Fake Fender Jazz?

[hoshbrown41]

Ostensibly this was a Fender Jazz....

Now I'm not asking the ubiquitous question "WHAT YEAR IS MAH BASS?!", I'm just wondering about the legitimacy of it. I've never seen or heard of serial numbers being at the heel of the neck.

Now that I look again, I can see a pretty obvious outline (at the right angle using a glare off a light source) around the Fender logo and "Jazz Bass" on the headstock and am starting to think they aren't date or location accurate....



I know there are some of you out there with some encyclopedic knowledge out there and so if you would help me out I'd be very appreciative.

[michael_atw]

Fender Japan has put serial numbers on the back heel area of the neck since the early 90's.

Do you have a larger picture of the whole bass? There are lots of aspects of a Fender bass that can be used to ID it.

[hoshbrown41]

Originally Posted by michael_atw

Fender Japan has put serial numbers on the back heel area of the neck since the early 90's.

Good to know cause this is supposed to be a 91-92 based of the serial.

Here's a body shot:



The tort pickguard is aftermarket and the bridge is a BAII.

[michael_atw]

This can include neck pocket stamps, heel stamps, color, pickups, pots, headstock decal, serial number, etc. etc.

The serial number looks pretty legit. You can use various Fender serial number dating sites to determine a ballpark of the year. But be careful with Fender Japan, as they are now recycling the alphabet. Early Fender Japan (90's) used "Made in Japan", whereas a large amount of 2000's Fender Japan uses the "Crafted in Japan". This won't help to conclusively determine the age though as they have mixed it up in recent years.

[michael_atw]

Interesting. I don't know a whole lot myself but I'd say it might be a transition between the 80's (when Fender put the serial on the headstock) and the 90's (when they moved it). I had a Fender Japan fretless at one time with the serial on the headstock (I miss it ); judging by the unlined frets the neck looks legit from here.

How's the "Fender Jazz bass" decal look? Does it look like it's under the coats? Does the serial number look like it's under the coats? It might have a boxy line around it...but that doesn't mean it's counterfeit, the main deciding factor is if it's under or over the coats.

[Kipaste]

Am I going blind? Where's the truss rod adjustment?

[Von Felgenhauer]

probably under pickguard