Fender Mod Shop or Fake?

[Rob]

A buddy of mine just bought what he believes is a used Mod Shop P-bass from Guitar Center, but I have my doubts. The rear-headstock strap button and vintage style tuners are unusual, but why are the dots on the fretboard so dark? Bad Guitar Center photography? You really can't see much in these photos, but there were a couple things that stood out:

• The logo is a vintage-style decal with an obvious outline, applied over the clearcoat. In years past, the Mod Shop did offer some vintage-style P-bass necks in the past, but don't they get the MS-prefixed serial numbers stamped into the neck plate? I've never seen a serial number on the rear-headstock of a vintage-style neck.

• The serial number also appears to be a decal. Aside from what looks like a visible outline on the top and left sides, the addition of "Corona, California" is something I've never seen on a Mod Shop instrument's rear-headstock serial number.

• It doesn't come with the original case, factory rider/spec sheet, or certificate of authenticity.

Aside from the Mod Shop neck plate, is there anything about this instrument that suggests that any part of it came from the Fender Mod Shop? Is there any reason you'd not include the cert/spec sheet unless it would tattle on non-original parts?

Thankfully, he'll have the option to return the thing.

[crazyzeke]

Honestly I'm not even close to an expert here but I'm answering in the interests of keeping the conversation going... I tried out the online Mod Shop the other day and found that it was surprisingly limited considering there's a premium. I mean, I understand why - if you want more variations you need to go Custom Shop and there's only so many Mod Shop options they can reasonably support given the massive amount of variations in the Fender catalogue over the years but I don't recall seeing anything about changing the material used for the fretboard dots (the choices would probably be clay or pearloid). As I often moan about, couldn't even select the neck radius, and even when I checked out the Custom Shop catalogue it still wouldn't be enough options to build what I want without speaking to Fender directly, and when I did that about 15 years ago the Jag spec I wanted was $12,000+ so God knows what it'd cost now.

Long story short, there's some reasons to be dubious here. The headstock decal feels especially off to me... I might be wrong but it looks like that was applied by someone other than Fender, just a hunch with no proof.





Those are your options for Precisions. You can choose the shape, you can choose the fingerboard, you cannot choose the dots (or indeed, if you wanted B&B you can't seem to do that either).

[Rob]

The options change with time, and seem to be a reflection of "whatever's available from our current production lines," with different parts, choices, and features coming/going as various models are introduced/discontinued. Currently, the mod shop doesn't offer vintage tuners for P-bass, but they did in the past, and may again in the future.

But everything about that neck, dots, logo, and serial number seem sketchy to me.

[Jonesie]

I looked up what I THINK the serial number is on that, which looks like US210000023, and it's coming up as an American Pro Tele, so that's disconcerting.

[Rob]

I looked up what I THINK the serial number is on that, which looks like US210000023, and it's coming up as an American Pro Tele, so that's disconcerting.

You've got an extra 0 in there, but that makes a good point. It looks like in 2021 (maybe in response to the pandemic production boom?) Fender added an extra digit to their serial number system? All the US basses I can find from 2020 and prior, and from 2022 onward, use USyy+6 digits. But all the 2021s I've seen have USyy+7 digits.

And about at the same time, the Mod Shop started using the MSyy+4 digit serial numbers stamped into the neck plate (except for when using old serial numbered necks from 2019 and 2020). Plus, all the 2021 US necks with serials would have the "Fender 75" anniversary stamp, right? So my guess is that whoever faked this decal didn't realize the US21 serials had an extra zero, or intentionally shortened it so it couldn't be looked up.

I remain convinced this is a fraud, Guitar Center got had, and now they're trying to pass the buck.

[crazyzeke]

You've got an extra 0 in there, but that makes a good point. It looks like in 2021 (maybe in response to the pandemic production boom?) Fender added an extra digit to their serial number system? All the US basses I can find from 2020 and prior, and from 2022 onward, use USyy+6 digits. But all the 2021s I've seen have USyy+7 digits.

Fender literally have the worst serial numbering system I've ever seen, so much so that it even seems to apply to Fender Japan - some of them you can only date within a 3 year range, which is ludicrous. If/when some of those instruments are collectable a new method for ascertaining precise build dates is going to need to be found.

I remain convinced this is a fraud, Guitar Center got had, and now they're trying to pass the buck.

This reminds me of the time I tried to buy a Shure SM58 on eBay and then worked out from the pictures it was a cheap clone - logo was wrong, case was wrong. I told the seller this, as politely as possible, and she (clearly a loon) launched into a tirade about how could it be, it was bought from a music shop blah blah blah I was nuts and totally stupid, even though I'd enclosed pictures proving that it was a fake after some careful homework. It didn't occur to her that she could have been fobbed off with it by the shop, and from what I read I dodged a bullet because some of the SM58 clones are woeful, as in, Fisher Price My First Mic would be better quality. This was before eBay did auto-pay for Best Offers so I never put money down, just as well as from how crazy she was it would have been a struggle to get the money back.



I don't have much of the correspondence but I carefully drafted this (the quotes around offended are euphemistic because she was essentially cussing me out) and then got another tirade from her about how it was so out of line etc some people eh.

Anyway! I'm sure your friend will have better luck cancelling his order or what have you, than I did, and there will be less verbal abuse.

[Rob]

I'm sure your friend will have better luck cancelling his order or what have you, than I did, and there will be less verbal abuse.

Too late to cancel, unfortunately. This all went down before I knew he was even looking for a bass, and he'd already pulled the trigger before I saw the pics. But we have a local Guitar Center in town, so if it's not what it claims to be, he can just dump it back on them -- I think they have a 10-day return policy for online used gear.

[crazyzeke]

Too late to cancel, unfortunately. This all went down before I knew he was even looking for a bass, and he'd already pulled the trigger before I saw the pics. But we have a local Guitar Center in town, so if it's not what it claims to be, he can just dump it back on them -- I think they have a 10-day return policy for online used gear.

Oh sweet! So he has an easy out. I think it might be easier to do that if the instrument isn't played, because if he plays it and likes it, in the moment he might be tempted not to refund it, and then regret that decision later when outside the return time window. The point is if it's a fake (and the signs point to it) then he's been missold and that's out of line.

[OffYourFace]

A) that looks like an amazing bass, how much was it?

B) the neck looks like a legit '65 or AO P-Bass neck. You won't find a cheap counterfeit neck with a proper laminated rosewood board like that.

I bought a '65/AO Strat neck direct from Fender and the decal and serial number decal were the same style. Pop the neck off and look for the Fender stamp. Here's my old listing (i just noticed i never added a pic of the heel, how odd for me... I wish I kept that neck now too!

Worst case scenario, it's a parts-bass with genuine Fender parts. But I do believe the Mod Shop had a neck like that for the P-Bass during the pandemic.

[tammyw]

I think it looks a little suspect, but it should have barcoded part-number stickers on the neck, body, and pickguard.

[Rob]

Worst case scenario, it's a parts-bass with genuine Fender parts. But I do believe the Mod Shop had a neck like that for the P-Bass during the pandemic.

That's correct, but it's a parts-bass masquerading as a Mod Shop bass, which is (in my view) worth significantly less.

You may be correct that the Mod Shop once offered this "American Classic" Precision Bass neck, or as it was later called, "American Original." However, on Precision Basses, those instruments got neck plate serial number stamps because the necks weren't stamped on the back of the headstock. And when the Mod Stop used one, they also give it a neck plate neck plate serial number, like this:



The bass in question has a Mod Shop plate with no serial number, suggesting it's older than 2021, or that the original neck did have a legit, stamped serial number. Whoever replaced the neck was now left with a parts-bass with no serial number, so a fake one (missing a digit) was applied with a cheap decal. Also, all other proof that the instrument came from the Mod Shop (factory spec sheet w/ date, certificate of authenticity, etc.) are all conveniently absent.



Now if I'm mistaken, please show me some legit examples. But I've never, ever seen an authentic, modern Fender instrument whose only claim to authenticity is a laser-printed, non-waterslide decal with an invalid serial number applied over the finish.

Without this decal, it's just a parts-bass, albeit one made of genuine Fender parts. But to me, that fake serial number decal betrays fraudulent intent.

[OffYourFace]

My serial number on my AO Strat neck was the same. A sticker over the nitro. I bought direct from fender with my artist discount.

Did you even click on my link? Zoom in.

Also this was during the pandemic. Who knows what kind of crew they had during 2020-2021. It wouldn’t be surprising to me if some minor details were looked over.
I bought a lot of parts on the website during lockdown cuz I was bored like everyone else. A lot of the parts had weird little things like odd little finish flaws or wood left in the neck cavity that acted like a shim, weird stickers with numbers I’ve never seen before, and fonts on serial numbers all looked different etc.

Just email pics to a fender representative. A friend of mine did that recently because when he entered his serial number for his limited black Johnny Marr jaguar it came up weird. He got a reply pretty quickly.