1985 Daion Savage custom beater with a bad attitude and killer tone.

[Honch]

Strictly 80s basses for me are headless. Nothing sticks out as "pure 80s" as much as headless. Daion had some kind of timeless design. What we all can agree on - it seems - in this thread is that they hold up, during the decades and doesn't detoriate neither on tone, performance or neck warp. I am sure other obscure brands from the 80s with a set or neck through neck bass, would show up signs these days of neck warping and other things. For sure. And if then, they're a major chore to fix. The sound wasn't "80s" as if there ever was one. It's just "bass" like any other thing out there. Comfortable, and not much neck dive to speak of. I e no Warwick dive....

If you find some second hand, used you may very well take the plunge and buy it and most likely NOT ending up having a dud. I mean, something that you have to fix and spiff up big time, until it even works decently. I think some of the designs were a tad "just-to-show-we-don't-copy-or-counterfeit-anyone" but some of them were just classic traditional shape, and design.

Ok, then, just good luck with your Daion bass!

 

[Honch]

The one I bailed out on (pics above) was a showcase, or sample specimen. I knew one that worked at the wholesale company in Sweden, that carried Korg, Marshall, and other big brands, and whenever they came home from NAMM; Frankfurt trade fairs, they had a lot of samples for evaluation sent to them. This "demo specimen" was sent to them, and if they decided to carry them, and buy a bunch of them, this sample item came in "for free" so to speak, and it was part and parcel of the whole deal. If they didn't want them, they either had to send the item back, or pay (however, at discount) for that one only. So when they started to sell these, I got wind of it, but I thought that "hey, if they didn't pay anything for it, why selling it to anyone at a - albeit - discount price?" I thought I could bargain on it a bit more, but since it was some kind of "new and hot brand" back then hyped by both themselves and national wholesaler, I thought I skimp on this one this time, and wait for another opportunity to show up. Say, when someone goes bankrupt and they will be forced to have this huge bankrupcy sale... but it didn't happen, ever. Ha ha, I couldn't afford it anyway back then, no matter what. But I DID like that bass a lot!

 

[GretschWretch]

Fenders are timeless because they are iconic and are associated with every decade of music since they have been in existence. They cannot be pegged to a particular decade. Daions are timeless because they are so obscure that they cannot be pegged to a particular decade. They were hardly seen.

 

[Mbechmann]

I have just read this thread. First things first. I am not a fan of your mod. Sorry to say but that mod just brought the value from a 700usd to a 200usd. People want these original. They are way to rare to go for the modded instruments.

Time for a little bit of info.

First, Daion was created in 1977 by Yamaki in Japan. They were 2 brothers, where 1 owned the Yamaki factory, and the other one owned Daion distribution in Japan (that part was actually started in 1968). As I said, in 1977 they decided to create the Daion branded instruments. All original design and top of the line. It simply doesnt get any better than this.

Due to several problems along the way - long delivery, shipping issues, and so on - they went bankrupt in 1984. They produced 33000 instruments in total doing that time. Fender builds around 25000 pr month these days...

We think that Chushin bought everything in that bankruptcy sale, and continued to build Daions until 1987, when they sold the brand to Samick Korea.

Samick again produced Daions from 88-92. At that point the brand was sold to China - and in China they also added Daion Rockson.

As for the quality. The best quality was the Yamaki build instruments. I have a Mk XX-bass that I play and when I ask people when they think it was made, they say 4-5 years ago. Its actually build in 1981 but its in such stunning condition still.

When Chushin took over, they build a very limited number of Yamaki look-a-like instruments. We think they were build using parts from the Yamaki factory - which is why we call them Salvage instruments. 90% of the Chushin ones are Fender copies of some sort - mostly Strats, LPs and P-basses. The quality was at best mid-range and it dropped the closer to 87 you got.

When Korea took over the quality dropped again. These were low end instruments now. A lot of these were sold to Australia.

The China version... There is a reason why we call these toy-instruments

Now here is the fun part. All of this leads to some VERY interesting questions. First, how do you know its build in 1985? Your Savage is Yamaki build, and they went under in 1984... Either you are wrong in the date, or you have a Chushin build salvage instrument. I should be able to tell you more if you tell me the serial number of your bass (maybe in a pm if you dont want that shared publicly).

Horch, I would love to talk more to you about the Scandinavian connection. I am Danish and I have had trouble finding out anything of who and where they were imported to. So I think your might have the info I have been looking for

Last but not least, if you want to know more about Daions feel free to join the Facebook group DaionOnline. We have done LOADS of research and have some really good and solid contacts

Log into Facebook | Facebook

Oh, here is a picture of my Mk XX bass

 

[ProgressiveDoom]

I have just read this thread. First things first. I am not a fan of your mod. Sorry to say but that mod just brought the value from a 700usd to a 200usd. People want these original. They are way to rare to go for the modded instruments.

Time for a little bit of info.

First, Daion was created in 1977 by Yamaki in Japan. They were 2 brothers, where 1 owned the Yamaki factory, and the other one owned Daion distribution in Japan (that part was actually started in 1968). As I said, in 1977 they decided to create the Daion branded instruments. All original design and top of the line. It simply doesnt get any better than this.

Due to several problems along the way - long delivery, shipping issues, and so on - they went bankrupt in 1984. They produced 33000 instruments in total doing that time. Fender builds around 25000 pr month these days...

We think that Chushin bought everything in that bankruptcy sale, and continued to build Daions until 1987, when they sold the brand to Samick Korea.

Samick again produced Daions from 88-92. At that point the brand was sold to China - and in China they also added Daion Rockson.

As for the quality. The best quality was the Yamaki build instruments. I have a Mk XX-bass that I play and when I ask people when they think it was made, they say 4-5 years ago. Its actually build in 1981 but its in such stunning condition still.

When Chushin took over, they build a very limited number of Yamaki look-a-like instruments. We think they were build using parts from the Yamaki factory - which is why we call them Salvage instruments. 90% of the Chushin ones are Fender copies of some sort - mostly Strats, LPs and P-basses. The quality was at best mid-range and it dropped the closer to 87 you got.

When Korea took over the quality dropped again. These were low end instruments now. A lot of these were sold to Australia.

The China version... There is a reason why we call these toy-instruments

Now here is the fun part. All of this leads to some VERY interesting questions. First, how do you know its build in 1985? Your Savage is Yamaki build, and they went under in 1984... Either you are wrong in the date, or you have a Chushin build salvage instrument. I should be able to tell you more if you tell me the serial number of your bass (maybe in a pm if you dont want that shared publicly).

Horch, I would love to talk more to you about the Scandinavian connection. I am Danish and I have had trouble finding out anything of who and where they were imported to. So I think your might have the info I have been looking for

Last but not least, if you want to know more about Daions feel free to join the Facebook group DaionOnline. We have done LOADS of research and have some really good and solid contacts

Log into Facebook | Facebook

Oh, here is a picture of my Mk XX bass

View attachment 1196313

I can appreciate that you dont like my mod, I knew that I was killing the original factor and diminishing the value and I am still happy I did the mod the way I did. Im never parting with it so value means nothing to me. I did keep all my original parts and if I want to I could rebuild this bass back to its original state and all a Daion purist might notice is that the paint will be a shade that never came from factory. All my mods are reversible. I thank you for your Daion knowledge and I am interested in finding out what year my Daion is, I will PM you the number a little later. Thanks.

 

[Mbechmann]

I can appreciate that you dont like my mod, I knew that I was killing the original factor and diminishing the value and I am still happy I did the mod the way I did. Im never parting with it so value means nothing to me. I did keep all my original parts and if I want to I could rebuild this bass back to its original state and all a Daion purist might notice is that the paint will be a shade that never came from factory. All my mods are reversible. I thank you for your Daion knowledge and I am interested in finding out what year my Daion is, I will PM you the number a little later. Thanks.

I am a little bit of a purist myself so it hurts a bit to see it That being said. I thought your had made all new holes and so on for this mod. Keeping the old parts is the right thing to do. So I am happy to hear that.
As for the paint. Thats the strange part. Some colors are much rarer than others. Black is one of the most common one, where solid blue or transparent Green is the most rare one. Red is in the middle. However, the black ones sell faster than the red once so from that perspective.... black is ok if you were ever going to sell it

Looking forward to the sn. I should be able to give you a lot more info through that

 

[ThudThudThud]

Cool thread. I can't seem to get my head around the early 80s Japanese manufacturers (I have an 81 Washburn with the same issue) positioning PJ pickups in weird places.
The P pickup is one place forward from the Fender position. The lower split is aligned with where the upper split should be on a Fender. and the upper split forward of there.
The J pickup is one pickup's width closer the bridge.
The result is that the J is a bit thin, and the P is a little boomy. Mixed together they aren't quite that PJ shimmer you get with a Fender style, but a brittle boom.
Odd thing.

 

[ProgressiveDoom]

Cool thread. I can't seem to get my head around the early 80s Japanese manufacturers (I have an 81 Washburn with the same issue) positioning PJ pickups in weird places.
The P pickup is one place forward from the Fender position. The lower split is aligned with where the upper split should be on a Fender. and the upper split forward of there.
The J pickup is one pickup's width closer the bridge.
The result is that the J is a bit thin, and the P is a little boomy. Mixed together they aren't quite that PJ shimmer you get with a Fender style, but a brittle boom.
Odd thing.

The original location of the neck pickups were located right in the sweet spot, the exact location I do my finger work so I had the issue where I would get digging and the strings would strike the pickup magnets. Was very frustrating.