Poly finish checking... Its possible!

[carlos840]

So, i have a 08 USA fender jazz, its probably the bass i use most and its starting to get some kind of checking just like my 66!
The lines are not as deep and dont show as much because the poly is sunburst and my 66 is oly white, but it is checking!

I always thought poly couldnt check! Give it another 20 years and this bass will look like a 60s, could it be the new thinner finish or just a bad paint ( its one of the first 08, maybe the paint recipe wasnt sorted by then!)

Any ideas...

PS: after more inspection, most off the body has it but the neck is free of it. And, before somebody asks, those cracks werent there when i got the bass, i was the first owner and it didnt have anything...

here are some pics:

 

[ErnieD]

Well I don't think your issue pertains to this but check out my new thread "Fender neck issues or not?" Your pics seem to be extreme closeups and I can't make out the details well on what part of the bass that is.

But see if the issue I discuss in that other thread ties into this or not. Maybe it does not but hope it helps some. Peace, ernie

 

[carlos840]

Just read your thread, and i can confirm its not a neck pocket tightness issue...
The neck pocket is loose enough so that you can put a piece of paper through the gap, and also the checking is developing in stress free are to, pretty much everywhere on the bass.

For those wondering, pic 1 is the back of the top horn and pic 2 is the bottom of the neck plate.

 

[stflbn]

Thin poly that emulates nitro can check. Thick impenetrable poly like many basses have now-a-days are very resistant to checking.

I had several peavey's in the 80's and 90's that would sit in a bus all winter long in -20 degree weather during the week and then be brutally dragged into bars and uncaringly yanked from their cases in hot bars. Frost would almost always form on the instruments and they NEVER showed any checking or cracking.

I've had several basses over the past couple years that were 'poly' but the poly was so thin that you could actually see ridges in the poly from the woodgrain underneith when viewed from angles. Sometimes even feel the grain. I wouldn't trust those poly basses not to crack.

 

[sundaypunch]

Much of the 70's Fender stuff checked like crazy-

Here's a bass that just sold on Ebay with lots of checking.

 

[savit260]

I've seen PLENTY of 70's era THICK poly check too. It can , and does happen to poly finishes.

Being poly doens't make it immune to checking, and if you think that, you are kidding yourself. It's less fragile than nitro, but it isn't exactly bullet proof.

 

[Bongolation]

The polyurethane necks on Fenders from the late 1990s until the past few years presented an insuperable challenge to prevent checking.

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[StuartV]

I had several peavey's in the 80's and 90's that would sit in a bus all winter long in -20 degree weather during the week and then be brutally dragged into bars and uncaringly yanked from their cases in hot bars. Frost would almost always form on the instruments and they NEVER showed any checking or cracking.

I would always expect a US-made Peavey bass to be more robust than a Fender...