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My New CIJ Fender J(?)

F

Freelancer

Apr 6, 2009
70
1
Tucson, AZ.
#1
Hello everyone! I'm new here so please try and bare with me and my oft times long winded posts.

My story starts off with me being stuck in South Korea for about half a year. Love the country but since I live out of a hotel the personal entertainment options on a regular consistent basis are limited. So I decided to take up the bass again and searched around for a music store. After a while I could only find a Yamaha instrument dealer. Past queries just came up with mostly keyboard and pianos for the most part. So, I thought this was a Yamaha instrument store it'd specialize in Yamaha Basses if it even had any to begin with. I was personally looking for a bass that was relatively cheap and light and I wouldn't mind sticking into the bin to get thrown on a pallet and onto a C-17 home. I get to the shop and they had neither the RBX374 or the RBX4 A2 which were the two I was looking for. Heck, for a Yamaha shop they sure had a lot of other brand names besides their namesake brand. Since I already have an old RBX170 at home I decided against getting another one. Not that it's a horrible bass or anything, but I felt I could do a bit better than it. After trying an Ibanez SR500 and SRX300 I wasn't liking the setup. And I had since I had an SRX390 back home, I was kinda in the market for something different.

I then spot a nice black Fender Jazz with red tortoise pick guard. Asked the clerk and he said he didn't know the year but it was supposedly made in Japan. Tried it out without an amp and found it to be setup near perfect already. Tried it out on an amp and found it to be just pure awesome. Action was just where I would have wanted it and intonation was just perfect. The neck just felt "right" for me. Not too cumbersome like my RBX170 was or too dainty like some of the smaller short scales can be. The bass was setup so that the dead notes that are almost always present on a bass weren't highly noticeable. Just a slight volume drop in a couple spots on around the 15th fret on the G. Asked him how much it'd cost. He gave me a price on $300. Seeing how much a Fender Jazz at GC and MF online were, I knew something had to be up. But since I loved this bass for what it was, awesome in my personal opinion, and not because it was a Fender. I bought it anyways. When I brought it back and was able to jump onto my laptop I research through fender's serial number database for the "vintage" of the bass and couldn't find the serial number listed. BLAST! So I just purchased a damn finely made copy for real cheap that surpasses my expectations.

It looks like the bass on the Fender jazz bass wiki except the headstock decal of the Fender logo is solid black with a yellow/gold outline around the Fender logo and the words Jazz Bass also in small print "Serial Number 856243." Working on getting my camera charged up and finding a way to hook it up to my laptop so I can upload the pictures and show em. Have any of you guys experienced this yourselves before?


Here's a link real quick of the wiki photo:

Fender_Jazz_Bass.jpg


Hopefully I can get a pic up of my bass soon.

I am sorry if I may have offended anyone with my purchase of what is most likely a very well made fake. Also for my wall-o-text post.

Thanks in advance for any opinions, comments, or well deserved criticism. :)


Regards,
-Chris
 
#6
The picture show a MIM with non original pickguard. It's not the described bass of freelancer.

@freelancer: You have to look at the serial number again. There should be a letter as prefix which got all Fenders after 1976.
If its a Japan (MIJ or CIJ) you can indicate this on the back of the neck where it joints the body.

Expecting the pictures.

Andreas
 
#7
well welcome to TB
as soon as you put of pics I am sure the collective minds here will provide an answer

make sure you take pics of where the neck joins the body
as well as the front and back of the headstock as those are the most suspect locations for serial number and/or tampering

still in the end how does she play?
are ya happy with the bass?
if yes then I think you are in bass heaven my friend
 
#9
joebingo

is 856243 all of the serial number? or are there any letters in front of it?
Click to expand...

Yep that's all of it. It's why I think it's a fake from researching it. The joining of the neck area is blank and the only place I haven't looked is underneath where the neck bolts on to see if there's a serial number there. From what I've read the P/N and S/N is supposed to be stamped there also. Just don't have any tools really to take her apart and put her back together again.

andreaska

The picture show a MIM with non original pickguard. It's not the described bass of freelancer.
Click to expand...

Nope. But it looks almost exactly like it. I don't suppose that whomever manufactured it, used that photo to make a copy as close as they can get to that photo.

yellowfury

well welcome to TB
as soon as you put of pics I am sure the collective minds here will provide an answer

make sure you take pics of where the neck joins the body
as well as the front and back of the headstock as those are the most suspect locations for serial number and/or tampering

still in the end how does she play?
are ya happy with the bass?
if yes then I think you are in bass heaven my friend
Click to expand...

Thanks. Pleased to be here :) As far as the end result. I can't be happier. Plays very pleasurably. Awesome sound and electronics at least on par with MIM/MIJ Fender's I've tooled around with in the past. If this is a copy, they spent a lot of time and money to replicate a fender J bass and I'm happy with it. Although I don't personally condone purchasing illegal copies and all and that's about the only thing that leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth.


Got some pictures taken, I just have to find a damn cable to connect my camera to my laptop so I can upload to photodump or something.

Thanks everyone for your replies thus far. Hopefully the expert eyes will be able to help me settle this with a sense of finality. :bassist:

Update:

After thinking things out a bit I realized that since my camera and PSP's memory modules were compatible I could swap the card out into the PSP and upload them that way.
got the photos up now for everyone's viewing pleasure. Photobucket's a pain in the ass to copy the damn image tag from :( damn box keeps disappearing on me ><

Set1069.jpg
Set1070.jpg


Set1071.jpg
Set1072.jpg


Set1073.jpg
Set1074.jpg


Set1076.jpg


Since it was a display, and because I've been all over it, it's in a bit of a need of a good wipe down. Hopefully these pics will help.
 
#11
Meh. Thought so. I should be fine as long as I don't declare it in customs or attempt to be stupid enough to sell it off. It's still a very nice instrument in it's own right to me and I look forward to joining it with the rest of my small growing bass family at home. Hopefully when I return to Japan I hope to get a Fender Japan P bass I saw at a Fender retailer that I saw. Will make a good souvenir of Japan when I finally ship out. Thanks again.

:bassist:
-Chris
 
#15
Yep. Looks very distinctive yet doesn't draw TOO much attention at the same time. They have a sister bass to this one and both were at $300 a piece. After playing it for a few days it feels more than worth it for me. Although it's good that I at least researched it beforehand. Prior to purchasing the Fender CIJ P bass in Aomori. Have a much better clue as to what I"m looking for. Never really paid much attention to Fender too much before since I am mostly a Yamaha and Ibanez fan. Though this has really given me GAS for that special Souvenir from Japan. Some collect coins, stamps, or post cards. I collect instruments. I believe when I had last seen it about a year ago it was going for about $500 prior to the Fender price hikes. Probably going to be around 1k now.
 

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