Ironically, it appears that there were even minor differences in the hardshell cases between the Conrad and Univox Lucy instruments. As seen at top, a Conrad copy rests in its factory case. When compared to the Univox case seen below, the Conrad has some minor differences. First, notice the similarities. Black covered toylex over a thin plywood comprises the outside of the cases, shaped in the usual guitar fashion with yellow crushed velvet on the inside. About midway through the neck a braced support rises up from the bottom of the case to cradle the neck, while behind this support lies the pick case. Also notice the matching handles. But although the handles match up perfectly, notice that they are positioned differently on the cases. On the Conrad case the handle is much more forward when compared to the Univox case which almost certainly is going to make the case somewhat more uncomfortable to carry.

Given the weight of the acrylic body, and, given the forward position of the handle on the Conrad guitar case, it's pretty much a given that when carrying it around that the weight of it will be on the first index finder, with the neck portion of the case pointing skyward. In contrast, the Univox case below has its handle placed further back, and more over the acrylic body - so that the weight of the entire instrument is more centrally distributed on the handle, which almost certainly makes for a better traveling case, with better balance to it.

Notice too the latches. While the back latches appear the same, the placement of the front latches are different. On the Conrad case, one of the latches is behind the handle, whereas on the Univox it is in front of the handle. If you compare the latch to the upper cutaway horn on the guitar body you will notice that the latches are actually pretty close - around mid-way on the cases actually, it's really the handle placements that make it stand out more.

The latch up by the headstock appears to be more forward on the Univox case and the case itself has more squared off bends to it - in and around the headstock region when compared to the Conrad case. Lastly, the neck support on the Conrad case is located on the 11^th fret - where the same neck support is on the 12^th fret on the Univox case.

These are all minor differences to be sure, but differences nonetheless - which makes it all the more interesting when one considers the likelihood that the cases for these instruments were probably ordered from the same vendor.

As seen upper left and right - front and back views of the Conrad 'Bumper' Bass^® model #40224 which features 21 frets on a 30^3/8"scale length. Upon closer examination it becomes obvious that the Conrad Bumper bass more closely matches the Univox Lucy^® bass, than the Conrad Bumper guitar does the Lucy guitar model. As seen upper left, the bass model is equipped with the identical hardware as the Lucy bass. At upper right, and seen from the backside, with two pickups mounted in this bass, you may have noticed the rather small tongue of the necks on these instruments. For with the two pickups spaced apart for more tonal variety, the necks cannot seat very deeply in the acrylic body which tends to make them much less stable than the Dan Armstrong · Ampeg model.

However, and as seen more closely at left, there are a few differences between the Conrad bass and the Univox Lucy model, as the Conrad neck features 21 frets whereas the Lucy bass only has 20 such frets. The pickups feature a solid (no holes) chrome cover over them - again like the Lucy model. The combination bridge/tailpiece as well as the scratchplate are also identical to the Univox. Even the black pickup rings are the same. In fact, the only other difference between the Conrad bass and the Univox Lucy bass are the type of knobs that were placed on the volume and tone controls. As can be seen here on the bass, and in the earlier photos of the Conrad guitar model, the Conrad Bumper instruments utilize an all chrome type of speed knob vs. the knurled aluminum knobs with circular wooden inserts of the Univox Lucy models. Notice the body sculpting on these instruments. While they closely resemble the Dan Armstrong · Ampeg instruments, they lack any such sculpting in the cutaways.

At upper left and seen from the front, the Conrad Bumper bass - like the Lucy bass both feature a Gibson 'moustache', or 'open-book' style headstock. The headstock features a thin wooden veneer with its name across the top - again just like the Univox Lucy bass and unlike the Dan Armstrong · Ampeg bass which has its name on the scratchplate of the instrument.

As seen at upper right - the Conrad headstock - from the backside. Many of the Japanese guitars originally displayed problems when exported - mostly due to dryer climates of other countries where bindings would soon become unglued, and necks beginning to exhibit various issues. Soon, the manufacturers all began using better glues, along with longer gluing and clamping periods for their instruments in order to correct these issues. Lastly, they began to use 3-piece laminated woods, usually maple, as seen here, with a thin strip of walnut in the center - sandwiched between the them and with the grain oriented 90 degrees from the side pieces, thus creating a very strong neck that was not prone to shifting, splitting or warping.