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Fender fretless Jazz question


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As far as I can see Fender started selling fretless Jazz basses in 1970 (so why all the 60s F/L re-issues from Japan).  The pics I have found so far all seem to have p/up covers, but can anyone tell me if the pickups were in the 60s or 70s position?  I imagine both with the early ones being in the the 'old' positions...

 

Any help and guidance much appreciated.

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35 minutes ago, ead said:

As far as I can see Fender started selling fretless Jazz basses in 1970 (so why all the 60s F/L re-issues from Japan).  The pics I have found so far all seem to have p/up covers, but can anyone tell me if the pickups were in the 60s or 70s position?  I imagine both with the early ones being in the the 'old' positions...

 

Any help and guidance much appreciated.

I'm not sure that's totally correct. Fender first started making fretless basses with the Precision bass in 1970. I could be wrong but I don't think the fretless Jazz appeared until later. I can't actually find any evidence of when Fender released the first fretless Jazz  only forum speak but my Fender Bass boom does talk about the fretless Precision coming out in 1970.

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Thanks for that.  The reason I went with 1970 is the attached photo from my "Illustrated History of Fender" which has this pic of two 1970 Js.  This is the earliest I've found so far and unhelpfully both have pickup covers.

 

IMG_20211019_114447.thumb.jpg.e45ebb86c7a8a37885cf3b9dfe9a7d05.jpg

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Indeed, the first fretless Fender was made in 1970 and it was a Precision Bass. What you see in this calalogue are well known ones off from the mid 70's as Fender USA only started making fretless Jazz Basses in 1988... Amazing when they could have sold thousands of these after the Jaco tsunami from the mid 70's on...

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13 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

Indeed, the first fretless Fender was made in 1970 and it was a Precision Bass. What you see in this calalogue are well known ones off from the mid 70's as Fender USA only started making fretless Jazz Basses in 1988... Amazing when they could have sold thousands of these after the Jaco tsunami from the mid 70's on...

Yes, this is what I thought, that the fretless Jazz didn't come until the 80's but I didn't say as I really wasn't sure. I wonder if the Jaco thing wasn't as big or recognized as a thing back then as it these days and why Fender didn't jump on the band wagon at the time.

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Is Jaco more of a bass player icon that might not have had the wider recognition?

 

Those two 1970 Js would, I imagine, have been custom orders.  There is certainly evidence of fretless Jazzes (& Ps of course) before 1980 so they have been quite niche and only really got going when Fender moved production back to the US after the success of the MIJ/CIJ basses.

 

Still no clearer on the p/up placements though.

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On 18/10/2021 at 17:00, Linus27 said:

I'm not sure that's totally correct. Fender first started making fretless basses with the Precision bass in 1970. I could be wrong but I don't think the fretless Jazz appeared until later. I can't actually find any evidence of when Fender released the first fretless Jazz  only forum speak but my Fender Bass boom does talk about the fretless Precision coming out in 1970.

I had an early 70's fretless Precision and it had chrome pickup and bridge covers. I believe it did not have threaded bridge saddles.                                The dark blue Jazz is a lined neck Mexican and one fretless I can play on pitch (usually) . Those lines help.

DSCN1243.JPG

Edited by grenadillabama
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