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Post subject: confusion about 1982. Usa Made vs Japan made
Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 12:55 pm
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Hi Everyone,
Nice to see that there is a good forum for questions about Fender Instrument History and Manufacture.

my question related to Fender P-Basses made in 1982. From what i've read, Fender opened up the Japan Factory in March of 1982.

I have also heard that E-Series basses were desirable because they used american parts manufactured in the 1970's.

my question is, was the Fender Japan factory in 1982 the ONLY fender manufacturing plant? or did some basses continue to be made in the USA? And were the basses from japan made to the same spec & quality of their US counterparts from the same (or previous) era i.e. a bass made in January of 1982 in the USA.

Would a 1982 MIJ p-bass have an E-Series number?

Thanks all for your help.


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Post subject: Re: confusion about 1982. Usa Made vs Japan made
Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:03 am
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First, there is not a Fender Japan factory. Fender Japan is a cog of the corporate machine that as a whole makes up FMIC. It is the Japanese division of corporate. Neither FMIC nor the Fender Japan division has ever owned a manufacturing plant in Japan. Instead Fender Japan contracts manufacturing out to existing guitar manufacturing plants. These manufacturing contractors have historically been Fuki-Gen Gakki (commonly known today as just FujiGen), Tokai and Dyna Gakki.

These same plants also make guitars for their own house brands, store brands and other famous brands such as Epiphone, Ibanez, Yamaha and Gretch. Plus these same plants make parts for aftermarket resale such as many of the parts offered by parts supply house ALLPARTS.

No, a 1982 Fender Japan instrument would not have an "E" serial. USA production was still in progress using "E" serials in 1982. 1982 Japanese Fenders would have have a "JV" serial. The 1982/83 Japanese production was limited to Vintage Reissue Series type instruments.

E + 6 digit Japanese serials officially started in 1984 once USA mass production ceased and E + 6 digit serials were used on Made In Japan Fenders until 1987.

No, they did not use leftover 70's USA parts. FMIC didn't get any parts inventory when they bought Fender from CBS. The parts were all made in Japan. Japanese makers had been copying Fenders for years down to the tiniest detail that they could get away with and not get sued. (There were in fact some lawsuits, which is why some Japanese models are referred to as a "Lawsuit Bass.") Now the newly formed Fender Japan had a license to copy every minute detail down to the peghead shape and decal logos without worry of lawsuits.

As to the quality, it seems to be the collective opinion that the early Japanese Fenders were surprisingly good. So good that some people actually prefer the early E series Japanese instruments of 1984 to the E series USA ones of 1983. I however am not part of that group. My opinion is that in 1984, as is still the case with Japanese Fenders made today, the woods, finishes and craftsmanship were superb but the electronics especially and also to a lesser extent some of the hardware was substandard to even the late CBS stuff. In short they looked and played fantastic, but sounded just enough like a Fender to get by. Once Fullerton USA production ceased completely they were good enough to save the brand until Corona could get up and running. But better than USA Fenders? No. That's my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

Whenever someone starts raving about Fender Japan quality being superior a few things are always in the back of my mind and one of them is the Fotoflame finish which is basically a photograph of amazingly good wood glued on top of not so good wood. This was one of the worst ideas for guitar finishing ever.

Actually the best all around basses FMIC ever exported from Japan were not labeled Fender at all. They were branded Heartfield. FMIC, Fender Japan & FujiGen teamed up for the Heartfield project. Heartfield yielded some of the finest bass guitar models ever mass produced and the upper end Heartfield models were without question the finest Japanese basses ever mass produced. They put Ibanez's top of the line stuff to shame, even today's top of the line models. These instruments were cutting edge for the time. Top end Heartfield basses had electronics superior to any instrument made anywhere at that time and hardware that was at least as good as any other brand no matter the cost. For example you could get an active 3-band EQ Heartfield neck-through bass with both a high impedance output for gigging and a low impedance output for recording direct, and get it all factory installed in your choice of color, neck treatment, etc. Due to the cost of making them in the first place coupled with the US $ versus the Yen exchange rate growing more and more unfavorable to the US $, the Heartfield models wound up costing about the same in the USA as a Fender USA made bass. So they didn't sell well in the USA and FMIC pulled the plug. The Heartfield line was canceled basically because they were guilty of being too good. Even the lower end bolt-on neck Heartfield basses had good electronics and solid hardware.


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Post subject: Re: confusion about 1982. Usa Made vs Japan made
Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 12:00 pm
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wow brotherdave! what a tome of information you just dropped on me.

thanks very much for the detailed response!

is there any official source on fender manufacturing history other than the little that is posted on the website here? i was trying to look for sources but literally all i can find about fender history comes from brotherdave's postings!


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Post subject: Re: confusion about 1982. Usa Made vs Japan made
Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 2:06 am
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Hi brother dave I love reading your posts.
I am about to buy a Fender (not squier) jpn serial: JV156699 Jazz bass
This bas should be from somewhere around 1982-1984 (i think?? )
could you tell me anything about the quality of these basses. would it be equatable to a US standard?

Kind regards
JKD


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Post subject: Re: confusion about 1982. Usa Made vs Japan made
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2015 7:07 am
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MrBigglesworth wrote:
Hi brother dave I love reading your posts.
I am about to buy a Fender (not squier) jpn serial: JV156699 Jazz bass
This bas should be from somewhere around 1982-1984 (i think?? )
could you tell me anything about the quality of these basses. would it be equatable to a US standard?

Kind regards
JKD


Sorry been away. As I said before wood, finishing, fit and anything physical is pretty good. Hardware not up to Fender USA standards, but in general the electronics were the sub par component.

So many of them were made that they will never appreciate significantly so upgrading the electronics on them is okay. That makes them way better than they were stock.

As an example let's talk about Fender Japan's Donald Duck Dunn Signature model Precision Bass. It was a spectacular looking Candy Apple Red instrument with gold anodized pickguard , emulating his 1957 P-Bass that was originally Sunburst. Dunn sanded it down after Otis Redding and most of the Bar-Kays were killed in the plane crash because it reminded it too much of the lost twin. (The TWIN of this instrument was on that plane, as he had loaned it to Bar-Kays bassist James Alexander for the tour since it was the one Dunn used on all the Otis tracks. James Alexander actually was flying commercial but Dunn's "Dock of the Bay" bass was on the fatal plane and never recovered.) After playing it sanded down a while, he sent it back to Fullerton for a Candy Apple Red factory refinish and the original electronics and hardware reinstalled. He played it this way for decades then in the late 70's put a tuxedo Jazz neck on it, which would become the look Lakland adopted for their Dunn signature instrument decades later.

The Fender Japan Duck Dunn looked the part, but the sound was nothing at all like a real P-Bass. There were only a few hundred (the exact number debatable) made. I played several of these and they all sounded blah. They all looked great, but sounded nothing like the real deal. I suppose with electronics upgrades it could be brought up to snuff, but once you mod a signature model it really is no longer a collectible, so I passed on all of them I ever demoed. This was a very limited run, they should have skyrocketed in value, but to this day they have not. The reason? They sound inferior. They looked amazing though. Really amazing.


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Post subject: Re: confusion about 1982. Usa Made vs Japan made
Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2015 8:24 pm
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+1 and +1

The Heartfield basses are still relevant basses today. My drummer has one of my DR's, and another friend one of my Prophecies. The lowZ output was ahead of its time. No direct boxes, etc..

I have the good fortune to own both a US prototype and a MIJ production model of the same bass. Two different sounds, completely.

Brother Dave, spot on, as usual.

Steve

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Collector of vintage Fender 4 string basses.


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