GRANT - MIJ ... any information ??

Guys,
who of you can help me with some information about this brand ???
One assumption was that it could be a Guyatone brand from the 80s ... I don't know ...

No pics, because I'm just interested in some info - I've seen one 12string acoustic and a 3 pups LP-type guitar ... very 'vintage' looking, but nice ... 8)
Thanks in advance for any opinions on this brand ...
Roger

Hi - the Grants I'm familiar with are generic low-to-middling 70s JapCrap. I admit to a bit of prejudice because my first bass was a Grant - a plywood medium-scale Jazz-ish horror with comedy intonation and such a badly-misaligned bridge that the g-string fell off the fretboard above the 12th fret. It was plainly designed expressly to discourage the aspiring young bassist from pursuing music for more than half an hour of instant blisters & apoplectic frustration. Regrettably, in my case, it failed.

Anyway, as far as I've been able to tell, Grant was a brand imported by Grants music shop, in Byres Road, Glasgow, and like most UK import brands they will have sourced instruments from a variety of factories at a variety of price/quality points - I doubt they were all as godawful as my bass!

There was another brand - Grantson - which is likely associated with the same importer, the logo design unsurprisingly rips off Gibson. I recently restored an early 70s Grantson EB-0 bass copy - quite cheaply made - ply body, bolt neck etc, but pretty accurate, authentic-sounding and not bad to play once it was set up.

I'm inclined to feel that with most importer rebrands from the 70s (in the UK the likes of Columbus, Avon, Eros etc, as well as Grant) instruments should be judged on an individual basis, because of the diversity of both product ranges & suppliers.

Jon.

:lol: Sounds like you felt the same about that bass as I did about my first electric guitar - a black Avon LP copy. God, I hated that awful guitar. :evil: And then I bought a new Goldstar, & life suddenly got better. :wink:

Mike

Bassassin said:

... the Grants I'm familiar with are generic low-to-middling 70s JapCrap.
I admit to a bit of prejudice because my first bass was a Grant

Click to expand...

Welcome aboard, Jon ... :lol:
... and finally - I was abandoning hope already - someone can tell me something about this brand ... Thanks alot for your detailed comment !!! :lol:
I guess that your own experience is so much more important than any roughly hearsay about quality and issues.
BTW - when I was a beginner in playing guitar in the late '60s my first e-guitar was a cheapo red plastic covered German Framus, which was a mix between a Jaguar and a Mustang with horrible sliding controllers for pickup switching and bright/middle/deep tone control ... a terribly sounding something - but OK for improving my skills.
As a pupil without any funds, this one was the entry for my addiction but my former bandmates nearly refused playing gigs with me ... so I've jobbed additionally to be able to buy a 'real' Fender Strat.
And from this time I've kept my prejudice for Fender Jaguars and Mustangs ... :wink:
Thanks again, m8 ... you've helped me !!!!
Roger

Hi - good to be here! I can sympathise about the Avon LP copies - they were pretty wretched! However I've recently seen a couple of later Avons (with a headstock transfer rather than pin-badge) which were very nice - a Gibson Marauder & a Ripper bass. Both were very well-made & accurate copies, good sounding & very playable and, apart from the badge appear identical to the late 70s Cimar copies.

Cimar's quite interesting because it seems to have been owned by, or associated with Hoshino & Ibanez - although I'm pretty sure the Cimar copies weren't built by Fujigen.

In retrospect though I often wonder how many of the cheapo guitars we struggled with back in the day were just in need of a good setup - I'm sure if I had my old Grant bass now, I could easily realign the bridge, intonate it properly, set a comfortable action & probably make an OK player of it.

Probably. :wink:

J.