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UFO: Unknown Fender Object

#43
Lujon said:
Took a chance on this unmarked fretless bass, wondering if there's a way to identify what kind of body it is? Also wondering who made the reverse tuners?

The body is two piece alder, originally black, stripped and given a pretty poor natural finish. No routes besides control cavity and pickups. Everything has been replaced, including an unmarked 21 fret neck. So I don't know if there's really a way to identify it further.

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Your tuners wind backwards right? The ones that came on the neck I purchased on here did too. Like, they're left handed tuners, and dude swapped the posts to the other side. Drove me crazy.

They were gotoh reso-lites. Sucks too, cause they're nice tuners.
 
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#44
ChickWithaRic said:
Certainly by 1970 it was vestigial, nothing like the pronounced bump on a '60 for example. Your picture of a '66 shows it off well - a long, distinctly rounded but low-ish hump. Of course, lack of a bump is no indicator of anything - they were often sanded out during refins. Dating a Fender can be a minefield, because they never threw anything anyway, so you might very easily find a "thin" pre-1969 Jazz body on an early '70s J that **should** have the "thick" body, but they had some thin bodies left and used them up until they ran out.

Of course there are the bigger changes, like the '70s revised pickup spacing, CBS era neck binding, three screw vs five screw bridge, or the aforementioned body thickness, which can help you narrow a J down to a fairly accurate date range bearing in mind the "parts bin overlap effect". But you never really know. If it plays nice, it IS nice. That's what really matters.

Of course, the only person who really knows is... J TORRES.
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Vestigial is a good word for it.

+ Besides the pin router work, how things were being sanded, and by whom, at any given time contributed to that randomness.
 
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#45
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#46
JeezyMcNuggles said:
Your tuner wind backwards right? The ones that came on the neck I purchased on here did too. Like, they're left handed tuners, and dude swapped the posts to the other side. Drove me crazy.

They were gotoh rresonates. Sucks too, cause they're nice tuners.
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Gotoh's vintage Kluson/pre-CBS Fender replacement tuning machines--not Res-O-Lite version--are reverse.

Gotoh's Res-O-Lite versions of the same are available either way; reverse and non-reverse.
 
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#47
Grinderman said:
Vestigial is a good word for it.

+ Besides the pin router work, how things were being sanded, and by whom, at any given time contributed to that randomness.
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I wonder how much of the gradual erosion of the hump was simply down to a decade of template wear. Of course by the mid 70s Fender's factories (I wouldn't like to specify a year but certainly before the time CBS was on the scene) were using first generation analog (punch card) CNC machinery, and the hump was gone as if by magic.
 
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#48
Grinderman said:
Gotoh's vintage Kluson/pre-CBS Fender replacement tuning machines--not Res-O-Lite version--are reverse.

Gotoh's Res-O-Lite versions of the same are available either way; reverse and non-reverse.
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I've definitely seen Tokai Hard Punchers and Jazzy Sounds with the Fender shape head and reverse tuners. That would date them as early 80s or early 2000s. They used a "non lawsuit shape" head throughout the 90s before returning to the "lawsuit shape" around (maybe?) 2001.

Presumably by then, Tokai-Gakki had built enough Squiers and Fenders under license for the Big F to turn a blind eye.
 
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#51
swFtjsM.jpg
 
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#52
Grinderman said:
That would be news to me because I've never seen a genuine U.S. made Fender Precision or Jazz bass without the hump, bump or ramp. It could be MIJ/CIJ.
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I have 3 PBasses and 2 JBs, and none have any kind of a hump, unless I'm missing something. Mind you, they're all pre-CNC, oldest is a 62 youngest is a 77.
 
#55
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#58
Lujon said:
EDIT: I was wrong again, it's 33.75" scale. I measured from nut edge to the 12th fret: 16.875". I confirmed this using the stewmac calculator for each fret position and then fret to fret measurements. I'm so glad it's at least correct, if a bit odd.

When I first measured it I was measuring nut to saddle on the E string, which is about 34"
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I don't think I've ever seen or heard of a 33.75" scale bass. You might have a unicorn on your hands :D
 
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#59
BioWeapon said:
I don't think I've ever seen or heard of a 33.75" scale bass. You might have a unicorn on your hands :D
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Yup :)
Here is some info on checking scale lengths.
I wonder if this is some of it...

Subject: Scale of Rickenbacker Basses

Date: 1999/10/21

Question: I always thought that Rickenbacker basses were 33-1/2" scale. In fact their older literature states this scale measurement. Recently, I checked out the Rickenbacker website and the basses are now listed with a 33-1/4" scale. Did Rickenbacker recently shorted the length of their bass scales by 1/4"?

Answer: No, the scale is the same. This is the difference between the old method of measuring scales vs. a more modern, and I hope enlightened, method. In the past, the scale length was measured from the inside edge of the nut to the average of plus and minus bridge adjustment. This takes into account that some strings maybe be adjusted longer than "scale" and others shorter to intonate properly. Now most companies, including ourselves, measure from the inside edge of the nut to the inside edge of the12th fret and double it, which is more theoretically precise number.

:)
 
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#60
DJ Bebop said:
Yup :)
Here is some info on checking scale lengths.
I wonder if this is some of it...

Subject: Scale of Rickenbacker Basses

Date: 1999/10/21

Question: I always thought that Rickenbacker basses were 33-1/2" scale. In fact their older literature states this scale measurement. Recently, I checked out the Rickenbacker website and the basses are now listed with a 33-1/4" scale. Did Rickenbacker recently shorted the length of their bass scales by 1/4"?

Answer: No, the scale is the same. This is the difference between the old method of measuring scales vs. a more modern, and I hope enlightened, method. In the past, the scale length was measured from the inside edge of the nut to the average of plus and minus bridge adjustment. This takes into account that some strings maybe be adjusted longer than "scale" and others shorter to intonate properly. Now most companies, including ourselves, measure from the inside edge of the nut to the inside edge of the12th fret and double it, which is more theoretically precise number.

:)
Click to expand...

Well hopefully this proves I'm not crazy: measured from the inside edge of the nut to the 12th fret 16.875". I put this into the stewmac calculator and got all the fret to fret measurements, which I double checked to confirm. No idea why on earth but that's what it is!

The neck most certainly sits closer into the body than a standard jazz. I tried putting my other jazz neck on and there was a gap in the neck pocket.

EA17BF06-E8AB-4CD4-9A7C-0465F1F4A8FC.jpeg
 
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