Fresher Personal Bass from Japan – just as good as a Tokai?

When looking for a bargain Japan-made Fender copy bass that’s actually pretty darned good, one of the better ones is a Tokai Hard Puncher, which is a Precision Bass copy. Tokai’s Jazz Bass copy model was called the “Jazz Sound”. The Tokai models are known to play and sound great and are easy to upgrade with modern pickups.

If you cannot locate a Tokai (they are getting more difficult to come by these days), there is another option, the Fresher brand. They also made J-Bass and P-Bass copies in the late ’70s and into the early ’80s called the Fresher Personal Bass.

The two videos below are basic examples of the sound you can get out of a Fresher, both for their P-bass and J-bass copies.

As is typical to Japan-made basses of the late ’70s and early ’80s, the woods are usually fantastic and the frets well done, but the weak point is the electronics. This is not true of all Japan-made basses of that era, but don’t be surprised if you have to redo the wiring and solder connections, and possibly perform a re-shielding.

Just about any modern pickup really brings out the punch in a Fresher. Aero, Aguilar, Bartolini and several others are all good choices. Bear in mind however that you don’t need much to really make these basses sound great. A traditional passive-wired setup with modern electronics works very well to really get that great tone.