Fender Machine Head (Possibly 50's)

[ritch]

I wonder if anybody can help me. I have just bought a lovely 72/73 Precision (Sunburst with a red tortoishell scratchplate and a Rosewood A neck). The tuner for the G string had been replaced at some point and worked backwards to the others so I wanted to replace it. I contacted David from [url="http://www.cotswoldbassguitars.co.uk/"]http://www.cotswoldbassguitars.co.uk/[/url] who kindly found me an exact match for the bass, which we have just fitted.

We speculated as to whether the one we took off could actually be an older one, as it appears to be a 51-57 style according to David's Fender bass book.

Does anybody have one that I can compare photos/measurements to? Or can anybody tell from my photos?

One of the edges seems to have been sheered off a little (left hand side of photo2).

Cheers

Rich

Edited September 4, 2014 by ritch

[ikay]

At first glance it does look very like a 51-57 machine head but if you look more closely a couple of things don't look quite right. First is the rivet holding the paddle to the shaft which is much closer to the end of the shaft on a genuine 50s one. Second is the washer under the slothead screw on the main cog which is smaller on the original (although I guess this could have been replaced). I've attached a pic of my original 1957 P for reference. Overall I'd guess that yours is probably taken from a more recent reissue of a 50 bass rather than an original 50s machine head.

[ritch]

Thanks for posting that Ikay. That does suggest it's not a genuine one after all. I have compared it to a 60th anniversary CIJ 51 reissue and it also has some differences to that - the rivet is flat topped and it also has the washer under the screw.

I think I may just stick it up on ebay as a 51 "style" but say that it's origin is unknown and see if anybody wants it.

Cheers

Rich

[pobrien_ie]

Hi,

To my eyes at least, it looks to be from the 57/58 to 64 era. It seems to look idenitcal to a set I bought that purported to be from that era.

Paddy

[Telebass]

Yup, reverse tuners essentially unchanged from 51 to 65.
And Gotoh make the current reissues, but that isn't one, because the ratios visbly changed on the reissues. Much finer worm thread.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Telebass

[ritch]

Paddy - would you be able to post a picture of one of yours by any chance?

[pobrien_ie]

Here you go. Sorry about the glare...(edit)...and the huge photo! Struggling on mobile!

[IMG]http://i1249.photobucket.com/albums/hh504/pobrien_ie/2014-09-06161129_zps02285c05.jpg[/IMG]

Edited September 6, 2014 by pobrien_ie