Alder or basswood?

[john_the_bass]

I've just been asked if my E serial precision that i'm selling is made of alder or basswood and if the pickups are jap or USA - there is a possibility they are USA if the bass was made by Fuji Gen Gakki or whoever they were in that short space of time when there was no USA production.

Anybody know how to tell?

[john_the_bass]

Short of taking it apart of course - which I don't really want to do.

[The Burpster]

Chop a piece out and burn it, Alder burns slower.....


Good grief, does it realy matter? sounds like someone is being pernicaty to me.....!

[john_the_bass]

that's what i thought!
My guess is basswood gets compressed to get the same density and so is heavier. although i know nothing about these things.

[Muppet]

How much does it weigh? Basswood tends to be lighter in my experience. You can certainly tell the difference between a current Japanese Precision in basswood and one in alder.

[john_the_bass]

it's not quite as heavy as my S1 precision but it's not far off. I've not got an accurate way of measuring each of them unfortunately.

[Hutton]

Maybe your buyer wants to know these things to determine value. The current basswood instruments are cheaper than the alder ones. Just a suggestion as to why he may want to know.

[john_the_bass]

when did they stop producing alder ones in favour of basswood (although the non export ones seem to come in basswood, alder or ash depending on which bass and spec you go for)?
Mine is 1984 (or possibly 5/6 but unlikely).
Cheers

[Muppet]

OK well S1 or no S1 (seeing as it's just a different pot and that's not going to alter the weight) Your USA Precision (USA being more relevant) will more than likely weigh in at between 9lbs and 9.5 lbs. If your Japanese feel lighter then I would suggest it's basswood. My japanese precisons of basswood are noticeably lighter than my american ones or alder or ash.

[Musky]

A bit hard to tell from the picture you've got in the 'For Sale' section, but it looks looks it may be a basswood body - basswood lacks any real grain structure (though curiously the two outside pieces of wood seem to have more grain than the central one). If you whip the neck off, try pressing a thumb nail into the bare wood - if it marks fairly easily it likely basswood. Basswood tends to 'fur' in screw holes as well.

The pickups are more than likely Japanese. I've read about the odd E series Fender with US pickups, but they seem to be far from the norm. I've never read that US hardware was shipped out during this period (unlike in '82) and production never ceased altogether in the US, with a handful of people still turning out instruments. Mind you, I stand to be corrected on this.

[john_the_bass]

[quote name='Muppet' post='44245' date='Aug 11 2007, 06:06 PM']OK well S1 or no S1 (seeing as it's just a different pot and that's not going to alter the weight) Your USA Precision (USA being more relevant) will more than likely weigh in at between 9lbs and 9.5 lbs. If your Japanese feel lighter then I would suggest it's basswood. My japanese precisons of basswood are noticeably lighter than my american ones or alder or ash.[/quote]

absolutely - the S1 will have no weight difference but reference was included to give an idea of the age.
9lbs sounds about right, the Japanese one is a bit lighter, but not significantly so.


[quote name='Musky' post='44251' date='Aug 11 2007, 06:49 PM']A bit hard to tell from the picture you've got in the 'For Sale' section, but it looks looks it may be a basswood body - basswood lacks any real grain structure (though curiously the two outside pieces of wood seem to have more grain than the central one). If you whip the neck off, try pressing a thumb nail into the bare wood - if it marks fairly easily it likely basswood. Basswood tends to 'fur' in screw holes as well.

The pickups are more than likely Japanese. I've read about the odd E series Fender with US pickups, but they seem to be far from the norm. I've never read that US hardware was shipped out during this period (unlike in '82) and production never ceased altogether in the US, with a handful of people still turning out instruments. Mind you, I stand to be corrected on this.[/quote]

A link to a hi res one [url="http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1037476369&context=set-72157594525857805&size=l"]here[/url]

[mhuk]

I'm sure I read somewhere that the difference between the two woods is CIJ and MIJ. But elsewhere I read MIJ and CIJ (as labels) is purely date dependent..

[King Tut]

Looks like basswood to me. CIJ and MIJ do NOT denote the wood! Nothing wrong with basswood per se but an alder bass will inevitably sell for more.

Col