I recently picked this up pretty cheap. Seller said it's a Fender but didn't know the year. Pick up placement indicates early-mid 70's but could also be a later reissue... MIJ... or an old Warmouth or something. Neck pocket has no identifiers. PU's are Dimarzio. Anyone have an idea how to ID it?
I don't think its a fender or warmoth. Its hard to tell for sure. It looks like to me it could be one of those relic/road worn types.
I don't know if it's me but does that upper horn look a little off, a little longer than usual, in fact does the whole body look a little off?
Early Fenders had a body date pencilled in one of the pick up routs, usually hard to spot, use a magnifying glass. However the finish looks too thick for Fender nitro and it's been deliberately aged, the red and green pick up wires also point away from Fender as does the wonky pick guard
Pickguard is a replacement since it doesn't have holes for finger rest and pickup cover and the body does. Body wear looks a bit unusual to me especially along the upper body edges.
Poor relic job; the red is supposed to be darker under the pickguard, not completely faded (it should be the other way around). Neck rout is too shallow. Solid color underneath the burst...that’s not how Fender did em. There’s other issues. Without having it in front of me, I’m going with “fake, not Fender at all”
It has holes drilled for bridge/pick up covers and thumb rest, the position of which suggests an early 60s re-issue, which Squier were doing in the mid 90s
The ground strap route, the pickup routes, the lack of red in the lower horn burst and the four hole neck joint tend to indicate late sixties early seventies, but can't be sure.
If the neck pocket fits, and the bridge and pickups line up with the strings once it's all set up, I suggest you not care who made it. You'll never get tons of cash from that, as all you have is a body without a date stamp (that won't be worth much to a collector) - make a musical instrument out of it, and play the darn thing.
This is not true at all... there was no red under the pickguard on Fenders back in the day, they didn't waste the red paint where it would not be seen. This can be famously confirmed on Jaco's bass of doom and any proper replica of that bass. {} That said, I am still not convinced that this is an authentic Fender... no noticeable router hump and what can be seen of the burst paintjob does not look quite right. I wouldn't pay a premium price for this but I may consider it for a project if I was looking to build a relic'd Jazz. If you got it cheap, that's a good thing! Make it a bass and rock out!
Looks really good to me, but I am no expert. It does however, look like it was beaten with a chain. I would rock it.