Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Houston, We Have a Fake (me thinks)
- Thread starter Quadzilla
- Start date
Post 74 (?) 70's era Fenders had a bullet truss adjuster at the headstock, but it was very different than what's pictured on this one for sale on Reverb
It's a Nash bass but you want people to think it is a Fender, right?
Lot of indications of "fake": Truss rod access, decals on the back of headstock, neck plate with "micro tilt" hole ( but no hole! ), and so it goes...
I m not saying the bass isn’t misrepresented. I’m trying to say that the headstock adjustment has been used throughout the 80s, 90s, 2000s on mia fender basses. If we went by the fake serial # , yes , it should have a bullet.
Again, nope. It's a black reliced 70's Jazz with maple fingerboard and block inlays. The only thing missing was matching headstock and the gold Fender decal. The font is smaller than a "true" Fender as well.
Quite honestly everything on this bass screams Fender. Other than the too small Fender decal.
Not trying to he argumentative, but I put a Fender decal on my bass and am not trying to pass it off as a Fender...
It’s a fugazi. Actually, it’s a Squier VM 70’s with an aftermarket bridge and phoney decals. I have a VM 70’s and recognized it immediately. Even has the stock knobs.
^^^this happened to me, however you CAN get your $ back and I did. The scammers never ship anything to your actual address, and you can have paypal speak with Fedex or UPS (I did) and the carrier will provide the name of the person on the address. It doesn’t match, weights are never even close because the scammer has no idea what they’re doing, and the dimensions are always 100% wrong. Boom, refund. I even called my credit card company since I used that via paypal, and they were happy to stop it if paypal couldn’t….
If you are not trying to pass it off as a Fender, why would you put the Fender name on it?
Explained in the previous post. But in grand TB fashion this is not good enough. Have a great night.
Maybe I'm just confused. What parts of the bass are Fender and what parts are Nash?
(imho) putting a different brand of decal on a bass that isn't of that brand is really silly. Kinda like putting a DeWalt decal on a Harbor Freight power tool. However, there isn't really anything wrong with it unless they try to sell it as something that it is not.
I got taken on Reverb once by this. Seller shipped a 1 lb small box to a random address in my zip code. The box was supposed to contain a bass. I paid with PayPal and I got reimbursed. This was maybe 6 months ago or less. At first it was denied but when I called paypal and spoke with someone and explained it, they reversed the denied claim and reimbursed me.
Last edited:
There is neither Fender nor Nash parts on the bass in the OP. Its a Squier VM with awful fake logo.
Whatever people do in their own bedrooms is their business; if they want to put a vanity logo on their prized Squeer bass then it's up to them.
However, when they offer it for sale with that unauthorised trademarked logo on it they are breaking the law, regardless whether they "honestly" disclose it to the buyer or not.
The argument that there is no harm done by releasing an upbranded instrument into the wild fails because the original seller, no matter how honest their intentions, does not have any say in how ongoing owners choose to proceed going forward and whether subsequent buyers get taken in by it.
All that said though, the likelihood of Fender going after an individual for infringing their intellectual property is infinitesimally small.
For a bit of light relief, this is one I bought at a car boot sale a couple of years ago; I'm still in the process of getting it stripped and refinished.
However, when they offer it for sale with that unauthorised trademarked logo on it they are breaking the law, regardless whether they "honestly" disclose it to the buyer or not.
The argument that there is no harm done by releasing an upbranded instrument into the wild fails because the original seller, no matter how honest their intentions, does not have any say in how ongoing owners choose to proceed going forward and whether subsequent buyers get taken in by it.
All that said though, the likelihood of Fender going after an individual for infringing their intellectual property is infinitesimally small.
For a bit of light relief, this is one I bought at a car boot sale a couple of years ago; I'm still in the process of getting it stripped and refinished.
D
I honestly don't understand why people stick Fender decals onto Squier basses. What's the point (except for scamming people online)? Do you want others to think you own a Fender? Why??? Anyone who knows anything about guitars/basses will spot the difference and the audience won't care. I just don't get it.
I've got a 20 years old Squier Affinity P-bass. Early 2000s Yako-manufactured, not PJ. It's one of my favourite basses (and I own 40+ basses, many of them quite expensive). That lowly Squier has one of the best tones I've ever heard in a bass and the neck is extremely comfortable. The only negative is a rather severe deadspot on the G-string 7th fret but I can work around that. The tone of that bass is worth it. To be fair I did replace the pickup but nothing fancy, just a cheap Fender "Original". Everything else is 100% stock, including the closed tuners that everyone says are junk but guess what, they work flawlessly after 20 years of regular use, including a lot of gigging. I can't say the same about some of my Fenders...
Shortly after purchasing it I sanded off the Squier logo because I wanted to decorate the headstock with a band-related design. Years later I regretted this decision (the band no longer exists) so I wanted to get a new decal for the headstock. But I would NEVER use a Fender logo on a Squier. Sadly I've never found Squier decals for sale anywhere but I'd rather leave that headstock naked than stick a Fender logo on it. That's just silly IMO.
I've got a 20 years old Squier Affinity P-bass. Early 2000s Yako-manufactured, not PJ. It's one of my favourite basses (and I own 40+ basses, many of them quite expensive). That lowly Squier has one of the best tones I've ever heard in a bass and the neck is extremely comfortable. The only negative is a rather severe deadspot on the G-string 7th fret but I can work around that. The tone of that bass is worth it. To be fair I did replace the pickup but nothing fancy, just a cheap Fender "Original". Everything else is 100% stock, including the closed tuners that everyone says are junk but guess what, they work flawlessly after 20 years of regular use, including a lot of gigging. I can't say the same about some of my Fenders...
Shortly after purchasing it I sanded off the Squier logo because I wanted to decorate the headstock with a band-related design. Years later I regretted this decision (the band no longer exists) so I wanted to get a new decal for the headstock. But I would NEVER use a Fender logo on a Squier. Sadly I've never found Squier decals for sale anywhere but I'd rather leave that headstock naked than stick a Fender logo on it. That's just silly IMO.
Aside from everything else already mentioned, you have a late '70s (or possibly early '80s) Jazz with 4-bolt neck joint, absent bullet truss adjuster and a decal claiming it was built in a factory that didn't even exist until 1985!
Exactly. And then they rationalize it by saying “it’s obviously not a Fender”. Obvious to who?
