!
The build quality of the body is actually amazing, the neck -hmmm- needed a bit of work. There were actually several issues with the bass when I got it, and it was obvious, that it had been put together more as a showpiece than a bass for playing.
... The battery was wired directly to the preamp, so when a battery was installed it would draw power. I installed a stereo jack to get the on/off switch.
... The angle of the neck pocket was all wrong, so the neck pointed ''up'' meaning crazy high action. I have carefully sanded and leveled the pocket and action is now good.
... The frets were the worst I have ever seen. Looked more like old nails or something they had thrown in the thing as a last resort before bringing the bass to NAMM. It was almost impossible to play on. Yesterday I replaced the frets with SS6150 that I bought from Warmoth. Still need to level them (need to get the proper files etc as I have never done this before and have no tooling for it).
... The headstock had the shape of the Ritter headstock, but for some reason not the rounded edges (one of the really cool features of the original), so I did that as last night and repaired the edges with clear coat. Still need to carefully sand it to blend with the satin lacquer of the neck.
... Finally another cosmetic issue, they have managed to drill the hole for the *E* tuner several mm off. I don't know how one can put together such nice woods, make such a nice finish and then drill a simple hole way off..!? I will move the hole slightly.
Here are a bunch of pics of this weird bass. As mentioned I got it cheap, so I see it / use it as a ''platform'' to learn DIY stuff such as working with frets etc etc etc... It's fun and a good learning experience (so far).