Squier Japan 83 fake?

[Mingus@Bass]

Hi!

I need some help with a Squier JV Jazz Bass from '83 made in Japan.

The seller told me he purchased it from Japan. I really have doubts about this bass! I have no doubts about the seller; I just think he didn't know what he bought.

The logo on the headstock looks legit, but did they use black text on headstocks in '83? It looks more like a neck from a newer Squier from Asia.
The serial number on the back of the headstock is not a decal; it's stamped (or engraved). The text and numbers are incised directly into the wood.
The neck feels really good and is in excellent shape! The tuners are also high quality (or nice ones). There is no information (or markings) on the neck heel, nor in the heel of body.

As you can see in the pictures, the body is really nice. It looks very old and has a creamy color with a slight greenish/lime touch. The pictures don't show it very well, but in real life, it's more green-like.

It also looks like the bridge and pickups are old. Are the screw holes in the bridge common for Squier? Isn't it more common to have five screws in a row for Fender and Squier?
The pickups are ceramic. I saw that some early '83 Stratocasters had ceramic pickups. Is the same true for basses? The pickups have a really good and pleasant sound! I have two Fender Jazz Basses from '78 to compare it with.
The pots are mini pots. Did Squiers from that era have small pots?

I'm a bit of a collector and enjoy working on basses, even building some myself. I'm an amateur but have quite good overall knowledge of basses.

I have too many basses, but my favorites are my '77 Fender P Bass, '67 Fender V, Supro Taurus and Pocket Bass from the sixties, G&L L5000, Marleaux Consat Custom 5, and the '78 Jazz Basses.

I bought the Fender Precision Bass Lyte at the same time. I think I got a great price (or a good deal) for both, under 800 euros for the pair.
The Lyte was in slightly worse shape. It had a small crack in the headstock, a non-original input jack, and was a little beaten up.

Regards Mingus

 

[Hot Rats]

That's got a wrong bridge, wrong tuners and wrong serial # and headstock logo to be an '83 JV. JV's had the copper grounding strip. Serial # was on the neck plate, threaded saddles with a 5 screw bridge (in a row) and black outline logo. Full tuners as well as heel truss rod access.

 

[Mingus@Bass]

That's got a wrong bridge, wrong tuners and wrong serial # and headstock logo to be an '83 JV. JV's had the copper grounding strip. Serial # was on the neck plate, threaded saddles with a 5 screw bridge (in a row) and black outline logo. Full tuners as well as heel truss rod access.

Thanx for your answer! You are probably right! Was hoping that Squier japan did some strange things. It still anyway sounds terrible good! Maybe going to keep it.

 

[ahbradot]

I have zero knowledge of Squire.
I was asking myself, "why would anyone want to make a fake Squire?"
Then I proceeded to google Squire JV jazz bass and saw them going for as much as $2000.
Well, I learned something today.

 

[sunburst79]

That's got a wrong bridge, wrong tuners and wrong serial # and headstock logo to be an '83 JV. JV's had the copper grounding strip. Serial # was on the neck plate, threaded saddles with a 5 screw bridge (in a row) and black outline logo. Full tuners as well as heel truss rod access.

This. My first new instrument was a 1983/84 Squier Bullet Bass. With a bullet style truss rod nut. My second guitar was a 83/84 SQ CST 45 or 55. Aka the CBS style Squier Strat. Still have that one.

I’m not an expert on JV guitars or basses. Or the Fender E Series stuff from 1985 during the factory shut down. But all MIJ JV Fenders I’ve seen from that era have a vintage heel adjust truss rod.

The Woolbright Squier wiki is an excellent source. Production moved to Korea than China with a stop in India. The Indian made ones looked similar and are well regarded. This is Pre ICS. This looks more Korean or Indian to me. The simple black logo kind of denotes that. I don’t think it’s JV but I’m not sure what else it might be. And I’m not an expert and have only owned one MIJ Squier bass from this era. It will be interesting to figure out what this is or was. I doubt anyone would bootleg a non MIJ Squier. But might decal the back of the headstock during a repair or refinish.

I’m curious

 

[murphy]

Nothing about this bass looks genuine.
If it sounds great, plays great , it is maybe a 2 or 300 bucks parts or cheap offshore bass.

 

[brianrost]

I need some help with a Squier JV Jazz Bass from '83 made in Japan.

The seller told me he purchased it from Japan. I really have doubts about this bass! I have no doubts about the seller; I just think he didn't know what he bought.

The ones sold in Japan had Fender decals. It was only in the USA that the Squier brand name was used. The decal also says “J bass” instead of “Jazz bass”. I’m no expert but I don’t recall ever seeing that name on 80s Squier decals.

 

[BassFishingInAmerica]

Mind boggling that they are now faking Squiers.

 

[erratick]

Looks like an indonesian squier but relabeled as made in Japan. It's not an original JV.

 

[Sharko]

Looks like an indonesian squier but relabeled as made in Japan. It's not an original JV.

The truss rod access, bridge, and tuners are wrong for any era Squier, I believe. I don’t think this bass has any fender or Squier parts

 

[erratick]

That's got a wrong bridge, wrong tuners and wrong serial # and headstock logo to be an '83 JV. JV's had the copper grounding strip. Serial # was on the neck plate, threaded saddles with a 5 screw bridge (in a row) and black outline logo. Full tuners as well as heel truss rod access.

Don't forget the knobs... JV jazz came with black plastic 70s style knobs I'm pretty sure. The P-bass with flat top not dome.

Those knobs are straight out of the indonesia squier or ali express. Dome press ons.

 

[Verne Andru]

Hi!

I need some help with a Squier JV Jazz Bass from '83 made in Japan.

The seller told me he purchased it from Japan. I really have doubts about this bass! I have no doubts about the seller; I just think he didn't know what he bought.

The logo on the headstock looks legit, but did they use black text on headstocks in '83? It looks more like a neck from a newer Squier from Asia.
The serial number on the back of the headstock is not a decal; it's stamped (or engraved). The text and numbers are incised directly into the wood.
The neck feels really good and is in excellent shape! The tuners are also high quality (or nice ones). There is no information (or markings) on the neck heel, nor in the heel of body.

As you can see in the pictures, the body is really nice. It looks very old and has a creamy color with a slight greenish/lime touch. The pictures don't show it very well, but in real life, it's more green-like.

It also looks like the bridge and pickups are old. Are the screw holes in the bridge common for Squier? Isn't it more common to have five screws in a row for Fender and Squier?
The pickups are ceramic. I saw that some early '83 Stratocasters had ceramic pickups. Is the same true for basses? The pickups have a really good and pleasant sound! I have two Fender Jazz Basses from '78 to compare it with.
The pots are mini pots. Did Squiers from that era have small pots?

I'm a bit of a collector and enjoy working on basses, even building some myself. I'm an amateur but have quite good overall knowledge of basses.

I have too many basses, but my favorites are my '77 Fender P Bass, '67 Fender V, Supro Taurus and Pocket Bass from the sixties, G&L L5000, Marleaux Consat Custom 5, and the '78 Jazz Basses.

I bought the Fender Precision Bass Lyte at the same time. I think I got a great price (or a good deal) for both, under 800 euros for the pair.
The Lyte was in slightly worse shape. It had a small crack in the headstock, a non-original input jack, and was a little beaten up.

Regards Mingus

The headstock logo with "by Fender" is relatively recent so it fails there. Looks like someone cobbled together an after-market neck.

The body is not JV, probably 84-85 E-series. Square neck heels were for Telecaster necks, arched for Strats and most everything else. JV were recreations of original Fenders from the 50s and 60s so would have an arched neck heel route, not square as yours has.

Square heels with Strat headstocks were on a run of 84-85 E-series - possibly the only time that happened.

My 85 Squier E-series came from the factory with the squared off neck-heel (body and neck) and Strat headstock. US-made Fender Bullets from pre-buy-out period had a Tele headstock and probably corresponding square neck heel. Left over parts inventory was shipped to Japan (the only remaining Fender factory after the buy-out) as paddle-heads with squared off Tele neck heel. When they started issuing the Squier Bullet from Japan after the buy-out, they used existing parts first, which accounts for the anomaly.

 

[Heiwa]

Mind boggling that they are now faking Squiers.

Its pretty common in south america and other regions. People make Fake squiers out of generic chinese basses

 

[PennyroyalWe]

Looks like an affinity, or maybe from their starter packs. My guess is late 90s/early oughta and the thing was left in a space with heavy sun exposure, which yellowed the finish.

 

[Heiwa]

I have the answer. Its a Squier California Series J Bass. A fake made in china mass produced series of basses and guitars from the early 2000s with the Squier name on it. Mostly sold in Europe and South America.

These came in red and white. I had one in red and that bridge looked familiar

 

[Swerve]

I have zero knowledge of Squire.
I was asking myself, "why would anyone want to make a fake Squire?"
Then I proceeded to google Squire JV jazz bass and saw them going for as much as $2000.
Well, I learned something today.

Yep, here is Pino's son Rocco playing a MIJ Squier J.

 

[sunburst79]

I have the answer. Its a Squier California Series J Bass. A fake made in china mass produced series of basses and guitars from the early 2000s with the Squier name on it. Mostly sold in Europe and South America.

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These came in red and white. I had one in red and that bridge looked familiar

Ironically it would be far cooler as a California Series had it been left alone.

Bootleg or not

Wasn’t CXS a valid plant code for Squier? There’s been enough plants over the years I can’t keep them straight.

There have been one or two odd plants short lived plants like the one in Romania or someplace in Eastern Europe.

Squier has badged stuff for different markets differently.

EG USA got Squiers. And the UK got MIJ Fenders. Exchange rates and shipping costs figure in.

This is the first time I’ve heard of bootleg Squiers

 

[Heiwa]

Ironically it would be far cooler as a California Series had it been left alone.

Bootleg or not

Wasn’t CXS a valid plant code for Squier? There’s been enough plants over the years I can’t keep them straight.

There have been one or two odd plants short lived plants like the one in Romania or someplace in Eastern Europe.

Squier has badged stuff for different markets differently.

EG USA got Squiers. And the UK got MIJ Fenders. Exchange rates and shipping costs figure in.

This is the first time I’ve heard of bootleg Squiers

I, along with some other people, sent an email to Fender, and they responded that they didn't know the origin and weren't involved. It was around 2010. I bought mine that year; they were cheaper than the Affinity ones. After a while, they disappeared. These were worse than any Affinity or SX.

 

[Heiwa]

This is the first time I’ve heard of bootleg Squiers

Well, I don't find it strange at all. You can get decals on eBay, and I've seen fake Squier Stratocasters and Basses. They try to scam you to get more money with something like this than with a generic Chinese guitar.

 

[sunburst79]

Well, I don't find it strange at all. You can get decals on eBay, and I've seen fake Squier Stratocasters and Basses. They try to scam you to get more money with something like this than with a generic Chinese guitar.

I get it. I’ve just never thought of something Affinity level as being worth boot legging. But for example they have these cheap brands like Glarry or whatever on Amazon and they are being produced somewhere

Lets say your running the giant nameless factory and also have some type of online retail selling direct. Or some way of capturing the markup between something like a Glarry and an Affinity. Let’s say Glarrys are retailing for 99.99 and the Squier for 179.99. That’s a significant difference.

In the US there’s a glut of used entry level guitars and basses. But that’s not universal. If your a cash strapped musician in some far away country a bootleg Squier at 129.99 new might be attractive. It’s cheaper than 179.99 it’s new. And it’s Squier. Or it’s purported to be. It’s a Squier and it’s theoretically backed by Fender.

Except it’s not.

I’m a fan of the Classic Vibe line and Squiers nicer offerings. I have zero interest personally in anything below the old “Standard”line. But they sell like mad. Are imminently playable. Are affordable. They have sales support. They are backed by Big Daddy Fender.

So there is some cachet to the brand even at the low end.

So if you can make them cheap enough to undersell Affnities or Broncos or Sonics or CV’s and still make a profit and a larger profit by passing off bad Squier replicas to the unsuspecting then ethics isn’t a a part of your calculus.

I’m not surprised but I am. If I was the builder I’d be doing fake Fenders. More money in that. But tooling constraints dictate what you can build. And in this case that’s entry level.

I do think the California Special decal is genuinely cool. You could market that like the old Hotrod series.

You could crank out 100,000 of these if they had chosen India or China or Korea and no one (Well not many) would be the wiser. But MIJ or USA or MIM? The quality doesn’t look to be there to fake that.

Well someone got away with it for a bit.

The thing is that if your building to Cort Indonesia levels. Then your taking on what might be the worlds largest guitar factory. Good luck beating them at their own game.

That leaves the low end.

People knowingly buy knock off products all the time. Wanting the allure of the name. Even if the knock off is obviously not real.

This is kind of a knock off of a manufacturers own knock off of their own product.