Endangered Species: Fender Japan Instruments (Made/Crafted in Japan)

My "endangered species" '51 re-issue:

 

MIJ E-Series P (1984-'87). I love this bass.


'94 MIJ Fretless Jazz.

 

Keepin this thread alive...
Just arrived and got a fresh setup..,,
Japanese squier 1985 Jazz Axxxxxx serial.

 

I'll double down.

 

Couldn't resist. Thoman has the last of them for 1080,- Euros and this was B-stock for 990,- (has a small dent on the headstock):


This is Fender Japan Bass Nr. 5 in my arsenal, supported by 1 MIJ Strat. Although I have already a Pawn Shop Bass Vi, I simply couldn't resist...

One more: Nr. 135 of the Duck Dunn Signature Precision from 1997, came with the same Pickups as the US '62 RI stock:

 

Yay!
NBD - Fender CIJ 62 Reissue Jazz | TalkBass.com

 

Here's one of my more rare MIJ fenders. The short lived Heartfield Model HM IV.
It sports three single coil jazz pickups and a strat style 3 way switch. Very slim neck.
I also have the USA version.
This was my first MIJ fender and the one that started my GAS for odball MIJ fenders..

 

My A string is awfully quiet on my Geddy Lee.

Not a pickup level issue for sure. I think it's setup issues

 

As per request of Malak, I'm posting this here, and I'm quoting myself from the Jazz Bass thread.

"Not the greatest picture, but my Fender Japan Jazz bass, painted in what's called Old Candy Red. A bit of a story, I bought this bass in Japan on a whim, without considering how to get it back home to Hawaii. Tried taking the body and the neck apart and stashing them in the suitcase. Neck didn't fit, so the body went in, and the neck was hand carried, wrapped in bubble wrap. That was fun."

 

The bass I ordered from Ishibashi just arrived. (Ship date 05/08)
Nothing fancy, but this was exactly what I was looking for. Vintage white!
Purchased as new with a serial number from 2013. When they told me it would take 3-4 days to come from another shop, my mind immediately went to the basses off the wall at Guitar Center. This bass was well cared for by comparison.

 

From what Johan told me, they have so "little" space over there in their stores that pretty much ALL of their inventory gets put out on display, but unlike here, anyone who wants to try out a guitar must be accompanied by one of their sales staff at all times, so this obviously prevents a lot of the "demo" wear and tear all of us here in the states normally associate with display guitars at a music store.

In fact, my Black JB62SS that I got most recently from them still managed to show up in its original box with all the paperwork and the Fender Japan tagger tied on the neck. My JB62-US was also perfect without any sign of ever being out on a floor, even though Johan told me that he was pretty sure it was.

All my purchases originated from one of their other stores and had to be shipped to their central office where Johan and Co. reside and do the International sales.

Congrats on the bass!

 

Wow, that thing is super cool.

 

So I learned something new about my PB555... there is a P pickup by the bridge (let's call these poles A and B) and then another P pickup closer to the usual spot (let's call these poles C and D).

The way the switching works, is that with one of the switches you can iso A+B at the bridge, you can run all four A+B+C+D, or you can iso C+D in the P spot.

The other switch - which I thought was a series/parallel switch - is actually something completely different. In one position, it allows the options above, but when switched the other way, you are actually getting the B+C pair, which is basically a reverse P in more or less the Stingray sweetspot.

I'm going to have to experiment with this a bit - but very creative thinking on the part of FJ to try something like this.

 

Here's my '62RI Jazz Bass CIJ

 

Well... if they decided to let you over the border, and you can get thru the gatehouse and past the security to get into my building... you'd have to choose from one of the 8 units on each of the 56 floors. lol. If you did that, you'd find these 3 MIJ beauties in my living room, but don't clean me out completely and don't even look in my bedroom, ok?

 

JB62-VSP (Vintage Special)!!! Four weeks from first email to arrival. Several basses were sold out from under me due to Ishibashi's peculiar tendency to correspond once a day at around 0400 PDT. And my first JB62-VSP got sold to someone else after I had paid for it. Ultimately, I received a very nice 2012 NOS JB62-VSP with a little dust on the bridge and one little scratch on the back of the body. It came with a fancy Fender gig bag and a soft cotton sleeping bag that encloses the bass. Well armored for its journey in a heavy cardboard box with lots of bubble wrap that took some time to unravel. US Customs exacted their pound of flesh; 5% duty plus some add-on fees, totaling $50. Fortunately the yen-USD exchange rate was moving in my favor. Pretty darn reasonable in the end; probably why Fender shut them down.

Beautiful fit and finish with a nitro top coat. Two piece alder body; a lovely burst. The neck has a nice thick rosewood fretboard and feels great. Frets are well finished. After the neck settled in, I changed strings to GHS Pressurewounds medium light. Action goes pretty low. The new strings converted a really good jazz bass to a growling tone monster. I think the neck could use a little more relief. I'll wait a bit and see about that. Weight is a tad north of 9 pounds. Hoped for less but I can live with it. This is a *really* nice, butt-kicking bass. Long term relationship here.

My other MIJ/CIJ Fenders are:

1997 Precision Lyte Deluxe in Mahogany
1997 '75 Reissue Jazz in Natural Ash
1998 Duck Dunn Signature Precision in CAR
2011 Classic Series '70s Precision in 3TSB
2013 FSR Jazz with Precision pickup in Old CAR

I recently traded a gem of a '70s Jazz to my instructor. And (sob!) I recently took a pass on a gorgeous E series Precision and a brand new PB70. Just too many basses.

Fender Japan, domo arigato gozaimas. We will miss you!

 

The one bright spot, hopefully, is that Fender will see how well the JB62SS and the Modern Player SS Jazz bass sold and release a true 30" Jazz and Precision. And not in their normal black or sunburst, but in colors that actually look good.