70's Fender P with rosewood board and walnut truss plug?

Chadcheetah · #1 01-20-2013, 09:49 AM

I came across this 73 P bass with a rosewood fret board and a walnut plug at the headstock for the truss rod. I have only seen this on fretless necks with rosewood boards, or on maple boards from this era. Has anyone else seen this before, or was this neck fretless and later modified to have frets installed? I thought I knew a lot about vintage Fender basses, but this one is throwing me for a loop. The back side of the bass is not shown, but it does have a skunk stripe on the back of the neck and the neck plate and tuners are genuine Fender and appear to be from early to mid 70's.

georgestrings · #2 01-20-2013, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chadcheetah

I came across this 73 P bass with a rosewood fret board and a walnut plug at the headstock for the truss rod. I have only seen this on fretless necks with rosewood boards, or on maple boards from this era. Has anyone else seen this before, or was this neck fretless and later modified to have frets installed? I thought I knew a lot about vintage Fender basses, but this one is throwing me for a loop. The back side of the bass is not shown, but it does have a skunk stripe on the back of the neck and the neck plate and tuners are genuine Fender and appear to be from early to mid 70's.

Looks like a typical 70's P Bass to me, bud...

- georgestrings

Cadfael · #3 01-20-2013, 10:05 AM

I know from the Telecaster guitar that from 1969 on even rosewood board Teles (sometimes/often) had the skunk stripe. This was made to make production more efficient.

The are / can be rosewood boards with and without skunk stripe - as far as I know.

The ID "0103-1635" would mean:
Precision Bass, Sunk Stripe neck, 16th week 1973, Friday (as far as I found out) ...
Instead of 0103 it could also have a 0100 (Preci with maple or rosewood neck) or a 0102 (Preci with rosewood neck) ...
Or "5JAN73B" because these stamps were used at least until march 1973 ...

But the sunk stripe doesn't mean it's a fake!

Chadcheetah · #4 01-20-2013, 10:05 AM

Georgestrings,

Click on the thumbnail for a bigger picture. I have not seen any fretted rosewood basses with that walnut cap on the headstock. Every 70's P with a Rosewood fretted board I have seen has the truss adjustment at the heel and no visible plug on the headstock. Here is a closer pic of the headstock/plug. Everything else checks out form what I have seen on typical 70's P basses.

JimB52 · #5 01-20-2013, 10:14 AM

Never seen that on an early '70s Fender P Bass.

Are you sure it is a '73?

Cadfael · #6 01-20-2013, 10:43 AM

Truss adjustment at the headstock was only at Jazz Bass models; that's true. 99% of them have the 3-point tilt neck. There are some 4-point Jazz Basses with truss adjustment at the headstock (there always is an exception to the rule at Fender).

But P basses "never" have the truss adjustment at the headstock.
But some necks have the walnut at the headstock (and back) and some doen't have it.

Bone · #7 01-20-2013, 10:45 AM

I've never seen a rosewood skunk stipe bass pre 75. Dosen't mean they don't exsist I've just never seen one.

My 75

Chadcheetah · #8 01-26-2013, 11:42 AM

Found out this is actually a 75 once I looked up the serial. Its for sale but I just have some hesitation about that walnut plug being on a pre 78/79 Fender bass headstock.

Jim Carr · #9 01-26-2013, 01:02 PM

It's a replacement neck, IMHO.

Chadcheetah · #10 03-26-2013, 04:28 PM

Its been a while since this post and I have seen at least a dozen of these since. I am going to conclude that there were some 70's P basses with a walnut plug at the headstock.

Jim Carr · #11 03-26-2013, 10:50 PM

I seriously doubt it.

bassie12 · #12 03-26-2013, 10:57 PM

I've owned a couple. Both were 78s.

Jim Carr · #13 03-26-2013, 11:01 PM

Fine, but aren't we talking pre-75? Perhaps I am off topic?

Never saw a pre '75 US Fender bass neck with a rosewood board and walnut plug. I've seen a lot of old basses, even when they were new, LOL!

bumperbass · #14 03-26-2013, 11:05 PM

Might be just me, but that decal sure looks 'raised', and that headstock sure does look 'tinty'. My guess would be it's a replacement neck with a tint and decal added (IN MY OPINION), but with Fender, anything is possible I guess. I'd be hesitant to lay down coin until I was sure. Some TB'er will get to the bottom of this.

Mr.Fingers · #15 03-27-2013, 03:32 AM

It did happen, but not that often (most of them were rejected maple necks (with an ulgy grain in the fingerboard), so they skimmed a portion of the maple off, and glued a rosewood veneer on top of that. The very few necks I've seen like that have the "1-piece maple" stamp).

As for this neck, it does look legit to me, but I'd like to see some heel-shots and the back of the headstock with the E-tuner removed.

Jim Carr · #16 03-27-2013, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Fingers

It did happen, but not that often (most of them were rejected maple necks (with an ulgy grain in the fingerboard), so they skimmed a portion of the maple off, and glued a rosewood veneer on top of that. The very few necks I've seen like that have the "1-piece maple" stamp)...

Count me as skeptical about this for pre-'75 US made Fenders.