Interesting Ebay Posting ... What's Right/Wrong ??

[JoeWPgh]

Did Fender have those tuners back then? I thought they used flat plates

 

[detracti]

… upon discontinuation of the Longhorns in mid '94, Fender returned to the heel adjust truss rod on the American Standards for '95 model year …

… but in this case (OP Longhorn), the body and neck likely HAVE BEEN together since they left the factory, they just had a bit of a 'revision' …

I can't imagine why someone would go to the trouble to sand off the right USA markings, and replace with the wrong ones from a later year. It seems more likely that the neck would be a replacement that someone attempted to fake up, or maybe it was brought for a repair, and the neck was replaced. The ad does seem to obsess a bit much on how straight the neck is.

 

[tjh]

Did Fender have those tuners back then? I thought they used flat plates

I have seen a few different machines on Longhorns over the years, not sure if they changed from the factory over the 4 1/2 years or if folks were changing them out … I am pretty sure Fender did make a case change during the Longhorn run, going from rectangular to the 'machine gun' style at the tail of the run ... I can look at it more as I get time … here is an example of yet another variance in machines again …

Invalid Link Removed

 

[tjh]

I can't imagine why someone would go to the trouble to sand off the right USA markings, and replace with the wrong ones from a later year. It seems more likely that the neck would be a replacement that someone attempted to fake up, or maybe it was brought for a repair, and the neck was replaced. The ad does seem to obsess a bit much on how straight the neck is.

I thought the exact same thing when I saw it the first time and tried to understand why the spaghetti logo … but try as I might, I cannot find another bass that uses a 22 fret neck (looks more like rosewood than pau ferro), with headstock adjustment and skunk stripe, spaghetti logo, with serial # on back … from '96 … would love for someone to find one and make sense of it, but I can't and out of process of elimination figured it had to be refin … maybe simply like what ultra60 said here:

This seems like a lot of trouble to replace the logo. The replacement is too clean. There's only one reason I can think of for the replacement...... somebody must have hated that logo, lol …

There is a possibility that the neck is a one-off replacement from the factory, and they just used what they had available, or even a special request from a customer (specs/logo/etc) … BUT, I gave up speculating, and the bottom line, is that this bass is NOT a '96 Longhorn … no such animal

I think it is time to be done with this … hehe … not fun anymore, someone else take over, or better yet, time to put it to rest maybe …

 

[tjh]

Killing time here so I'll play along as devil's advo. Great fun!

Okay, not doubting you, but if the neck and body do belong together as you've pointed out earlier, why would the decals have been replaced? On the surface (pun intended), it seems unlikely that someone would sand off the original decals, only to replace them with fake ones...to what possible advantage?

Lots of "possibles" for what appears to be a Fender anomaly?

* Neck totally refinished for some reason?
* The bass was actually built '89-'92, but someone decided to pass it off as a '96 (or whatever) by altering decals?
* The body was refin'd Pewter?
* Fender replaced a bad neck under warranty a few years later?
* Fender had some leftover Pewter Longhorn (discontinued) bodies, decided to slap on whatever necks were available at the time?
* It's not actually Pewter, but another similar color that "slipped through the cracks" at Fender somehow?
* Some Fender dealer requested a Longhorn in Pewter, despite its not being an officially listed finish offering that year?
* Fender actually did make some Longhorns in Pewter when they weren't "supposed" to?

... all of the above, that's how I got started with this mess ...

 

[The13thFret]

One last thing if I may, call it my need to know.
What colour is this 93.... cause in some lights....? Link Removed

Maybe don't answer, I'm GASing again

 

[tjh]

One last thing if I may, call it my need to know.
What colour is this 93.... cause in some lights....? Link Removed

Maybe don't answer, I'm GASing again

13th, you have been in on this from the beginning, I will blame it all on you …

Well, according to all the literature from Fender, again Pewter is the only color produced in the Longhorn run that is anything even close to what you just posted … and it was supposed to run from '89-92, and even though the neck has a '93 date stamp, it still has the N2xxxxxxxx serial # on headstock, and who knows how long it took them to finally assemble it … it definitely looks darker than the Ebay Longhorn, but then like you say, lighting makes a bit diff, and in some of your photos it does look lighter as well …

With that said, I am glad you posted Posh link … take a look at the headstock/neck on that Longhorn, and look at how the finish has aged, very strong tinting … now look at the Ebay Longhorn, how nice and clean the wood at the headstock and neck are, virtually no aging, no tinting to speak of … THAT is one of the indications that led me to think a complete refin of the original neck and rebadge … virtually no tinting or aging …

I think you need to buy that bass from Posh … hehe

 

[mikecd1]

I've enjoyed reading this thread and my two cents is that those bodies were not popular and this is a parts bass. I'd imagine the owner liked the 22 fret neck and just got a normal body. Maybe sold this body which was re-done with emg's, newer badass and added usa neck. Original owner keeping the original bridge and electronics. That micro tilt neck plate likely lines up with a real Longhorn neck, but I'll bet there's nothing under the plate on this one. The only other Longhorn I've seen had the s/n on front and a micro-tilt neck as well. I don't remember all usa basses having micro tilt in mid 90's. Perhaps someone else can confirm that and that all basses from 1996 had the 50th anniversary badge and / or the commemorative neck plate.

 

[tjh]

I've enjoyed reading this thread and my two cents is that those bodies were not popular and this is a parts bass. I'd imagine the owner liked the 22 fret neck and just got a normal body. Maybe sold this body which was re-done with emg's, newer badass and added usa neck. Original owner keeping the original bridge and electronics. That micro tilt neck plate likely lines up with a real Longhorn neck, but I'll bet there's nothing under the plate on this one. The only other Longhorn I've seen had the s/n on front and a micro-tilt neck as well. I don't remember all usa basses having micro tilt in mid 90's. Perhaps someone else can confirm that and that all basses from 1996 had the 50th anniversary badge and / or the commemorative neck plate.

Mike, thanks for the reply …

… one of the problems, is find a USA Jazz neck (from '96 especially) that is 22 frets, truss rod adjusts at the headstock, and has a skunk stripe … The Longhorn neck is really the only thing I am aware of that meets all four of these (and then toss in a spaghetti logo on the front, with N6xxxxx on the back ??)…. regarding someone 'keeping' the Longhorn bridge, it is not much good for anything else, many were replacing them, they had a unique 3 hole mounting pattern, top load only, with wider than normal string spacing that lined the E and G string up with the edge of the fretboard … below is a picture of the 50 Anniversary sticker everything Fender put out in '96 received … it was a sticker, that pretty much needed to be sanded or scraped off leaving a mark, unlike the dime size medallion that Fender used in 2006 for the 60th that could be 'popped' carefully off … the Commemorative Models received an inscribed neck plate in '96 for the 50th, everything else just got the headstock sticker ...

 

[Robert Darby]

Hay a 50 Anniversary sticker on a boner. Now thats what I call an Anniversary!