I saw this bass... the serial number comes back as Squier... I'm also not aware of this limited production run... What are your thoughts? Sorry for so many questions, I'm just hunting for a cool Precision... Fender Active Precision Bass #253 of 300 1993 Black / Purple / Gray
Looks totally fake to me. That serial seems odd, and the font is one I've never seen. And some Squiers are made in Korea, but I don't recall a Fender badged one. Fishy.
I searched the web for a limited edition Prince bass... didn't find anything. Also, if Prince would have commissioned it, I think they might have used the proper symbol. I asked a question, but haven't received an answer yet...
I’m no expert, but Fender has had some Fender-branded instruments made in Korea. For example, I owned a MIK Fender Jazz bass that was made back in about 2000 (I forget the exact year, but 1999 sticks out in my memory). It was of very similar quality to the MIM instruments of the time, the one really noteable difference being that both Jazz pickups were of the same length and so a normal J pickup replacement set wouldn’t fit without modification. Recently, I came across the following thread which dredged up some of those memories, plus I learned a few things in there too (like that the instruments were intended for sale only in Pacific Rim [other than the US] countries, which was an "Ah ha!’" moment for me): Korean made stratocaster help (not a squier) Perhaps more to the point, here’s Fender’s info on serial numbers for Korean made FMIC instruments: How can I find out when my Korean-made instrument was manufactured?
Almost $800 with shipping for a heavily modified MIK bass from 1993? Yikes. My made-in-Korea '93 Ibanez was under $100 on ebay and it was probably made in the same factory as this. Korean basses from the 90's are decent but they were generally the low end models of any given brand. Also, is the pic of the headstock blurry for everyone else or is it just my browser? That seems kinda suspicious.
