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Vintage Fenders


Reggaebass

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14 minutes ago, mowf said:

I've got a '75 P that I had refinished in natural when I bought it 20 odd years ago, as the previous owner had seen fit to do a DIY snakeskin effect job on it... The body is definitely two different lumps of wood and somebody told me it would have been a solid colour originally to mask this fact, don't know how true that is but sounds feasible. You can see the join line running between the bridge and the scratch plate in the photos.

D5077C33-34BD-409B-9CA0-72FBDFF2A3FA_1_105_c.thumb.jpeg.7af433ac212ac3db26f93e804ad222e9.jpeg

E484CF20-0A98-4DA2-B65D-64A037072603_1_105_c.thumb.jpeg.b92e1af0baf7aac64ed6ef9d07fd4129.jpeg

Wow that’s so nice mowf, , great mojo, i like that 👍I know a lot of them have joins , it’s just me being picky , it doesn’t put me off buying one, I was just curious 

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1 hour ago, mowf said:

I've got a '75 P that I had refinished in natural when I bought it 20 odd years ago, as the previous owner had seen fit to do a DIY snakeskin effect job on it... The body is definitely two different lumps of wood and somebody told me it would have been a solid colour originally to mask this fact, don't know how true that is but sounds feasible. You can see the join line running between the bridge and the scratch plate in the photos.

D5077C33-34BD-409B-9CA0-72FBDFF2A3FA_1_105_c.thumb.jpeg.7af433ac212ac3db26f93e804ad222e9.jpeg

E484CF20-0A98-4DA2-B65D-64A037072603_1_105_c.thumb.jpeg.b92e1af0baf7aac64ed6ef9d07fd4129.jpeg

This is noice

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2 hours ago, Cuzzie said:

This is noice

The previous owner had painted it black, then wrapped fishnet stockings around it and sprayed grey over the top to give it a snakeskin effect. It had active Status pickups in and as a result both looked, and sounded, horrible. Looking back I have absolutely no idea why I bought it, other than I had just been bitten by the P-bass bug and it was the cheapest one I could find. I paid £400 plus another £50 for the shop to refinish it. Picked it up a week later and they had done an amazing job. Put some SD Quarter Pounders in it and it’s been my go to workhorse ever since. 

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43 minutes ago, mowf said:

The previous owner had painted it black, then wrapped fishnet stockings around it and sprayed grey over the top to give it a snakeskin effect. It had active Status pickups in and as a result both looked, and sounded, horrible. Looking back I have absolutely no idea why I bought it, other than I had just been bitten by the P-bass bug and it was the cheapest one I could find. I paid £400 plus another £50 for the shop to refinish it. Picked it up a week later and they had done an amazing job. Put some SD Quarter Pounders in it and it’s been my go to workhorse ever since. 

Money well spent - it’s a corker

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2 minutes ago, greavesbass said:

Id lusted for years to get a early 70's sunburst P. Played it and sold it....heavy and the E string was sooo dead. Now play a VM squire P which I shall never sell.

bass.JPG

Thankfully, we will now recognise it next time it is advertised for sale.

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7 minutes ago, GuyR said:

in common with every category of instrument, Vintage Fenders are not all created equal.

Agreed

But I do think in general the chances finding a good one diminish over the course of the 70’s as the seasoning of woods diminished making for heavier basses and the machine tools wore out and the gaps in neck and pup pockets increased leading to floppy three bolt necks on jazzes and tele basses.

But redemption came in the form of Bill Shultz and the American vintage reissue series 

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It seems like those terribly matched pieces of wood are especially to be found on the mustangs of the 70s. I've seen it a lot while searching for a nice one. 

Now I own a 71 jazz (around 3,85 kg) which is really resonant and acoustically loud. It sounds deep and growly with rounds, though I now have TIs fitted to see how I like them on this jazz. 

This is definitely one of the best sounding jazzes I've owned, along with a classic 60s Mexican Reissue and Yamaha jb600r. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 16/01/2021 at 17:16, GuyR said:

Thankfully, we will now recognise it next time it is advertised for sale.

Well it ended up on the other side of the planet so your ok....weird tho cause the neck was the smoothest comfiest neck Ive ever played...but God knows what was up with the body.....E string virtually inaudible..A & D strings thunderous and the G kind between the two....tried everything...nut, bridge, strings, PU's, nothing, even clamped bits of metal to the darn thing to move the resonance....can only conclude the body wood wasn't properly dried out or was sap wood or something, anyway maddening.....Probably the worse P bass that ever left the factory....guess there had to be one and I got it!  haha

Edited by greavesbass
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On 17/01/2021 at 14:43, gareth said:

Look at the terrible matching of the body woods on this 1973 mustang - in earlier times Fender would have only used this body for solid colours

2F216EC9-DAE0-481A-AC89-9108135D6864.jpeg

I remember seeing a white, late 50's P for sale, years ago. The finish was missing from much of the back of the body and you could see there were not just horizontal joins, but a diagonal one too. The body was assembled from random offcuts, by the looks of it. They still sold it for almost 10 grand, IIRC. I wish I had saved a picture of it.

Edited by Doctor J
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4 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

I remember seeing a white, late 50's P for sale, years ago. The finish was missing from much of the back of the body and you could see there were not just horizontal joins, but a diagonal one too. The body was assembled from random offcuts, by the looks of it. They still sold it for almost 10 grand, IIRC. I wish I had saved a picture of it.

I think it’s more ok on solid colours but in excusable on sunbursts 

I had a sunburst four bolt 74 jazz with the same problem 

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On 14/01/2021 at 17:37, mowf said:

I've got a '75 P that I had refinished in natural when I bought it 20 odd years ago, as the previous owner had seen fit to do a DIY snakeskin effect job on it... The body is definitely two different lumps of wood and somebody told me it would have been a solid colour originally to mask this fact, don't know how true that is but sounds feasible. You can see the join line running between the bridge and the scratch plate in the photos.

D5077C33-34BD-409B-9CA0-72FBDFF2A3FA_1_105_c.thumb.jpeg.7af433ac212ac3db26f93e804ad222e9.jpeg

E484CF20-0A98-4DA2-B65D-64A037072603_1_105_c.thumb.jpeg.b92e1af0baf7aac64ed6ef9d07fd4129.jpeg

That is a beauty 👍

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On 14/01/2021 at 16:37, mowf said:

I've got a '75 P that I had refinished in natural when I bought it 20 odd years ago, as the previous owner had seen fit to do a DIY snakeskin effect job on it... The body is definitely two different lumps of wood and somebody told me it would have been a solid colour originally to mask this fact, don't know how true that is but sounds feasible. You can see the join line running between the bridge and the scratch plate in the photos.

D5077C33-34BD-409B-9CA0-72FBDFF2A3FA_1_105_c.thumb.jpeg.7af433ac212ac3db26f93e804ad222e9.jpeg

E484CF20-0A98-4DA2-B65D-64A037072603_1_105_c.thumb.jpeg.b92e1af0baf7aac64ed6ef9d07fd4129.jpeg

What bridge is that? They were around in the early 80s (poss 70s?) - the rolling/adjustable saddles were quite the thing...

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3 hours ago, Old Man Riva said:

What bridge is that? They were around in the early 80s (poss 70s?) - the rolling/adjustable saddles were quite the thing...

Yep, I think it’s a Schaller. I should know for certain as I had it fitted soon after I bought it, but that was 25-odd years ago...

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