Is this a real P bass?

[JTL]

Hey guys, upright player here. I don’t know much about slabs but I just traded an old beginner upright for this bass. Guy said it was a late 70’d Fender precision with a refinish. Seems like a solid bass and plays/sounds good. Just wondering if it’s a legit Fender.

Here’s the photos:

 

[FRoss6788]

Something about the decal looks off to me.

The font is wrong and no serial number or made in USA.

Fake.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

Should have a serial# on the headstock under the logo?

 

[FRoss6788]

Should have a serial# on the headstock under the logo?

Yep

 

[J-Bass RMR]

Likely a (oversized) replacement decal done with the refin.
Pickguard looks correct.
Photos of underside of pickups & pot dates might help.
the neck stamp follows the 70s pattern 01 = precision 02= fretted Maple fingerboard.
Can't remember the rest but it's month, year, day of week, and taking a rough guess, it could be 3rd week of Nov 1980 Monday.
Earlier 70s code stamps only used 1 digit for the year.

there should be no numbers on the "F" neck plate.
Tuners look correct and reflect a workhorse life - chrome tuners don't age with time like nickel tuners - they've seen a lot! - which makes sense with the refinish.

On the back of the neck; Inspection circle fits, and ARMENTA is likely the name stamped. (a documented/referenced Fender employee through the early 80s)

 

[JTL]

Likely a (oversized) replacement decal done with the refin.
Pickguard looks correct.
Photos of underside of pickups & pot dates might help.
the neck stamp follows the 70s pattern 01 = precision 02= fretted Maple fingerboard.
Can't remember the rest but it's month, year, day of week, and taking a rough guess, it could be 3rd week of Nov 1980 Monday.
Earlier 70s code stamps only used 1 digit for the year.

there should be now numbers on the "F" neck plate...
Tuners look correct and reflect a workhorse life - which makes sense with the refinish.

On the back of the neck; Inspection circle fits, and ARMENTA is likely the name stamped. (a documented/referenced Fender employee through the early 80s)

Thanks for the helpful info.

Do these #’s mean anything? Also you can see some pieces of red finish in the routed out parts on the body, I saw some in the neck pocket as well.

 

[feterpatch]

I haven't owned a 70s precision in a long time, but in the photo of the neck pocket, the front of the pocket on the treble side looks very "squared off", as it also does in the photo of the back of the bass with the neck and neck plate attached. Is this normal? I seem to recall that corner being more rounded off, almost following the corner radius of the neck plate.
The neck looks legit, but has been refinned and a generic decal added.

 

[J-Bass RMR]

Pots date match the neck date; 1980.
The bridge ground would have had to be removed and replaced for the refin (and it appears that's the case) - otherwise the harness looks pretty much untouched.
The black shielding paint & ground screw started about that time.
I would have expected to see foil tape on the back of the pickguard where the controls are - maybe that changed after '79 - I don't know.
Can't tell if I see a brass shield under the pickups.
Pickups should have a date code stamped on the back - but they look "correct" to me.
Funny the upper horn strap button was moved to the early 50s position.
So yeah - it looks like a well-worn '80 P-Bass that's been (user) sanded/stripped & "re-finished"
(hopefully that beginner upright wasn't worth >$1,000)

plays/sounds good

at the end of the day - that's the most important thing...

 

[P. Aaron]

The heel on the body is too squared to be a Fender. At quick glance it looks almost. The bridge doesn't look right either.

Maybe the neck but the rest is parts or maybe made overseas.`

 

[sunburst79]

The headstock decal immediately stuck out to me. The rest looks pretty legit. I’m going with refinish as well.

Another groovy natural refin from back in the day. Not exactly uncommon. But why redo the headstock decal and lose the serial? Normally the headstocks don’t require a refinish.

I know more about CBS era guitars than basses.

Other than someone seriously devaluing the the bass with a refinish and losing the serial number the rest looks correct to me. Or at least period correct.

Is there a white paper sticker starting with E on the back of the pickguard? At some point Fender started using inventory or production stickers on the body and guard. Many times times the numbers match. It’s been awhile but my memory is that on something truly unmolested these match the paper label in the neck pocket. My memory is that these don’t match the serial number. But instead kept track of a guitar through production.

But if there’s a paper tag on the guard it might offer a clue. I know that this was in place in 1981. But don’t know that it started in 1980. And I don’t recall any stickers with S9.

The neck stamp and inspection stamps look legit along with the pots. People can and will bootleg anything. But a refinished 1980 bass probably isn’t one of them.

 

[sunburst79]

The square corner on the treble side of the neck pocket does seem off as has been mentioned. Yet the neck pocket is still stamped.

Was red an option in 1980 on a P? Or Crimson as I think Fender called it.

 

[Bar Band Bassman]

The square corner on the treble side of the neck pocket does seem off as has been mentioned. Yet the neck pocket is still stamped.

Was red an option in 1980 on a P? Or Crimson as I think Fender called it.

The square corner could be a result of the refin. A friend of mine has a factory red P bass from that era. Not sure what shade of red. Nice old workhorse, that! Like a Ford F-150!

BBB

 

[blastoff]

neck plate gasket is legit

 

[Timothy Brosnan]

Something about the decal looks off to me.

The font is wrong and no serial number or made in USA.

Fake.

I agree, that logo isn’t right.

 

[tvbop]

Depends. Body looks late ash. Neck should be fat front to back and that one looks refinished. PU's look good......If neck is fat shes legit but its gotta be priced right.

 

[Alban]

That bridge is definitely not Fender. Something about the horn shapes seems off as well; might be due to refinish with someone being a bit too harsh with the sanding, but the whole body seems too slabbish, edges should be a tad more rounded. And of course, that's a Jazz neck, not precision.

 

[sunburst79]

The nut does look narrow. Surprised it took this long for anyone to notice.

 

[burpgun]

Something about the decal looks off to me.

The font is wrong and no serial number or made in USA.

Fake.

I have a 1975 and agree something's off. My serial is on the metal neck plate and under the Fender logo there a series of patent numbers. Nothing on mine says where it was made, I assume because at the time Fender had no foreign production. Also, my Precision doesn't have chrome tuners, they're like nickel or something, not shiny.

 

[sunburst79]

Some non Ai web research indicates that in 1980 there was Morroco Red as part of the international series. Which seemingly originated using left over 1978-79 necks.

The other red was CAR and that seems to have been limited to a model called the Precision Bass Special with brass or gold hardware much like the later Elites.

What’s visible in the wood grain and under the shielding doesn’t look like CAR to me. But who knows.

 

[J-Bass RMR]

Clearly, the goal here was a player's grade DIY full (body & neck) "refinish" - not a museum-grade, period-correct, Pre-CBS Restoration.
I see nothing here that indicates it’s anything more than a real hard “road-worn” / real “relic’d ’80 P-Bass that got a DIY refinish.

The logo is a common "repro" logo with improperly stretched/scaled font (common on etsy) - just part of the DIY refinish.
I don’t think anyone is trying to pass off a fake – they could easily have sourced a “correct” “S8” logo that was used into the 80s if that was the intent.
And nobody is going to all the trouble to "fake" a 1980 Fender P-Bass with period-correct parts and markings/stamps on the neck and the body's neck-pocket.

As for the squared-off neck pocket - it probably was done as part of the diy refin - and it most likely had a "70s neck pocket" like my '75 pictured below - and a DIY'r, going to all the trouble to strip, (over) sand, & "refinish" probably just figured "I'll just take care of that!" and sanded it flush. - "close enough!"

Bridge? someone replaced springs, (I did on my '78 for whatever reason back then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) and at least one screw.
The worn bridge plate is consistent with the worn tuners - on a bass that's been "road hard and put away wet".

The nut does look narrow. Surprised it took this long for anyone to notice.

An "A" neck?! All the better! But in reality, it's likely just the camera angle.
IME: an "A" neck is best verified by actually measuring it. @JTL


PS: the bass below - a '75 (w/ full neck & body refin before I acquired it) - also has a repro logo that I put on it;
The logo is "period correct" / properly scaled - but I removed the patent #s - so it won't be passed off as "original.
(not that cigarette burns are typically lacquered over unless it's a custom shop relic)
The 1st repro logo I (ever) ordered had the "stretched-out" font like the OP. It took a while to find a more "correct" logo, but I'm glad I did.
(I'm surprised nobody's mentioned "router hump" yet....)