1966 Fender 5string Jazz/Jaguar/Jazzmaster

[TheGreek]

Anybody know anything about these???Never seen anything like this before:


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1966-Fender-Bass-V-5-String-Ultra-Rare-Precision-Jazz-Jaguar-Jazzmaster-era-/290834553077?pt=Guitar&hash=item43b71718f5

[wateroftyne]

Yip - it's a Bass V. As played by John Paul Jones (briefly) amongst others. Jack Bruce noodled on one too, I think.

Not very popular at the time.

Edited December 29, 2012 by wateroftyne

[Rick's Fine '52]

Less than 300 made, some records say as little as 250, either way, very scarce, 15 fret necks werent popular. One for collectors more than players.

Made from '65 to '73 (I think, it may be '72). They came with both wide bridge and pickup covers, and it's rare to find them with both still. Necks followed the usual bass format, with dot necks up to '66, then short period of dots and binding, then block n bound. There's even one example (Maybe more, but I've only seen one), with maple neck and black blocks/binding.

Most are sunburst, but there's various different colours out there.

I actually quite like them, they're not easy to play though.

[Happy Jack]

I appreciate that it was a re-fin and not entirely original, but $1800 seems pretty light to me ...

[Rick's Fine '52]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1356953559' post='1915448']
I appreciate that it was a re-fin and not entirely original, but $1800 seems pretty light to me ...
[/quote]

Good buy for someone!

[MrTaff]

[quote]neck is very straight on treble side, and slight bow on bass side.[/quote]

so the neck is warped?

[chris_b]

They seem to be saying it's tuned BEAD, which might be the cause of the warp on the bass side of the neck.

These basses were designed to be tuned to EADGC.


It was a project that was doomed to fail. Who played up the neck enough to warrant a C string in the 60's?

[Si600]

I wonder why they felt the need to refinish it and then relic it. Why not leave it as was?

[graham1945]

Hi Mick, it's me again. I actually have one of these (since 1972). No problems with changing strings to beadg, I've had it stringed this way for about 30 years. I have a bartolini mm type bridge pickup and a bartolini p bass pickup in the neck position. I've read many times that there were only around 200 made, but I have a Fender vintage book which suggests that there were more like 1,000. They do come up fairly regularly and go for around £2,000 in original condition. Unfortunately what you get for that is a pretty sub standard pickup. I love playing mine, they look a bit odd and are not light and suffer a bit of neck dive, but I love it! I've put a pic of mine somewhere on here, just search Fender Bass V.
Cheers
Graham