Fender Bass ID Help

[Skorpio]

I bought a Fender precision bass from a lady whose father passed away.I am not sure what it is.The neck says Fender precision bass.But no serial number.The neck plate is from an American or MIM bass.ALL the electronics are correct for a MIM precision bass or American,CTS 250K pots,switchcraft jack, nice copper shielding,orange drop caps,Fender pickups.The neck and body dates are both 2002.Any help would be appreciated.My guess is the neck is not original,maybe?...the body looks to be 100% correct for some type of Fender bass.It plays amazing, sounds amazing.Just curious what I bought.Any help would be appreciated.I have a ton of pix but apparently for some reason cannot post any pix.Thanks in advance.

[OldStrummer]

It plays amazing, sounds amazing.Just curious what I bought.Any help would be appreciated.

As long as you're happy with what you paid for it, I'd say you got a nice guitar! Without a serial number, I suspect (like you do) that it's a bit of a mongrel. But who cares? From a distance, no one will ever notice or care.

(Some of the bass guys should be along with better observations than I).

[Michael Smith]

You need to upload your photos to an image sharing site. (I use Imgur). Then click on the picture and hit the copy button. Then in the forum hit Ctrl + V to paste the link into the chat. Like this.

[BobbyMac]

Without pictures or more information, we're not likely to be much help. Here are some questions:

What logo is on the headstock; i.e. silver spaghetti, gold transition, bold black, under the finish or decal on top?.

What color is the body?

Is it a maple neck or a rosewood neck?

What pickguard is on it? Tortoise, white, black? How many screw holes in the pickguard? Are there screw holes in the pickguard for the pickup cover and/or finger rest?

Is the neck plate blank or is there any logo or other imprint that makes you say it is USA or MIM??

What tuners are on the neck? Reverse wind?

Typical control layout? One volume, one tone? Input jack on pickguard or on side of body?

What type of wire are on the pickups? Cloth, plastic?

The answers to some of these questions can help us a lot. The fact that there is no visible serial number points to your guitar being a parts bass, as a serial number is either on the headstock or the neck plate.

Hopefully we hear back from you. Try to post some pictures!

[phantomman]

Without pictures or more information, we're not likely to be much help. Here are some questions:

What logo is on the headstock; i.e. silver spaghetti, gold transition, bold black, under the finish or decal on top?.

What color is the body?

Is it a maple neck or a rosewood neck?

What pickguard is on it? Tortoise, white, black? How many screw holes in the pickguard? Are there screw holes in the pickguard for the pickup cover and/or finger rest?

Is the neck plate blank or is there any logo or other imprint that makes you say it is USA or MIM??

What tuners are on the neck? Reverse wind?

Typical control layout? One volume, one tone? Input jack on pickguard or on side of body?

What type of wire are on the pickups? Cloth, plastic?

The answers to some of these questions can help us a lot. The fact that there is no visible serial number points to your guitar being a parts bass, as a serial number is either on the headstock or the neck plate.

Hopefully we hear back from you. Try to post some pictures!

This should be a sticky!

[Judd]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone can help me id this Fender Jazz Bass guitar. I want to refurbish it to give it to my daughter and I need to buy the missing parts. Here is a link to some pictures.

https://imgur.com/a/SjolgtQ

Thank you in advance.
Judd

[Judd]

Hi,

Me again. I’ve been looking at Fender Jazz bass guitar pictures but I can’t seem to find one with this style pickup. Please see picture here:

https://imgur.com/a/AWafMcF

Thank you in advance.
Judd

[DanTheBluesMan]

dude, I mean this in all kindness. Please turn on some freaking lights when you try to take pictures. These are like those Sasquatch pictures. I think there's something there, but I can't quite make it out.

Trust me, it's not just you. I see this all the time in CL classifieds, etc. I'm sure we'll have lots of people more than willing to help you out and better pictures would be muy beneficial.

I, for one, would love to see the pictures ... in better light. I'm an old coot, I don't have cat eyes for seeing in the dark anymore. Please, do them again. And welcome to the forum. You're an awesome dad to do this for your daughter.

[Judd]

Sorry for the bad pictures. The guitar is in a different country right now and I’m having someone take pictures of it for me. If I can’t get better pictures then I will just repost once I pick it up next month. It belonged to my brother who passed before he had a chance to finish refurbishing it. One thing I know is he purchased it while he was in Japan. I thought it would be a great remembrance of my brother who was a great musician. My daughter probably got her talent from him. She plays the bass guitar with gusto.

Thanks for the reply.

Judd

[DanTheBluesMan]

Sorry for the bad pictures. The guitar is in a different country right now and I’m having someone take pictures of it for me. If I can’t get better pictures then I will just repost once I pick it up next month. It belonged to my brother who passed before he had a chance to finish refurbishing it. One thing I know is he purchased it while he was in Japan. I thought it would be a great remembrance of my brother who was a great musician. My daughter probably got her talent from him. She plays the bass guitar with gusto.

Thanks for the reply.

Judd

ok, sorry about that. my condolences. I guess when the photographer isn't versed in instrument photography, they won't garner that kind of detail. I do hope you can get better pics so we can help you with the restoration. Good luck.

PS: I was just doing my CL scan a few minutes ago, and lawdy, the terrible pictures people take. Sometimes I swear they're trying to hide defects or damage, LOL. It reminds me of when I tried to take pictures back before digital (yeah, I'm a dinosaur) and every picture cost real money and you never knew how they came out until after you put your cash down. That's why I have so few good pictures of my early days of gear.

[Judd]

ok, sorry about that. my condolences. I guess when the photographer isn't versed in instrument photography, they won't garner that kind of detail. I do hope you can get better pics so we can help you with the restoration. Good luck.

PS: I was just doing my CL scan a few minutes ago, and lawdy, the terrible pictures people take. Sometimes I swear they're trying to hide defects or damage, LOL. It reminds me of when I tried to take pictures back before digital (yeah, I'm a dinosaur) and every picture cost real money and you never knew how they came out until after you put your cash down. That's why I have so few good pictures of my early days of gear.

Hi DanTheBluedMan,

I have not been able to pick up the guitar yet but hopefully these new pictures might help identify this guitar. I need to order some spare parts for it and I’d like to keep it as original as possible. Please see the pictures here: https://imgur.com/a/F4y3nqP

I hope you or someone can help me identify this model. Thank you in advance.

Judd

[Michael Smith]

Do you have the serial number for the bass guitar? Fender has an online serial number lookup feature that "should" give you the place and year it was made.

[Judd]

[QUOTE=Michael Smith;656215]Do you have the serial number for the bass guitar? Fender has an online serial number lookup feature that "should" give you the place and year it was made.

Thanks Michael. Sorry but I don’t know too much about guitars but where can I find the serial number ?

[Michael Smith]

Thanks Michael. Sorry but I don’t know too much about guitars but where can I find the serial number ?[/QUOTE]

On my 2 Fender guitars, the serial number is on the back of the headstock. Mine are from the late 90's and early 00's. I don't know if they always followed this practice on older guitars/basses. If you can find it and post it here, I can look it up.

[Judd]

Thanks Michael. Sorry but I don’t know too much about guitars but where can I find the serial number ?

On my 2 Fender guitars, the serial number is on the back of the headstock. Mine are from the late 90's and early 00's. I don't know if they always followed this practice on older guitars/basses. If you can find it and post it here, I can look it up.[/QUOTE]


There is no serial number on the back of the headstock. I checked everywhere but could not find any numbers. I guess I’ll just have to wait until I have it in my hands and disassemble everything.

Thank you for your time.

[Michael Smith]

On the American made Fenders, if you remove the neck from the body of the guitar, there should be a date stamped or written on the tail end of the neck. I'm not sure if that was done on Fenders produced in other countries. There should also be date codes on the potentiometers (volume and tone controls). When you get your hands on the bass, and can post some better photos, there are guys on this forum who know a lot more about dating instruments than me.

Good Luck!

[Judd]

On the American made Fenders, if you remove the neck from the body of the guitar, there should be a date stamped or written on the tail end of the neck. I'm not sure if that was done on Fenders produced in other countries. There should also be date codes on the potentiometers (volume and tone controls). When you get your hands on the bass, and can post some better photos, there are guys on this forum who know a lot more about dating instruments than me.

Good Luck!

I will do that. Thanks again!!

[Judd]

On the American made Fenders, if you remove the neck from the body of the guitar, there should be a date stamped or written on the tail end of the neck. I'm not sure if that was done on Fenders produced in other countries. There should also be date codes on the potentiometers (volume and tone controls). When you get your hands on the bass, and can post some better photos, there are guys on this forum who know a lot more about dating instruments than me.

Good Luck!

Michael,

We found these numbers. Not sure if this what you need:

757?234296829
DES 18700s

yes, there’s a ? In the middle of the numbers.

Thank you.
Judd

[Laker]

Judd, that bass has been but butchered quite a bit so hard to tell if it is indeed a Fender bass or just a Fender neck bolted to a “parts” body. I have an old Fender Jazz that I had a Fender decal applied to the Might-MiteMite neck so that could be another possibility for that bass. The serial number for older Fender basses is stamped in the plate that holds the neck to the body.
It’s possible that with a bridge and strings it would play but you’d have to verify that the wiring is intact. Here’s a photo of the bridge setup. You could purchase an after market like Badass or several other after-market Fender parts suppliers.

[phantomman]

Love that reverse tuxedo neck, Laker!

[Michael Smith]

Michael,

We found these numbers. Not sure if this what you need:

757?234296829
DES 18700s

yes, there’s a ? In the middle of the numbers.

Thank you.
Judd

Neither of the 2 number codes resulted in any "hits" on the Fender official site or the Guitarinsite website. Where were these numbers located on the bass?