Fender Fullerton Reissue club

[WoodyJ]

And, did the early 80s Precision Special Series come with tweed cases?.

I had a new Precision Special in 1980 and it came with either a black Tolex or one of those molded black plastic ones.

I'm pretty sure that the reissue tweed cases weren't available until the Fullerton reissues came out in 1982.

Heck, I'm almost 72 and probably already "lost it"!

 

[bradd]

I picked this up over the weekend. 11/82 that's had at least 3 finishes on it. You can see a little bit of the red stain from a previous finish poking through the chips.

I may strip the current poly finish and bleach out the red stain to have a proper refin done. It appears to be alder, so I believe that it was a solid color originally. In the mean time, I'll play the heck out of it!

 

[krfoss]

Hi everyone, perhaps this question has already been answered but I can't seem to find the answer.

How does the pickup on the Fullerton '62 p pickup compare to the custom shop '62 pickup that you can currently buy? Not that I'm looking to replace the pickup, but I go to wonderin' about this and thought someone up here will know the answer.

 

[WoodyJ]

Well, that's mostly a matter of opinion, so here's mine.

I've had both on different Precisions, the original Fullerton era ones were exceptionally good and the CS ones I've had or tried have been excellent, too. I don't think there is much difference between those two choices.

However....

The very best pickups I've ever played on a Precision have been Lollars - the standard, not the overwound version. IMO it absolutely nails the early '60's "big" vintage sound with the right amp and cabinet setup. Also IMO, some (many?) modern amps and cabinets do tend to color the tone differently than the old Ampeg/Fender/ Sunn/Kustom (and other) all-tube amps of that era.

Again, just my opinion. Others may disagree and that is cool.

 

[bassdudestevo]

1983 Fender Precision ‘62 Reissue Fullerton Factory made. Very light, resonant, HUGE sounding pickups, and the absolute perfect amount of mojo.

 

[krfoss]

I have a 1983 P-bass '62 reissue and am considering switching up the strings.

How does the pickup compare to the typical American Standard p bass? I thought I read that the '62 reissues have less bass and more mid, making it more "flat", whereas the AS is more bass and more scooped.

I have TI's on my 83/ '62 bass (the exact same pair as I had on the AS) and the AS sounded fuller and deeper. I can only assume this is a result of the pickup.

So, am I crazy and hearing things that arent there, or is the '62 voiced with less bass? To that end, the TI's are mid heavy, and with a further mid boosted pickup, am I getting too much? Obviously subjective, but I miss that thicker sound of the AS with the TIs (I sold it, and only have room in my life for one p bass, so none of this "get two p basses" nonsense )

What strings would give me more low end, a slightly scooped sound, but still be warm? I'm looking into the LaBellas, maybe the Chromes... What would you all recommend?

 

[Britbonic]

I have a 1983 P-bass '62 reissue and am considering switching up the strings.

How does the pickup compare to the typical American Standard p bass? I thought I read that the '62 reissues have less bass and more mid, making it more "flat", whereas the AS is more bass and more scooped.

I have TI's on my 83/ '62 bass (the exact same pair as I had on the AS) and the AS sounded fuller and deeper. I can only assume this is a result of the pickup.

So, am I crazy and hearing things that arent there, or is the '62 voiced with less bass? To that end, the TI's are mid heavy, and with a further mid boosted pickup, am I getting too much? Obviously subjective, but I miss that thicker sound of the AS with the TIs (I sold it, and only have room in my life for one p bass, so none of this "get two p basses" nonsense )

What strings would give me more low end, a slightly scooped sound, but still be warm? I'm looking into the LaBellas, maybe the Chromes... What would you all recommend?

FWIW I owned a AS P Bass a few years ago and have a 57 AVRI (Not Fullerton). Comparing the 2, the AVRI had what I'd consider to be a classic P sound while the AS had a big more output in the lower mids. I wouldn't say it was more scooped (meaning less mids) but suspected that boosted lower mids might make it seem that way. Also felt like the AS pickups weren't as open or transparent as the AVRI which may also be a contributing factor.

Another thing to consider - is it possible the pickup heights were different on the 2 basses? That could be a contributing factor.

Not sure which strings would make a difference. I've used all the ones mentioned and can't say that there's much of noticeable difference in the bass output between them. You may want to also check out the EB Cobalt flats which I love on a P Bass.

 

[gareth]

I know serial numbers on AVRIs are not a great way of dating a bass but I saw this graph some years ago on FDP that plots serial number against neck date and there is a relationship

anyone know if this graph has been updated?

the reason I’m interested is I’ve seen an avri 62 p bass with serial number V007233 yet the neck is dated 2006 and everything about the bass says it’s a post Fullerton AVRI

 

[WoodyJ]

My best guess is that someone installed a Fullerton neck plate (or a copy thereof...) on a Corona bass.

 

[Sirfishalot]

What say you all about this bass for sale here,
is it considered a real “Fullerton” or just a Frankenfullerton?
For Sale - 1986 Fender "Fullerton" Vintage Reissue '62 Jazz
I’m interested more in what the tone might be more rather than from a collectibility aspect.

Thanks,
JayT

 

[narud]

What say you all about this bass for sale here,
is it considered a real “Fullerton” or just a Frankenfullerton?
For Sale - 1986 Fender "Fullerton" Vintage Reissue '62 Jazz
I’m interested more in what the tone might be more rather than from a collectibility aspect.

Thanks,
JayT

id want to see some pics of the contours to make sure its a left over body. itll be pretty obvious as the waist cut is way thinner.

those old 80's reissues are drier and punchier sound to my ear than a pre cbs bass which in general have had a more spongy, thicker low mid response ime.

 

[BritBass 2]

Appears to be a late Fullerton body sprayed at Corona . These are recognisable by the thicker , more blunt lower horn , possibly the original body template was damaged requiring a new version to be made but this feature appears on several later Fullerton Jazz basses from 1984.It also has the original bridge cover pilot screw holes which were not usually drilled

on Corona models.

 

[Whale]

I wish someone who worked for CBS Fender back then would write a piece on the evolution of the run.

Over the past month or two I have been on the hunt for a Fullerton Jazz Bass. In fact, I just purchased an '82 and should be receiving it soon. As it happens, I visited a retirement home with a friend a couple of weeks ago. While he was speaking to his grandmother I began a conversation with an elderly fellow who, after returning from Vietnam, worked at Fender from the early 70's into the late 80's. As I'm a combat veteran, too, we spoke about the military and our experiences, but we also spent a fair amount of time discussing a number of Fender-related topics (including the 180 degree change that happened when the employees bought the company from CBS, the complete lack of care shown by CBS in the later years, and some other random items). He did a number of jobs while at Fender, but his primary duties were rough cutting the bodies, polishing them, and lastly, quality control. Now that I have a reissue Jazz I'm thinking of going back and bringing my bass with me.

I'll ask if he wouldn't mind having me share his recollections with others on this forum.

 

[7dollarbologna]

Over the past month or two I have been on the hunt for a Fullerton Jazz Bass. In fact, I just purchased an '82 and should be receiving it soon. As it happens, I visited a retirement home with a friend a couple of weeks ago. While he was speaking to his grandmother I began a conversation with an elderly fellow who, after returning from Vietnam, worked at Fender from the early 70's into the late 80's. As I'm a combat veteran, too, we spoke about the military and our experiences, but we also spent a fair amount of time discussing a number of Fender-related topics (including the 180 degree change that happened when the employees bought the company from CBS, the complete lack of care shown by CBS in the later years, and some other random items). He did a number of jobs while at Fender, but his primary duties were rough cutting the bodies, polishing them, and lastly, quality control. Now that I have a reissue Jazz I'm thinking of going back and bringing my bass with me.

I'll ask if he wouldn't mind having me share his recollections with others on this forum.

I’m hoping for ball park production numbers, and some info on the body shape and tuner hole placement changes, who was winding pickups? - I guess that’s my “big 3”. Thank you for your efforts in advance!

 

[Whale]

I don't know if he has that amount of detail on hand, but I will certainly ask. I figured I'd talk to him about Fender in the 70's and the 80's since I, myself, am interested in what was happening at that time. If anyone else has a question you'd like to pose, please let me know and I'll be glad to add it to my list of questions.

He is an older hispanic fellow, btw. I've only met him once, but he is a very very nice and humble guy who seems to enjoy chatting about his life and has a much better sense of recall than I do.

I should note that restrictions were recently put in place within Oregon due to the pandemic. I do not know if the mandate affects visitation for retirement centers. I'll ask my friend since he goes there every other week or so.

 

[Whale]

I’m hoping for ball park production numbers, and some info on the body shape and tuner hole placement changes, who was winding pickups? - I guess that’s my “big 3”. Thank you for your efforts in advance!

I read an interview in a magazine that Gail Paz was the pickup winder for all Fullerton reissues (guitars and basses alike). In the same interview they mentioned that Fender was trying to bring back the old Pre-CBS ways of building guitars so they held a ton of classes taught by the old hands at the factory. Gail was the teacher for how to wind pickups. I'll look around to see if I can find an online copy of that interview, but I'm 99% certain Gail was the sole winder for the first AVRI series.

As for the other two questions, I'm not sure if he would know. Changes in design were usually decided higher up the food chain by the R and D office with input from the marketing people, the customer relations folks, and, of course, the various bean counters.

I lost most of my hearing in the war so it's sometimes tough to understand everything that people say to me. I thought that I heard him introduced as Mr. Garcia, but I could be totally wrong. I did, however, do a Google search and found the following image on a 1982 AVRI '57 Strat neck, so maybe it's the same guy ???

The next time my friend goes to the home I'll tag along with him. Until then, here are a few other things Mr. Garcia (?) shared with me during our chat...

The union and especially his supervisor sucked at the Fender plant. Very bad management and very poor QC standards.

Most everyone (the worker-bees) expected Fender to go under completely. They thought that the upper management would cut their losses and sell off all of the USA based manufacturing equipment.

Fender had the tendency to buy up whatever production machines looked good. If the machine broke or didn't work right they'd push it out into the back parking lot area. Mr. Garcia would go out there during his lunch hour and tinker on/fix some of the old unused or broken machines until he got them working again. This pissed off his supervisor to no end.

No air conditioning in the work areas. He remembers dripping sweat and staining the wood on the bodies. The heaters barely worked in the winter, too.

The workers were expected to finish a certain amount of instruments per day. If you didn't complete X number of items at your station you wouldn't get paid or you'd get paid less. Quality suffered because of this. They changed that rule in the early 80's.

He left the army after his tour in Viet Nam and started at Fender because he was an assistant at a cabinet maker before being drafted and because his mother's house was just down the road in Buena Park. He worked in the amp area and after a couple of months moved to cutting body blanks when the previous bandsaw guy zipped part of his finger off. They threw the dismembered finger in a Dixie Cup (which, for those of you who are too young to know, was a small disposable wax cup) and ran him to the doctor's office where everything was sewn back together. The guy returned to work a few days later and his finger ended up being good as new!

 

[Allotabass1]

The tip of my right middle finger got lopped off by a lawn mower right down to the bone.....The little guy grew back including the finger print.

We need more stories and fish hand facts from this guy. The more knowledge the better before these "historians" are all but forgotten.
Reading books by some joker who owned a Fender is useless.

 

[Whale]

I spoke with my friend the night before last. He visits his grandmother once a month or so at her retirement home. He is hoping to see her this weekend or possibly next weekend. We are under tight pandemic restrictions here in Oregon, but I'm going to tag along and ask if they will let me in to visit with Mr. Garcia .

If that does happen to be his name he may be amused to find out that the neck on my recently acquired 1982 Jazz bass has his stamp (much like the one in the pic I shared earlier). Unfortunately, my neck has a "ski jump" issue so I sent it to Erik at WarpedNeck.com to get it properly sorted out. Otherwise I'd have brought it along to show him.

I'll take notes this time so that I can remember and share all that we discuss regarding his time at Fender. He's a pretty nice guy and can be awfully sarcastic/funny.

 

[Whale]

It seems that a number of people want to hear from the former Fender employee at the retirement home. I got the chance to drop by there this afternoon and recorded our conversation on my phone. Give me a chance to transcribe it into a document and I'll copy/paste the entire chat (minus a few instances when we strayed off subject) in this thread.

For what it's worth, the conversation was great and very insightful. I certainly learned a lot, but I kind of got the feeling he was getting bored of talking about Fender by the end of it all.

 

[Whale]

Below is a word for word transcript from my conversation earlier today. The former Fender employee is elderly and is Portuguese/Latino so his use of english is not always exact. I have tried to clarify the areas where some confusion might come into play. I am anything but a professional interviewer so somewhere in the middle I tried to steer the chat back to the first AV Reissues since that is what this thread is all about.

I was kindly asked by the retirement home staff not to share his name. This was part of the deal I made to visit with the fellow and I was glad to comply.

Also omitted are the conversations we had when he strayed off topic and spoke about his/our various military experiences. For one, this is not a military forum. But more importantly, these things were shared under a veil of trust. I feel obliged to maintain that trust with him.

And with that being said, here is the transcript...