Amena 1829 SG Bass Copy

Made in the late 70s,in Korea. 22 frets. Fret board looks to be resin(??). Two pseudo humbuckers, each with volume and tone controls, selected by a "treble-both-rhythm" three way switch. Passive electronics. Ply body, deep red transparent lacquer, black laminate scratch plate. Body, neck and head are very much like the Gibson SG in design and apparent size - it is a short neck bass. Non-locking tuners. Came with garbage "saw wound" stings. Replaced them with flat round. The bridge is hight adjustable, with "rollers" on a threaded bar for string positioning (don't know its propper name). Nut is plastic, and the crappy stings supplied with it cut through it the first time I tuned it up.

With the replacement strings, sound is okay - lacking in upper harmonics - perhaps "dull". I always liked the tone, but I guess that it's a personal preference thing. Using the treble pick-up somewhat damps the fundumental. It was used with a Carlsbro Marlin 100W amp with a custom box containing 2 x 12" speakers and two treble horns. Never had much of a noise problem except for switch clicks, though was a little susceptible to hum at times.

Factory setup - ug! Cracked sctatch plate. Crap strings. Action needed adjusting. You get what you pay for. I've had this since new.

It does stand up to live playing and apart from the pots and switch, it's pretty much as good as it was 25 years ago, though it was really only used for a few years. Strap buttons are solid. It was gigged with a few times, and was always up to the task. Reliable in its "nothing much there to go wrong" kind of way.

I don't play much at all any more - haven't in 15 years. Mostly into Synthesizer design these days. It does what it was designed to do very well - that is it makes a great bass for a kid that may or may not continue playing - mainly a home guitar, though it will stand up to being lugged around on busses, a push-bikes etc, and still be usable for less discerning live work.