Fake Fenders

[jezzaboy]

54 minutes ago, ambient said:

From my experience with Fender basses, it would be quite easy to spot the difference between the fake and the real thing. The fake is almost certainly going to be better made.

You`ll rip you tights! 

[Cosmo Valdemar]

6 hours ago, Rib13Bass said:

 

i love when I see basses that have spoof names....you cant tell from a distance, but up close its a MusicMom Sinkray

My favourite was a Rick copy that looked authentic, but up close the truss rod cover read "RonnieBarker".

[Cosmo Valdemar]

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Edited December 10, 2023 by Cosmo Valdemar
Double post

[Big J]

Because they like the vibe, or they don’t want it left blank, or in the minority … to fraud someone. currently got a MIM jazz and a bitsa “p” that’s got a fender stamp on the headstock. The closest that’s been to a fender factory is sitting in the Forrest before the wood was felled. 
I couldn’t give a toss if someone disagrees with the fake badge, I’ve left it there for me. If it said “unfender” or “Squier” I’d have left it there too, and that’s ok because it’s my bass. 
if I sell it, it’ll say “this is not a fender” in the ad.

if someone gets ripped off buying a fake fender second hand then there’s not much I can do about that, but I’m not about to remove the decal. 
I build a Mini Cooper replica 20years back…. No cork snobs were offended… it was a nice car done well. 😂

[Dan Dare]

5 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

My favourite was a Rick copy that looked authentic, but up close the truss rod cover read "RonnieBarker".

 

I bought a decal for my bitsa that says Findus Sea Bass. haven't got round to putting it on yet as I'm rather fond of the Dinky Toys decal that's on there already.

 

As far as the OP's question - why is putting Fender decals on bitsas allowed in the first place? - who's going to prevent it? Somehow, I can't see Fender or anyone else knocking on doors at 2 am and the Old Bill certainly wouldn't be interested. "We have reason to believe you have a fake decal on your bass. You're nicked, sunshine".

 

Caveat emptor as always. It's not hard to spot a fake, unless it's so well done it's better than the "real" thing. Nobody moans about high quality copies from the likes of Limelight.

Edited December 10, 2023 by Dan Dare

[Downunderwonder]

41 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

Nobody moans about high quality copies from the likes of Limelight.

Limelight at least put their own serial in sharpie on the  back of the headstock. I can see the day someone refinishes the back of the headstock and fakes an authentic looking Fender serial and pawns it as Fender Customshop.

[ordep]

I once heard a story about a session player who always had trouble with a certain producer with his bitsa bass, saying that the guy should consider getting a proper Fender bass. So he installed some Fender decals to it and suddenly the bass sounded “right” 

[tegs07]

12 minutes ago, ordep said:

I once heard a story about a session player who always had trouble with a certain producer with his bitsa bass, saying that the guy should consider getting a proper Fender bass. So he installed some Fender decals to it and suddenly the bass sounded “right” 

I think Robert Smith took that one step further and took the Top Twenty pickup from his Woolworths guitar and installed it into his Fender to make it “sound right”

[Rosie C]

23 hours ago, GBH said:

I've been known to assemble the odd bitsa,  

 

I assembled a bitsa - Squier body with a Fender fretless neck that fitted when I went fretless. It looks like a Fender and I feel like a fraud and correct people (mostly schoolkids) who say "ooh Fender". Really I should sand off the Fender decal and get a Squier one!

 

[miles'tone]

28 minutes ago, Rosie C said:

 

I assembled a bitsa - Squier body with a Fender fretless neck that fitted when I went fretless. It looks like a Fender and I feel like a fraud and correct people (mostly schoolkids) who say "ooh Fender". Really I should sand off the Fender decal and get a Squier one!

 

But the neck is a Fender. Get a Squier decal for the body 😉

[Dan Dare]

14 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

Limelight at least put their own serial in sharpie on the  back of the headstock. I can see the day someone refinishes the back of the headstock and fakes an authentic looking Fender serial and pawns it as Fender Customshop.

 

If you're buying a bass for the sort of money custom shop instruments go for, you'd be foolish not to do an online lookup of the serial number before handing over the cash.

[Dad3353]

1 minute ago, Dan Dare said:

If you're buying a bass for the sort of money custom shop instruments go for, you'd be foolish not to do an online lookup of the serial number before handing over the cash.

 

Only if one is bothered by it. If it's a nice instrument and worth paying to asking price, what difference does it make, unless it's for investment purposes, and needs to pander to a collector's market..? Whether it's the 'real deal' or not is only of interest to those looking at financial value, rather than (subjective...) quality for the Buyer. Either a thing is worth its price or it's not. 

[pst62]

2 hours ago, ordep said:

I once heard a story about a session player who always had trouble with a certain producer with his bitsa bass, saying that the guy should consider getting a proper Fender bass. So he installed some Fender decals to it and suddenly the bass sounded “right” 

 

[tauzero]

On 10/12/2023 at 11:09, Reggaebass said:

Did I say that, I don’t think so 🙄, I personally do care what’s on the headstock of my basses and I don’t look down on anybody full stop, it’s up to other people what they play 

 

But presumably you would want what is on the headstock of the bass to match the rest of the bass.

[Ed_S]

2 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Only if one is bothered by it. If it's a nice instrument and worth paying to asking price, what difference does it make, unless it's for investment purposes, and needs to pander to a collector's market..? Whether it's the 'real deal' or not is only of interest to those looking at financial value, rather than (subjective...) quality for the Buyer. Either a thing is worth its price or it's not. 

 

Personally I'd still advocate selling the nice instrument with a plain headstock or an original logo and letting the quality speak for itself to the right buyer. Either a thing is what it purports to be or it's not.

[thebrig]

I have recently built two P basses with Fender bodies and Fender necks, so can I actually call them "Fenders" because the Fender decals were applied by Fender, and the bodies have Fender stamped on the back under the neck plate, again applied by Fender, and one even has a Fender Custom Shop ‘62 Precision Pickup fitted?

 

Seriously though, I would never try to pull the wool over anybodies eyes if I was to sell them, and to be quite honest, these two are the best playing, and best sounding basses I have ever owned, and I've had a few over the years (at least 25), so I can't see myself selling these until I stop playing completely, I'm a P bass fan and the 38mm J necks just make them a perfect fit for me.😏

 

Here's the specs:

 

Sunburst/Maple

Fender P-Bass Body in Brown Sunburst 

Fender Roasted Maple Jazz Bass Neck

Fender Custom Shop ‘62 Precision Pickup

Schaller BM 4L NI Bass Tuners

Ki0gon P-Bass Wiring Harness CTS Pots/0.047 Cap

D'Addario EXL165 Bass Guitar Strings

 

Arctic White/Maple

Fender P-Bass Body in Arctic White 

Fender Roasted Maple Jazz Bass Neck

Nordstrand NP4 Precision Bass Pickup

Schaller BM 4L NI Bass Tuners

Ki0gon P-Bass Wiring Harness CTS Pots/0.047 Cap

La Bella Low Tension Flexible Flats 42-100 Bass Guitar Strings

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by thebrig

[Supernaut]

That sunburst P looks amazing. Great spec. 

[thebrig]

2 minutes ago, Supernaut said:

That sunburst P looks amazing. Great spec. 

Thanks, I'm so pleased with them.

[tegs07]

7 minutes ago, thebrig said:

I have recently built two P basses with Fender bodies and Fender necks, so can I actually call them "Fenders" because the Fender decals were applied by Fender, and the bodies have Fender stamped on the back under the neck plate, again applied by Fender?

 

Seriously though, I would never try to pull the wool over anybodies eyes if I was to sell them, and to be quite honest, these two are the best playing, and best sounding basses I have ever owned, and I've had a few over the years (at least 25), so I can't see myself selling these until I stop playing completely, I'm a P bass fan and the 38mm J necks just make them a perfect fit for me.😏

 

Here's the specs:

 

Sunburst/Maple

Fender P-Bass Body in Brown Sunburst 

Fender Roasted Maple Jazz Bass Neck

Fender Custom Shop ‘62 Precision Pickup

Schaller BM 4L NI Bass Tuners

Ki0gon P-Bass Wiring Harness CTS Pots/0.047 Cap

D'Addario EXL165 Bass Guitar Strings

 

Arctic White/Maple

Fender P-Bass Body in Arctic White 

Fender Roasted Maple Jazz Bass Neck

Nordstrand NP4 Precision Bass Pickup

Schaller BM 4L NI Bass Tuners

Ki0gon P-Bass Wiring Harness CTS Pots/0.047 Cap

La Bella Low Tension Flexible Flats 42-100 Bass Guitar Strings

 

 

Nice

Technically they should be sold as Bitsa’s albeit made from genuine parts (ignoring the fact that all bolt on neck instruments are Bitsas anyway)!

Edited December 11, 2023 by tegs07

[LeftyJ]

I've seen many a cool custom decal that looks like a Fender one at first glance but isn't that I've liked. I'm sure there are a couple on this site too. The Faker Pretendin' Bass comes to mind. 

These guys sell decals for "guitar restorations", but also included some parody ones like Bender, Faker, F*cked, Fiender / Feind and Fondler.

[kingofthestuntmen]

2 hours ago, LeftyJ said:

I've seen many a cool custom decal that looks like a Fender one at first glance but isn't that I've liked. I'm sure there are a couple on this site too. The Faker Pretendin' Bass comes to mind. 

These guys sell decals for "guitar restorations", but also included some parody ones like Bender, Faker, F*cked, Fiender / Feind and Fondler.

  
 A previous owner got rid of the 80’s-tastic ‘STRAT’ decal on the headstock of this Fender HM Strat, so I sourced a cheap decal of my surname in a familiar font.

 

 Looks OK from a distance and guarantees a double take…

Edited December 11, 2023 by kingofthestuntmen

[Lozz196]

4 hours ago, thebrig said:

I have recently built two P basses with Fender bodies and Fender necks, so can I actually call them "Fenders" because the Fender decals were applied by Fender, and the bodies have Fender stamped on the back under the neck plate, again applied by Fender, and one even has a Fender Custom Shop ‘62 Precision Pickup fitted?

 

Seriously though, I would never try to pull the wool over anybodies eyes if I was to sell them, and to be quite honest, these two are the best playing, and best sounding basses I have ever owned, and I've had a few over the years (at least 25), so I can't see myself selling these until I stop playing completely, I'm a P bass fan and the 38mm J necks just make them a perfect fit for me.😏

 

Here's the specs:

 

Sunburst/Maple

Fender P-Bass Body in Brown Sunburst 

Fender Roasted Maple Jazz Bass Neck

Fender Custom Shop ‘62 Precision Pickup

Schaller BM 4L NI Bass Tuners

Ki0gon P-Bass Wiring Harness CTS Pots/0.047 Cap

D'Addario EXL165 Bass Guitar Strings

 

Arctic White/Maple

Fender P-Bass Body in Arctic White 

Fender Roasted Maple Jazz Bass Neck

Nordstrand NP4 Precision Bass Pickup

Schaller BM 4L NI Bass Tuners

Ki0gon P-Bass Wiring Harness CTS Pots/0.047 Cap

La Bella Low Tension Flexible Flats 42-100 Bass Guitar Strings

 

 

Two great looking basses there

[Dan Dare]

7 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Only if one is bothered by it. If it's a nice instrument and worth paying to asking price, what difference does it make, unless it's for investment purposes, and needs to pander to a collector's market..? Whether it's the 'real deal' or not is only of interest to those looking at financial value, rather than (subjective...) quality for the Buyer. Either a thing is worth its price or it's not. 

 

Fair points, but the truth is that, unless one has unlimited funds, resale value has to be a consideration for ordinary mortals like me. I know people say things like "this is the instrument I'll never sell", but who knows what life may bring? Something even nicer may come along and the funds from selling the previous "forever instrument" will be needed or come in handy.

 

Worse case, one might need funds due to some disaster that crops up and be forced to offload something(s) to raise the money. At my age (70), I recognise that the time could come when I am no longer able to play (or lose the desire to do so). If that combines with a need for funds - to cover care costs, for example - I'll have to sell some instruments since, next to my house. they are the most valuable things I own.

 

If I've spent a lot of money on a bitsa, even a superior one, it's likely be less easy to sell for a good price. I was in this dilemma some years ago. I decided to spend quite a large sum on the mandolin I'd always wanted (an F5). I spoke with custom builders and was very impressed by some of their instruments, but decided in the end not to commission one but to get a Gibson because it would hold its resale value.

[Baloney Balderdash]

Yeah, I never got why people were so eager to do free advertising for big corporate companies and their mass produced products that they'll even pay said companies to qualify for that questionable honor. 

 

I guess sadly by far the last idiot who will thank you when you kick them in their butt have been born yet.  

 

Personally in by far most cases I will cover up any branding, regardless of price point, unless an independent luthier or a piece of art (which by the way seems far less blatant about their branding in most cases).

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Bassman1974]

Kinda like this "2006 USA Fender Jazz" for sale on Facebook right now for about £500. With incorrect decal, non registered serial number, truss rod hole and block inlays. The body is not right either.