XII decal question (UPDATE: repro decal pic!)

[DB]

Quick question for you XII owners out there.  As many of you know, I'm getting my project XII refinished.  I have a decal sample on the way to verify it for accuracy.  I had taken a good photo of my previous XII, but we can't make out one small detail in the photo.

On the line below the Patent numbers there is the phrase "& PAT PEND".  Are there periods after PAT and PEND?  Should the phrase be "& PAT. PEND."  ?

Thanks,

DB

[zhivago]

check this out:

[mynameisjonas]

looks like "& PAT. PEND." to me.

[DB]

Found another photo, which looks like no periods:



What do you guys think?

DB

[Jay]

My XII has no & PAT PEND text at all, just the patent #s.  Can't help... 

[zhivago]

mine has a matching black headstock so I can't really tell

to complicate matters more, check this decal out:



it doesn't even have the line

[Hellion]

The XII looks slightly different each time too. Leo must have been shopping around for cheap vendors. Oh well--license. They are ALL correct.

[DB]

The XII looks slightly different each time too. Leo must have been shopping around for cheap vendors. Oh well--license. They are ALL correct.

You're probably right. Kind of weird though to find variations on the XII decal, since so few of them were made. 

DB

[Jay]

This is just like mine.

mine has a matching black headstock so I can't really tell

to complicate matters more, check this decal out:



it doesn't even have the line

[DB]

I got my sample decal today for approval.  Here's a shot of it sitting on my Bass VI CS headstock for comparison.  It looks pretty damn good to me, and for a good price.  Take a look and let me know what you think. 

It is a flash photo, so there's a bit of glare at the top of the F, but it also shows you the quality of the metallic ink.



And here's a link to the original hosted photo if you want to view at original size:

http://www.pbase.com/dbasica/image/85586879

DB

[Jay]

Looks great and appears very accurate.

[DB]

Thanks for the input Jay.

I just noticed something unusual in the 2 main types of XII decals (with PAT PEND and without).  Take a look:

With PAT PEND:



And without:



If it has the PAT PEND line, the line above with the PAT numbers is shifted to the left, so that PAT is to the left of the ELECTRIC.  On the decals without the PAT PEND line, the PAT number line is centered under ELECTRIC XII. 

Very strange, and apparently poor quality control of the decals. Hellion may have been onto something about Fender shopping for price  -- perhaps even they asked a couple decal vendors to provide samples and just used those, as there weren't many XIIs built anyway (how many was it?).

At any rate, I'm very happy with the repro decal and will use it.

DB

[zhivago]

hey Dan, the repro you have looks great....it is rather confusing with Fender in this instance...I guess the transitional period onto CBS could also be a factor in the cost-cutting of decals.

I mean, they changed the way decals looked all through the line anyway, so I guess everything's possible (trying different vendors etc)


regarding the number of XIIs...who knows...what I do know is, we're lucky to own one