Help with Japanese Fender Jazz Bass variants

[Iron Miska]

Hi all,

There are too many strange variants of these with mysterious numbering. Like there is JB62-70, JB62-US, "normal" JB62, JB62-60... you get the idea.

When it comes to body material (alder vs basswood), some say wood itself can tell whether it's "-US" model or not, while others say it's also the size of the tuning machines. Others point at pots, cloth wiring etc. I'm kinda lost. Is there some kinda catalog or listing or encyclopedia dedicated to the subject?

Thanks!

 

[BASS67]

You can try here, Fender Japan catalogues. From 1989 they are in English and you can see, model names, specs, prices...

Fender Japan Guitar Catalogues - Vintage Japan Guitars

 

[Iron Miska]

Thanks man! Seems like the second number after the models name is the MSRP (in thousands) in JPY. Like JB62-70 means it should be sold for 70.000 Yen.