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I bought it second hand on June 2019. It says Yamaha but I couldn't find anything about it.

here's the bassthe headstockit has a vintage pickguard, like it's yellowish.

Click for full size

Elements In Space
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polka_
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  • By the way, you might wanna change those rusty strings! – Andy Bonner Jun 09 '22 at 18:04
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    As a guitarist, I don't play my bass often and I tend to use the same strings for years since they don't break like guitar strings do. I'm not very maniac about the sound, as long as it works, but since it sounded pretty bad, I thought I could try another kind of strings. Instead, I just bought a new set of the same strings and, man, it sounded like a totally different instrument, with much better highs and all. Go for it. – Jérôme Jun 10 '22 at 07:07

1 Answers1

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Please take my light-hearted cynicism below with a pinch of salt - or tequila & lime ;)

Well, as that's not the actual Yamaha logo, let's imagine someone made their own decals for it.

See https://www.yamaha.com/en/about/history/logo/

Aside from the fact that the font is wrong, the kerning appears to have been done by hand [by a 4-year-old], the bar code is distorted, the single solid spot-it-from-a-mile-away giveaway is that the M descends to the baseline, which is only used by the motor cycle company, not the musical instrument company, since 1967.

As far as I'm aware, Yamaha only ever made one Precision copy [& never a Jazz copy], in 1980. Its headstock looked like this

enter image description here

Their headstocks are commonly double-sided not single. The single-sided 'Fender-similar' structures are not identical copies.

enter image description here

The headstock you have is neither Fender nor Yamaha, in shape.

Note the M & the kerning in both cases.
Also note that the truss-rod adjustment on both is at the other end.

TL:DR: You have what is commonly known as a 'mickey mouse Fender Jazz almost-copy'. It could have been made by anyone, anywhere [in South East Asia] at any time in the past 50 years, but probably the last couple of decades. The decals were added by an amateur. The paint job looks lumpy too. I hope it was cheap. ;)

enter image description here

Nothing here is crisp. It's been typeset with a DIY kit, by hand. Nothing is straight. The Y is skewed, all three A's are different to each other; in CUSTOM the O crashes into the M whilst leaving a hole you could drop a hippo through from the T; in MADE the D crashes into the E, The M seems to have fallen out with the rest of the word... This is a poor amateur job. The only thing hand-made about it is the decals.

Tetsujin
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    I mainly play electric guitar, but in one of my trips, I saw it for a real cheap price so I decided to buy it. It sounds cool, does its job and yeah. Thank you so much for the detailed answer. – polka_ Jun 09 '22 at 19:27
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    Maybe "hand made" refers to the lettering :-) – Michael Curtis Jun 09 '22 at 19:33
  • normally I don't like snark in the answers as they seem mean, but this answer was pretty entertaining. – Yorik Jun 09 '22 at 20:29
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    Good detailed answer, +1. @polka_ if it was cheap, sounds good and plays well you got yourself a workable Fender Jazz Bass copy. Take off those silly fake decals or not, I would (who puts a barcode on a headstock???). just play and enjoy it. Oh yeah, and like Andy said, change the strings ;-) – John Belzaguy Jun 09 '22 at 20:53
  • Man, it's all growing on me in a "meta" way. This instrument definitely has a story. Maybe add your own touches. "This machine kills kerning." "Ceci n'est pas un Jazz." – Andy Bonner Jun 10 '22 at 13:42
  • Just so long as you don't play your straight 16ths the same way ;)) – Tetsujin Jun 10 '22 at 13:54
  • What the freak is the UPC code on it for? – Kevin_Kinsey Jun 10 '22 at 15:32
  • Incidentally, the number below the barcode is not a valid UPC. A valid UPC-A would have 12 digits. This has 13. (I haven't checked to see whether the sloppy barcode matches the numbers or whether it's readable.) – Theodore Jun 10 '22 at 16:20
  • @Theodore - not that it really matters, but it's an EAN-13 [there's a hint in the name ;)) The code matches the number… but unless you happen to know whose number it is, that's as far as you're going to get. – Tetsujin Jun 10 '22 at 16:45
  • @Tetsujin I should have guessed. I don't see EAN (IAN) barcodes on a daily basis like I do UPCs. The code starts with 323, which appears to be for France and Monaco!?! – Theodore Jun 10 '22 at 16:53
  • I really wouldn't know. Closest I get to barcodes these days is pointing at them with my phone, walking round a supermarket so I dan't have to scan everything at the till [when I don't just get it all delivered]. I used to put codes on products but I had an app to do that too. Never cared what they looked like so long as they fit my artwork ;)) – Tetsujin Jun 10 '22 at 16:57