Quest Atak 2B from Matsumoku

Hello Chaps,

You may remember that John (Corsair) mentioned in another thread that I had been a naughty girl and bought a non Westone.
It's a Quest Atak 2B Bass guitar made in 1984 in Japan. The info that I have on it is that it has a solid mahogany body with a laminated top with a maple neck and fretboard, (it weighs a ton!) and that it is part of the Vantage family. (Correct me if I've got that wrong ). Either way, it is still a Matsumoku product so at least I'm keeping it in the family, so to speak.

It was described as being 'untested' and the fretboard needed some attention.

Well, it arrived yesterday, looking a bit tatty and rusty and my immediate thought was to pull it to bits to clean it up!
Ah but, wait! :!: A little voice inside my head told me to do the 'Sensible thing' and check it out first! I tightened the nut around the input socket, plugged it in, tweaked and twiddled the knobs, (which way is off and which way is on? ). Since it was bereft of strings, I got the handle of my knife and tentatively tapped the pickups - Nothing!
Oops, hold on, it helps if you turn the volume up on the amp! Right, try again - I tapped a bit more - again; Nothing!
Hang on though, I'll turn the knobs in the opposite direction! :arrow: Tap - BOOM!!! It was ALIVE!!!

I tapped again and I swear I could hear it singing, "I hear you knocking but you can't come in"!

Satisfied that the electrics were working, (to be honest, it looks as if the wiring has never been tampered with), I made the decision not to Pulverize it (that's a first! ), but to just clean it up and leave the body as it is. I had thought that it was just plain black but it is actually two tone, graduating from black up into grey, which I quite like.

The first thing that I did was to remove the bridge which was pretty manky and rusted. When I was dismantling it, I noticed spots of gold showing in the black and I discovered that it was actually a solid brass bridge which had been sprayed matt black! (Definitely Matsumoku!)

So far I have cleaned all the paint off the bridge and the neck plate, which was also painted, the chrome has pitted a fair bit on it though. I've washed and polished the body and replaced the naff little knobs that were on it. They originally had switchmaster knobs on. (More proof of it being Matsumoku!) Oh yeah, I need to make a back plate for it as well.

My next job is to repair the fretboard which is lifting along one side, an easy enough job (famous last words! ), after which, I'll put it back together again.

Right guys, I've waffled on long enough about that so here are a couple of photos of it:





Okay, I can't count! Three photos! Well, I've got to have a picture of my little helper! I think he was amazed that it wasn't in a million bits by then!




The rest of them are in the Photobucket album here. I'll add more as the work continues.

Let me know what you think of it please!

Pauline :flower: :queen:

yay - Polly!! What a good catch; these are as rare as chickens lips, eh and are indeed tied up with Vantage and therefore Matsumoku, so as you say, "in the family!"
I'm not so sure that the paint scheme is genuine, though - I'd be inclined to think that the grey would be the real McCoy, but I'm willing to be proven wrong!! If so, that black looks pretty thin and would probably lift off with careful application of thinners?
Give us a decent look at the lifting 'board; I weaseled out of mine and had it done by a pro but there's no reason to not have a go; I think to do the job properly, though, you'll have to lift it off completely and clean all of the old glue off and then re-attach it with clamps shaped to the right curvature of the neck.
But all in all, what a beauty - I as envious as anything!!

Hey up John,

Thanks for that!

Sorry to prove you wrong here mate but I've been looking at the catalogue on the Mat site and it is a factory colour; it is called Black Sun! (The same catalogue is on eBay at the minute so I will try my luck and see if I can get it ).

Too late to put any better photos of the fretboard up, I'm afraid - it has been glued and clamped successfully and the whole thing is now back together again with new strings and it is working! I haven't hung about on this one! I'll put some photos up of the results tomorrow.

I haven't made the back plate yet but that won't take much doing. It's also got a bit of a crackle on the input but that can be easily sorted outas well.

I'm absolutely over the moon with it and the bridge looks the dogs' doodahs now that I've cleaned all the paint off it. It's a hefty piece of kit mind you and I'm glad that I can't play while standing up because it weighs a ton! It's weighs about the same, if not more than a Fender Jazz!

Incidentally, did you happen to notice the shape? It is very similar to that of the Paduak!!!! Have you gone off the idea of having one now that I've pointed that out?

I've put some pearloid inlay top hat knobs on it for the time being but I'll probably go for some switch-master ones from David. The top hat ones still look nice on it though. I'll let you chaps decide what I ought to do.

Ooh, one more thing: The serial number is D400001. I'm wondering if that means that it was the first one to be made in 1984?
If that was the case, it would be even rarer than hens teeth, hens lips, rocking horse poo and the goose that laid the golden egg!

Pauline :flower: :queen:

Cool!! Where did you find that info - I missed it!! Good show, old chap!! Did you take the 'board right off?

That looks nothing like a Padauk, IMO - wishful thinking?!

Aha, Hawk-eye Polly was on the case and I hunted the info out all by myself! (Well, almost!)

Actually, if you scroll down the page here, you will see that it gives the different colours that were available.

Nah, I didn't remove the whole fretboard because it was pretty secure at the other side and so I took the chance of just squidging the glue into the lifted part and clamping it up tight - it worked and you can barely see the join, so it was a case of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!".

I still can't get over how nice the neck is and how there is virtually no wear to the frets!

I can't decide whether or not to touch in the worst bits on the body or if I should just leave it as it is!
Decisions, decisions!

Ho Hum! Is somebody beginning to change their opinions of the Paduaks, by any chance?????

Pauline :flower: :queen:

Oh, dear God, no!! They - Padauks - are a whole heap of ugly in one spot... they fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down, ...they.. well you get the idea!!


Oh, and yeah, I found the page you found and had a look; next time will engage brain before putting gob into gear, eh!! That is such a cool guitar; I'm jealous... you did so well!!

Personally, I would love to have one of those in the green sun finish, though it seems the bass only came in gray sun or white. Lame. Also, Paduaks are beautiful, and I wish they came in bass form since I can barely play guitar.

Thanks Kevin,

I like the Green Sun finish as well.

Yes, the Paduaks are beautiful, despite what John says about them. I do know that he has a love/hate thing going on with them... he loves to hate them!

Pauline :flower: :queen:

Hello again chaps,

Well, as promised here is the photo of the finished thing - 'The Beastie' as I have nicknamed it, has posed for the camera to let you all see what he looks like now that he's had a bit of a scrub up!


John,
I thought that I hadn't taken any other photos of the fretboard where it had lifted but I had forgotten to put them onto my computer! Duh! I've put them in the photobucket album along with some more new ones. Sorry about the mistake there mate!



Those bridge saddles are really hefty, they are almost half an inch deep which means that I can't get the action right down as much as I would like to. I don't know whether to replace the bridge with a Thunder type one or to take a chance and have some of the depth filed out of the original ones - what do you guys think that I ought to do?

Pauline :flower: :queen:

P.s. The full photos aren't showing properly for some reason but they can be seen in full in the Photobucket Album here.

Hi - I found exactly the same Quest Atak 2B in Hamburg/Germany - It looks exactly the same as yours - must be the twinbrother - Serial is 400142 - the electric works - I love it - Ralf

Hi Ralf. You do realize that this thread is over 7 years old?

Please start a new thread and show us some pix of your new Mats made guitar! We'd love to see it.