Fender bass bodies / Peculiar neck pocket routing?

[spacecowboy]

Hi guys, 

 

So I ordered a Fender player series p bass body (eBay) listed as brand new and unused… which is going to be returned as there is a dent above the neck pocket and a paint / wood chip off the lower section, but what’s really got me puzzled is the neck pocket route? It looks like it’s been over shot on both sides? But then it’s been painted and I’m sure QC’d and packed off. Is this the norm for Fender now? I know the pickguard covers it all but… I don’t get it it just looks wrong.
 

The paint job isn’t brilliant either thick gloopy looking paint around the horn inners!? 

 

bad times. 
 

 

 

 

 

[PaulThePlug]

Go on... How much?.. Dreadful!

[spacecowboy]

£215!!

[Doctor J]

That's how Fender do neck pockets these days. The scratchplate covers a lot of lazy manufacturing practices.

 

The stupid routing guide hole would annoy me more.

[spacecowboy]

Oh is that what that is!? I thought it was some kind of weird switch mounting hole or something!

 

that’s what I don’t get i doubt the routing is done by hand, in fact I’m sure they wouldn’t, but why do that shape? 

[spacecowboy]

 

It’s not a 1 off! It’s what they do?!

[TheGreek]

Back to 80s build quality...

[BigRedX]

Late 70s more like.

 

The damage to the finish around the neck pocket is what happens when you remove a tightly fitting neck. This body has obviously come from a previously assembled instrument.

[Beedster]

Perhaps in Fender's favour it could be a body from an instrument that didn't male it through QC and found its way to a reseller?

[LeftyJ]

13 hours ago, spacecowboy said:

but what’s really got me puzzled is the neck pocket route? It looks like it’s been over shot on both sides? But then it’s been painted and I’m sure QC’d and packed off.

 

 

 

Weird how those "overshoots" have been lacquered, whereas the rest of the neck pocket has been routed after the body was finished! You'd expect the neck pocket to be ready before applying the finish, since the paint stick the body hangs on to spray and to dry is attached to the inside of the neck pocket with screws. 

[thebrig]

All the Mexican bodies come like that, I bought two last year and they were the same.

 

This is from the Fender website.

[PaulThePlug]

Could it be so Flat heel 51 necks and Rounded Heel later necks both fit the same pocket rout... With the scratchplate covering either the middle or the L&R edges?

Edited February 9, 2024 by PaulThePlug

[asingardenof]

16 hours ago, spacecowboy said:

Oh is that what that is!? I thought it was some kind of weird switch mounting hole or something!

 

that’s what I don’t get i doubt the routing is done by hand, in fact I’m sure they wouldn’t, but why do that shape? 

Yeah, I believe it's a guide for the CNC machines they use. From what I understand the number of holes is a guide to where the body was cut, where one place does one hole and another does three.