Yeah, his birth year... Awesome bassist! Well, you can rest assured he didn't pay those JV's anywhere near today's ridiculous prices.
That almost calls for a new thread: "Budget Basses That Made the Charts"! 
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How much are MIJ Squier Basses really worth?
- Thread starter JohnDL
- Start date
That almost calls for a new thread: "Budget Basses That Made the Charts"! 
Vintage Mania and the "older is better" lore, finally having a dramatic effect on early MIJ Squier guitar prices?
It was bound to happen sooner or later.
It was bound to happen sooner or later.
He was speaking about the spec of the instrument and is correct sans a few of the materials used in production. Also the pre cbs fenders were no where as consistent in build quality as the 80's japan fenders. I've played many pre cbs fenders and yes the necks are very different from the Japan made. Also if you haven't check out this video of Fender production, it's fantastic.
The necks were shaped, pre cbs, by a router template which imo, would have made a consistent neck shape. I don't know if the fender factory changed the spec of the templates from year to year, or if the persons rolling the necks were taking liberties that QC never complained about, but I have rarely found two 50's, 60's fender necks that were as consistent in shape as the MIJ basses I've played/owned.
I have also owned at least 5 80's Japan fender basses and to me have the same neck profile. It's not bs from a production point of view. Perhaps they are not your preference and that's great.
Bought something like this (below) in the mid 1980's.
Sure wish I had listened to the Chuck Levin's salesman and bought an MIJ Squier instead.
As I'm now exclusively "medium scale",
I am faced with higher prices given the limited supply.
My MIJ Squiers are worth it, none-the-less.
Sure wish I had listened to the Chuck Levin's salesman and bought an MIJ Squier instead.
As I'm now exclusively "medium scale",
I am faced with higher prices given the limited supply.
My MIJ Squiers are worth it, none-the-less.
The implication by saying that the Jv instruments are built from the original blueprints is that they are going to feel like a pre cbs fender. They don't at all. To me, that's bs that they're made from the original blueprints. If they were, they should feel much more similar. That's not a preference issue.
I don't have a large sample size , but I still have my 62 jazz and have owned a 64,65,66 jazz. Ime, they didn't start feeling considerably different until the tv logo basses.
All of those basses felt way more similar than different. The Mij stuff feels completely different. Same deal with the early Mia Fullerton reissue basses. Any corona reissue feels more like an actual 62 jazz than a Fullerton reissue even though internet lore would have you believe otherwise.
I completely agree, the pre cbs basses feel very different from the mij basses. I don't believe the implication was to say they would "feel" the same as pre cbs, at least I looked at that statement from a production point of view and believe that to be correct. I would also argue that the reason the mij basses feel different is the consistency of the build quality vs what I experienced playing vintage fender basses during 10 years of attending guitar shows around the country in the 1990's. Also I admit that I wasn't present during either production eras so I'm just speaking from what I have observed in musical instrument production. That the spec/blueprints from the pre cbs fenders where used in the MIJ instrument but, may be been changed for whatever reason. It's also possible that the spec changed at fender during the pre cbs era. If they didn't make their own templates perhaps the vendor they used made a neck template slightly different. Who knows.
We have different experiences and doubtful we played on the same vintage basses even though I was traveling alot. My point is even if they were made form the original blueprints doesn't mean that fender in 1960 was building from their own blueprints. Maybe that's where some of the differences appear, I'm only speculating. It happens in production, very much so in musical instrument production.
If you buy a bass from Japan do you have to pay an import charge in Italy? Here in Blitey we have to pay 30% if we purchase goods from Japan or America (but not China??)which is a real pitty.This is my ex-MIJ PB70 which I also bought 2nd hand for a few hundreds Euro from Ishibashi:
View attachment 3491370
Nice narrow neck, Fender PV ‘63 pickup, Fender PV celluloid pickguard etc.
Nice, powerful bass ... sold just because of too many P-basses in the stable
...go for itYeah, his birth year... Awesome bassist! Well, you can rest assured he didn't pay those JV's anywhere near today's ridiculous prices.
Yes, in Italy we need to pay VAT and import taxes .. luckily, however, when i bought it, I was living in Singapore where VAT (it is called GST there) is very low and not applicable to the goods I was importing, and the requirement to pay import taxes is triggered only by goods with a value of several thousands SGD (Singapore Dollar), which was not my case ... hence .. ehm ... I didn't pay any taxes whatsoever
To replace the JV Squier P I had on loan I got a 1984 MIJ Fender P (which I also should have kept). You'd expect that to be using the same jigs but the neck was a bit thicker front-to-back, although by no means chunky, and the neck fit to body was less good.
I fully endorse Japanese Fenders too, in fact I happen to own a couple of CIJ PB70's which I acquired second-hand not many years ago at very reasonable prices (a few hundred Euros each) and then upgraded to my liking, starting from pickups and electronics: very playable and finely built instruments; dunno if "better" than their contemporary MIA counterparts, but I wouldn't exchange them for an American Standard for sure, as I don't like modern (9.5") radius fingerboards and rough fret ends.I just don't understand why some people will spend, on average, about three times as much for an '80s Japanese Squier! Maybe I'm missing something, but it simply doesn't make sense to me. I'd much rather put that kind of money in a nice late-'70s/early-'80s US-made Fender. Oh wait, I did!
I bought a JV Squier 62 Precision nearly 20 years ago in a musicstore in Hamburg. They had a 1978 US Precision in a nice blue for 1.100,- Deutsche Mark and the JV was 1.000,-. The JV had a US Vintage '62 pickup (not original) and even a small extra place in the control cavity for a battery. I went with the JV 'cause it was the better instrument in every aspect.
Today one of my favourite basses is a 1974 US Precision. But in all honesty qualitywise the JV is superior to it. The US just is very lightweight although ash and has a very good replacement pickup and just looks so cool with the large TV logo.
But if you look at some details on the '74 - although not relevant for the sound or feel of the bass. Never seen such things on a JV:
look at the body on the right side of the neck: a family could build a house there. I'm not talking about the neck gap, I'm talking about how the body is cut to provide the surface for the neck. Like a guy did it, who for the first time in his life had a saw in his hands:
Same on my '78 Jazz:
If you look carefully, you see that on my '74 a part of the backplate of the g-string tuner is outside the headstock! Never seen this on a JV!:
Link Removed
I love these US Fender basses with all their flaws, but in comparison, all of my MIJ Fender instruments are flawless (a Noel Redding Jazz, a Duck Dunn Precision, a JV Precision, a '51 Presicion, a '70s Jazz, a Bass VI, an E-series strat).
So from the standpoint of quality, someone would be stupid to pay as much for a '70s US Fender as for a MIJ Fender.
JV on the left. All these pics just to prove that I have lots of experience with both kind of Fender basses
The 1
The 1984 MIJ P I had had a pretty sloppy neck pocket. In the end I cut a 1mm shim of wood and put it in there once I'd got the action how I liked it. The action could go very low and it was a dream to play, though. The JV Squier was all that with a very tight pickup cavity. That did get a fret recrown in the late 1990s as by then it was beginning to suffer.
I ended up with a couple of Tokai Jazzes, although nearly also a Breezy Sound and a Hard Puncher.
The two Tokais are around 1983/84 too, but one is the slightly cheaper model with the three screw tuners. That one I thought at one point I was going to have to sell as I couldn't get enough relief out of the neck with anything heavier than TI Jazz Rounds, but in the end it just took a couple of washers for the truss rod. It will need recrowning at some point but the frets aren't very tall to begin with but using flats seems to help so I am going to leave it for the moment.
I have a couple of Squier Standards from 2005 which are serviceable, but if a good JV(s) became available for a good price I'd grab it/them. Good prices seem to be a thing of the past. Even a decade ago they were around the price of a new Squier CV.
I bought a JV Squier 62 Precision nearly 20 years ago in a musicstore in Hamburg. They had a 1978 US Precision in a nice blue for 1.100,- Deutsche Mark and the JV was 1.000,-. The JV had a US Vintage '62 pickup (not original) and even a small extra place in the control cavity for a battery. I went with the JV 'cause it was the better instrument in every aspect.
Today one of my favourite basses is a 1974 US Precision. But in all honesty qualitywise the JV is superior to it. The US just is very lightweight although ash and has a very good replacement pickup and just looks so cool with the large TV logo.
But if you look at some details on the '74 - although not relevant for the sound or feel of the bass. Never seen such things on a JV:
look at the body on the right side of the neck: a family could build a house there. I'm not talking about the neck gap, I'm talking about how the body is cut to provide the surface for the neck. Like a guy did it, who for the first time in his life had a saw in his hands:
Same on my '78 Jazz:
If you look carefully, you see that on my '74 a part of the backplate of the g-string tuner is outside the headstock! Never seen this on a JV!:
Link Removed
I love these US Fender basses with all their flaws, but in comparison, all of my MIJ Fender instruments are flawless (a Noel Redding Jazz, a Duck Dunn Precision, a JV Precision, a '51 Presicion, a '70s Jazz, a Bass VI, an E-series strat).
So from the standpoint of quality, someone would be stupid to pay as much for a '70s US Fender as for a MIJ Fender.
JV on the left. All these pics just to prove that I have lots of experience with both kind of Fender basses
The 1984 MIJ P I had had a pretty sloppy neck pocket. In the end I cut a 1mm shim of wood and put it in there once I'd got the action how I liked it. The action could go very low and it was a dream to play, though. The JV Squier was all that with a very tight pickup cavity. That did get a fret recrown in the late 1990s as by then it was beginning to suffer.
I ended up with a couple of Tokai Jazzes, although nearly also a Breezy Sound and a Hard Puncher.
The two Tokais are around 1983/84 too, but one is the slightly cheaper model with the three screw tuners. That one I thought at one point I was going to have to sell as I couldn't get enough relief out of the neck with anything heavier than TI Jazz Rounds, but in the end it just took a couple of washers for the truss rod. It will need recrowning at some point but the frets aren't very tall to begin with but using flats seems to help so I am going to leave it for the moment.
I have a couple of Squier Standards from 2005 which are serviceable, but if a good JV(s) became available for a good price I'd grab it/them. Good prices seem to be a thing of the past. Even a decade ago they were around the price of a new Squier CV.
There are other reasons to buy or love an instrument, as you can see looking at my collection. But seriously: have you ever seen MIJ Fenders with some of the flaws I've shown on my 70s US Fender basses? And mine are two examples of the better ones.
Many Japanese Fenders with oh-so-tight neck pockets have hairline cracks on the finish in the exact same location.
My '99 PB70-US does, for example. Neither affects tone, playability or aesthetics, and is to be regarded as a "flaw".
