KENT by Teisco Model 534 Basin Street Bass 1965 - Dark Natural, Black

Kent Model 534 Basin Street Model Solid Body Electric Bass Guitar, made by Teisco (1965), made in Japan, sunburst lacquer finish, nato mahogany body and neck, rosewood fingerboard.

The Kent Model 534 "Basin Street" itself is a slightly unusual instrument, one of the very few long-scale basses in the early Japanese import period. Kent was a brand of NYC jobber Bugeleisen & Jacobson, who were in the vanguard of importing fairly large numbers of electric guitars from japan starting seriously around 1964. B&J promoted the Kent brand very aggressively at the time, with lavish color catalogs that self-consciously aped Fender's kids-having-fun graphic sensebility. The brand ran up through the end of the '60s, but this is from the early period of the Kent's heyday.

The scale on this bass is 33 1/2", just a bit shy of Fenders 34". Nearly all early Japanese-made basses stuck to the short 30" scale, making this rare exception a much more prifessional-feeling instrument for its time. It is simply made with a bolt-on neck topped with a bound, block inlaid rosewood fingerboard and a VERY Fenderlike headstock. The pickup is basically the same as the now-vaunted early "gold foil" Japanese units, just under a plain silver cover. The pickguard is chromed metal, with the centrally-mounted pickup and plastic tone and volume knobs and the jack in the usual spots.

Kent instruments were very popular here in the NYC area where B&J were located, especially among the local garage bands who could not afford a Fender. We don't know where the "Brothers Tyme" did their thing, but this bass was obviously a big part of their act! As a bass this is a decent instrument, but as a '60's relic this is a truly stellar piece!
 
Overall length is 46 in. (116.8 cm.), 13 3/4 in. (34.9 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm.) in depth at side. Scale length is 33 1/2 in. (851 mm.). Width of nut is 1 5/8 in. (41 mm.).