Identifying Fenders

[spinynorman]

I can't believe this hasn't been discussed before, but I can't find anything.

The question is - what are the easily visible differences between the different eras of Fender basses? Things like headstock logos, position of serial number, shape of neck plate.

If the easy answer is buy a book, which one?

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='spinynorman' post='1003220' date='Oct 28 2010, 12:04 AM']I can't believe this hasn't been discussed before, but I can't find anything.

The question is - what are the easily visible differences between the different eras of Fender basses? Things like headstock logos, position of serial number, shape of neck plate.

If the easy answer is buy a book, which one?[/quote]
You could start here: [url="http://home.provide.net/~cfh/fender.html"]http://home.provide.net/~cfh/fender.html[/url]

[Vibrating G String]

Fender doesn't have easy ways to identify the exact year. Many are assembled from parts made over numerous years and serial numbers are not consecutive. The best you can do is generalize. Some of the books & experts disagree too.

Much of the identifying info is simply made up. Whenever you hear someone tell you something exists in one year but no the next they are making that up as Fender didn't make changes to coincide with model years. Even things like logo changes from spaghetti logo to the block type can't be pinned to a date as the overlap can be years.

That said there are things that define one era over another, 3 bolt necks, fingerboard woods, truss rod stripes etc... but you have to keep the lines vague and not pin things to an exact year. Wikipedia can probably give you a good general idea of the changes in each model.

[Lozz196]

I`ve bought this book, and it has bucket loads of info on this:

[url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fender-Bass-Illustrated-History/dp/0634026402/ref=sr_1_14?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288248359&sr=1-14"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fender-Bass-Illust...359&sr=1-14[/url]

[dr1]

there's a lot of things and details and there are books. but what you really want - to have some kind of illustrated encyclopedia or something particular at this moment?

[spinynorman]

[quote name='dr1' post='1005126' date='Oct 29 2010, 01:10 PM']there's a lot of things and details and there are books. but what you really want - to have some kind of illustrated encyclopedia or something particular at this moment?[/quote]

I was just looking at an MIJ Jazz on ebay where the description said it "might" be a reissue. And I realised I had no very clear idea how to tell if it was a standard, 50s, 60s or 70s reissue model. Then I did some Googling and none of the headstocks that I saw matched the one I was looking at. So I thought I probably need a better source of information about the Jap models. That's the main motivation, then on top of that there's more general interest in Fenders.

The Fender Bass book is going on my Xmas list anyway.

[OliverBlackman]

The reissue may not have the same decals as the original. There are many things. The best way to do it is to just google different era's and you will notice differences

Edited October 29, 2010 by blackmn90

[Delberthot]

[quote name='Lozz196' post='1003291' date='Oct 28 2010, 07:47 AM']I`ve bought this book, and it has bucket loads of info on this:

[url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fender-Bass-Illustrated-History/dp/0634026402/ref=sr_1_14?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288248359&sr=1-14"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fender-Bass-Illust...359&sr=1-14[/url][/quote]

That's the one I have. Very useful and interesting as well as showing pictures of some beautiful and rare models - Bound neck maple fretless Jazz anyone?

[spinynorman]

[quote name='blackmn90' post='1005921' date='Oct 29 2010, 11:51 PM']The reissue may not have the same decals as the original. There are many things. The best way to do it is to just google different era's and you will notice differences[/quote]

What I saw from Googling was: Standard Jazz logo is Fender Jazz Bass, no serial or MIJ, 60s reissue logo says Electric Bass, 70s reissue has block inlays. The one I was looking at had dot inlays, serial and MIJ on the headstock and that earthing strip to the bridge. I'm guessing standard, but I couldn't find anything that matched exactly. The headstock looked like an MIM, but Jap.

[dr1]

i guess you already found what you need, but here's fast tips- 60th models had, like you learned, decal with "electric bass,contour body" etc on the headstock. also they usually have tort pickguard on the reissues, aswell the thumb rest or fingerhook attached. the tuners were also adequate, big ones, with wide plates on the back. standard has smaller tuners (like mexican) as for 70s those have blocks and bigger logo. would be usefull to send the link and photo and i will tell you what is it about. from what you described it's standard japanese jazz bass.

here's mine - it was standard but i pimped it to a 60 model (tuners,tort and fingerhook)
all in all great basses.

Edited November 15, 2010 by dr1