Blazer w/ Unusual Headstock Decal

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Author Message   Michaelkaufman Username: Michaelkaufman Registered: 11-2002 Posted on Monday, March 19, 2007 - 4:59 pm:    Has anyone seen a Blazer with this headstock decal? Ebay Item #320091209206 mk   Telstar Username: Telstar Registered: 4-2006 Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - 6:23 am:    It's not so much the decal - it's the headstock itself and -in fact- the whole guitar that worries me and reminds me so much of a Cimar. Ibanez pretty much held on to the headstock design from the early Blazer - Roadster - Roadstar - newer Blazer. Have a look at musik-meinl.de in the archive: the 1980 (german) catalogue features the Cimar Stingers on page 24. That's what this is, Michael, with a fake Ibanez decal !   Michaelkaufman Username: Michaelkaufman Registered: 11-2002 Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - 7:30 am:    What do you know about the vintage Cimar guitars? mk   Telstar Username: Telstar Registered: 4-2006 Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - 11:15 am:    Not too much, really, Michael. I know they came from the same company (Hoshino) that distributes Ibanez. The quality of these Stingers by Cimar wasn't quite the level of Ibanez's, but they weren't bad at all, and dead cheap. Can it be that Cimars were made in Korea? Does anybody know? The Cimar brand was used for acoustics, electrics and also for amplifiers (see the 1976 Cimar amps and the 1976 Cimar guitars brochures on the same site (musik-meinl.de).   Telstar Username: Telstar Registered: 4-2006 Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - 3:11 pm:    Funny thing: I just had a look at Jim Donahue's site (Noah James Guitars). He's got a vintage Ibanez archive and shows a guitar just like the Stinger (and just like the ebay guitar!) in the Blazer department, and, sure enough, it has an Ibanez decal... Somebody here must know the full story on Cimar??   Michaelkaufman Username: Michaelkaufman Registered: 11-2002 Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - 5:13 pm:    You're right. I'm guessing it was a very early Blazer and soon thereafter, they changed the decal. mk   Bassassin Username: Bassassin Registered: 1-2006 Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 2:25 pm:    It' not a fake decal - chck out Noah James' Blazer page: http://www.noahjames.com/vintagepage/BLAZER.HTML The very early Ibanez Blazer basses also had this headstock shape, plus a different pickup to the later models. These are actually quite sought-after, according to various people on the www.bassworld.co.uk forum, who rate it as better than the later, more Precision-derived Blazer bass. It looks like this design was rebadged as the Cimar Stinger after the Blazer was updated - Cimar was a Hoshino brand, AFAIK. Another interesting anomaly is that this headstock design also appeared on CSL branded Stratocaster & Jazz Bass copies around 1980. I actually own a CSL Jazz with this headstock. The neck is otherwise different - it has a maple board & black block inlays, a slim Jazz profile & heel-end truss rod adjustment. It's also a great playing & sounding bass. Jon.   Bassassin Username: Bassassin Registered: 1-2006 Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 2:44 pm:    Ha - that's what you get when you post without reading the whole thread! Anyway, I had a Cimar Jazz copy a while ago - I'd say early/mid 70s. It was Japanese-built, no serial number, but with the neckplate stamp on the bottom of the plate, which seems quite common on Fuji Gen-built guitars. It was plainly a budget instrument - ply body, basic routing under the scratchplate, two-saddle bridge etc, but it played & sounded well enough. The pickups were the round-end types which appear on many 70s Jazz copies, and the tuners were the small, closed-back sort common to many basses from the era. A guy on the aforementioned Bassworld site bought a different Cimar Jazz from Ebay a couple of years back - it appeared to be a standard 70s J copy, except it had headstock the same as the more usual Blazer design. It was Japanese-built. I'm inclined to think that Cimars from the 70s & early 80s were built alongside Ibanez at Fuji Gen, maybe slightly lower specified & cheaper construction, like some of the off-brand Fuji Gen instruments, eg CSL. There certainly seems to be a lot of crossover with components & designs. Jon.

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