unusual combo of serial no. & binding

[sookwinder]

some of you may recall I have started a data base of the serial nos. of 1965 - 1969 Jazzmasters and and Jaguars and plotted this against the years of manufacture and whether the neck had "dots and binding" or "blocks and binding".

So whenever I see a jm / jag like this I email the seller and ask for the serial no.  Recently a Jag came up on GBASE which had "dots and binding" and this morning the seller responded telling me that the serial no. is : L12978

So ...  has anyone ever seen an "L" plated Jag or JM which also has "dots & binding" ?   I always thought that the binding on the neck came in when they went to neck plates with the "F "  (obviouisly after the "L" series neck plates were finished)

Immediately I can see two possibilities:  (1) given the guard is repro, the rest of the guitar may have more issues than what is initially obvious and so we cannot rely on anything   (2) the seller has missread/missunderstood the serial no and thought that 112978   actually  is  L12978

any thoughts ?

http://www.gbase.com/Stores/Gear/GearDe ... em=1540226

[fullerplast]

I vote option 1, but it doesn't necessarily mean the guitar is a total POS.

Back when Jags could be had for $600 - $800, the neckplates were worth about the same as they are today, and same with the tuners. These two items made up almost the entire cost of the Jag. Many Jags were pilfered for the neck plate and tuners. Later on, people tried to correct the missing parts and grabbed whatever they could (eBay has fostered much of this).

This could be a mostly original 1965 Jag with earlier neckplate...

OR

An earlier Jag with a later neck...

OR

A parts guitar...

These dealers never seem to know to what they have, which is suspicious in itself. It's hard to decide if they are either not knowledgeable, or outright dishonest. I would never shell out a few grand for something represented the way they often do.

[Jim Shine]

I vote parts guitar.