Finish on a sunburst Fender Precision

[Stylon Pilson]

If a sunburst Fender Precision bass has black finish covering the entirety of the rear contour, does this indicate that the bass is actually made of plywood and hence not a genuine Fender?

S.P.

Edited October 10, 2008 by stylonpilson

[Soulfinger]

[quote name='stylonpilson' post='303618' date='Oct 10 2008, 10:51 AM']If a sunburst Fender Precision bass has black finish covering the entirety of the rear contour, does this indicate that the bass is not a genuine Fender?[/quote]
Yes.
That or (less likely) a sloppy refin.

[Dubs]

[quote name='Soulfinger' post='303649' date='Oct 10 2008, 10:24 AM']Yes.
That or (less likely) a sloppy refin.[/quote]

+1

My understanding of this is that it’s more common on cheap copies. I’ve never seen it on an actual Fender though, weather that be MIM, MIA, MIJ (CIJ) etc, but I could be wrong.

[Geek99]

I have a sunburst jazz (CIJ) and its 3 colour both front and back.

[artisan]

every Fender i've ever seen has burst front & back,sounds like a copy to me.

[EBS_freak]

[quote name='artisan' post='304050' date='Oct 10 2008, 05:11 PM']every Fender i've ever seen has burst front & back,sounds like a copy to me.[/quote]

It may be worth having a look to see if you can see if there are any bits where you can see the wood - e.g. neck pocket, pickup routes etc, where you can get an idea of what the thing is made out of...

[Tait]

does this only apply to basses? im sure my dads tele has a black back.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

By rear contour I think you mean not the entire back, but the "beergut" cutout is all black. Cheapo copies have this to disguise a body made from more than one laminate of wood or even ply though. Early mexican fenders I have seen also had this. Not sure if current ones do or what they were trying to hide - my guess is that laminates of more attractivly grained wood is stuck to the top & bottom of plainer wood, so it doesn't always mean it can't be a real fender.

[Stylon Pilson]

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='304193' date='Oct 10 2008, 09:53 PM']By rear contour I think you mean not the entire back, but the "beergut" cutout is all black.[/quote]

That's right. It's funny how different people interpret the phrase "rear contour", isn't it? Seemed unambiguous to me, but apparently I was wrong.

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='304193' date='Oct 10 2008, 09:53 PM']Cheapo copies have this to disguise a body made from more than one laminate of wood or even ply though. Early mexican fenders I have seen also had this. Not sure if current ones do or what they were trying to hide - my guess is that laminates of more attractivly grained wood is stuck to the top & bottom of plainer wood, so it doesn't always mean it can't be a real fender.[/quote]

Thanks. This is the kind of information that I was looking for.

S.P.

[simon1964]

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='304193' date='Oct 10 2008, 09:53 PM']Not sure if current ones do or what they were trying to hide - my guess is that laminates of more attractivly grained wood is stuck to the top & bottom of plainer wood, so it doesn't always mean it can't be a real fender.[/quote]

My mid 90s Mex ''contemporary series'' Telecaster has exactly that. Apparently they put a thin veneer of ash over the basswood body for a more attractive finish to the burst. Hence its plain black on the back where no veneer is fitted. Looks rather nice in fact!

Not sure whether they still do that, or whether it applied to other models.

[Thunderhead]

[quote name='stylonpilson' post='303618' date='Oct 10 2008, 09:51 AM']...and hence not a genuine Fender?[/quote]
No. Some Mexican models, and in the later 1990s even the US Standard instruments in sunburst, were finished this way.

But you're very nearly right about the plywood - in fact, the best description for these bodies is 'blockboard' - they're made of several fairly narrow strips of wood (roughly square, so each is about the same width as the thickness of the body), with a veneer facing front and back to hide the joins. On the front, the veneer is bent over the shaping of the body, which is possible because this is actually only a 'one axis' curve, and it allowed them to finish the front normally. But on the back, the 'beergut cut' is a two-axis curve and you cannot bend a veneer to that, so the veneer stops at the edge of the cut and the sunburst is used to hide it.

If you're horrified that Fender should do this on apparently 'top quality' US-made instruments, you're not alone. Eventually it got them such a bad reputation that when the series was redesigned in 2000 (and changed from 'American Standard' to 'American Series') they stopped it and made a point of specifying a fully solid body in the literature.

Not all these instruments sound that bad, but be aware that this is how they're made - I once saw a Jazz Bass from this series that someone had stripped to the wood, obviously without realising that it was made like this. Not only did it reveal the edge of the veneer on the back, he over-sanded the front slightly and went through the veneer in a couple of places... it was a real mess.