Vintage Lotus Bass Guitar (H0005?)

GodPlayedBass

GodPlayedBass

Mar 23, 2020
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East Coast USA
#1
Ran into a lotus bass on fb market place yesterday. The guy bought it in 1998, played for a year or two with his friends and then never touched it again. This bass is beautiful guys and kind of hard to find info on. Even the wikapedia page for "lotus guitars" has a paragraph explaining how impossible it is to find more info on these things. The string height is jacked up but it sounded AMAZING when I plugged it in. Anybody else own one of these ? You cant buy them on the internet at all. Got mine for $160 but he wanted $250.
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#3
Pet Sounds said:
It'll sound even better with strings on it! :laugh:
Seriously, I haven't owned a Lotus, but have heard good things. Apparently, some of these were built at the famous Matsumoko factory in Japan.
Here's a 2010 thread that may answer some questions:
NBD: Possible Vintage Lotus Bass!
Have fun with it! Nice-looking bass.
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I had to set the action bro it was so jacked up with 15 year old strings. Just bought new strings and laced it up. It sounds so good. Im absolutely shocked and what I have in my possesion
 
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#4
Lotus is a fairly well-known import brand, and yes, I think they were made at the Matsomoku factory in Japan. The other Matsomoku brands being Aria, Arai, Aria Pro II, Westone, and probably several others (like Lotus). One telltale for many Matsomoku-built instruments is the neck plate will be stamped "Steel Reinforced Neck" and "(made in) Japan."

For a long time the Matsomoku instruments were considered "sleepers", decent quality instruments available for cheap. One downside is they often have cheap electronics, but P-bass electronics are cheap and easy to replace IF the need arises.

But if it plays good, and sounds good, just keep rockin'. You got a good score. :thumbsup:
 
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#5
Crater said:
Lotus is a fairly well-known import brand, and yes, I think they were made at the Matsomoku factory in Japan. The other Matsomoku brands being Aria, Arai, Aria Pro II, Westone, and probably several others (like Lotus). One telltale for many Matsomoku-built instruments is the neck plate will be stamped "Steel Reinforced Neck" and "(made in) Japan."

For a long time the Matsomoku instruments were considered "sleepers", decent quality instruments available for cheap. One downside is they often have cheap electronics, but P-bass electronics are cheap and easy to replace IF the need arises.

But if it plays good, and sounds good, just keep rockin'. You got a good score. :thumbsup:
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This is a later model made in late 1990s. It was made in india which is apparently where all of them were made during that time
 
#6
Looking back, I wish I still had mine. You got a good deal and IMO you couldn't find anything better sounding for 3x what you paid. They were under appreciated, looked down on in the '80's. I refinished mine and got a ton of compliments. Sold for a lot more than I had in it.
 
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#7
Killing Floor said:
Looking back, I wish I still had mine. You got a good deal and IMO you couldn't find anything better sounding for 3x what you paid. They were under appreciated, looked down on in the '80's. I refinished mine and got a ton of compliments. Sold for a lot more than I had in it.
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I pluged it in last night after setting it up with new 105 Ernie ball strings (50-105) and i just could not stop making bass faces lol it sounds amazing. I love it
 
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#10
I think there's some value in this brand for the money but be prepared to do some work and be careful because they made both high and low quality products. I just picked up a J-bass copy in a pawn shop for $160. It looked really rough when I got it but all the repairs were minor and it made a wonderful fretless conversion. I will probably replace pickups as the only real expense as the originals are more noisy than usual for a J.
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