CS Fender Thumb Rest - Plastic (Seriously)

[Jawbone]

I have a CS Fender '62 Jazz NOS and took off the thumb rest - to my surprise it's plastic? Is this the normal material for these items? I know it's a trivial piece and doesn't make the bass but for a 2K bass I expected more.

[JoeWPgh]

I think the originals *might* have been made of wood, but they have been plastic since the early 60s, at least

[walterw]

never seen a stock fender one that wasn't.

[Smilodon]

What did you want it to be made from?

[pacojas]

it's not the regular plastic. it's the creme dé la creme of materials used to manufacture these thumb-rests!

(be sure not to lose it or your bass will lose value)

[Wwolof]

Mine's made of bone! Send it back!

/awful advice

[C.Linton]

Originally Posted by JoeWPgh

I think the originals *might* have been made of wood, but they have been plastic since the early 60s, at least

This. Except I believe they may have switched to plastic in the 70's rather than the 60's, not sure though, Joe may be right. All I know is my '78 P-bass had a plastic rest.
I'd like to know why anyone would think the thumbrest being made of plastic somehow renders it low quality.

[96tbird]

My Real 1962 thumb rest is flimsy thin hollow plastic. You can twist it flexit squeeze it. Cheap, original. Mass producible.

[SolarMan]

Plastic is the perfect material for that part.

Wood might splinter or wear depending on the players "style" - metal just adds unnecessary weight.

Plastic - it's durable and has the right "feel" -

(ps: do you know how much of your $30,000 car is - plastic?)

[HeavyDuty]

I want to say the earliest ones were Bakelite, but they've been plastic for a gazillion years.

[C.Linton]

The only basses I ever saw that had actual wooden rests when I was starting out were the cheapies.

[pdusen]

Originally Posted by Jawbone

I know it's a trivial piece and doesn't make the bass but for a 2K bass I expected more.

...More what? More thumbrestingness?

[jbossolo]

There's some nice wood ones on the bay. Just sayin'...

[bikeplate]

My 56 was wood. My 61 is plastic

[smcd]

Originally Posted by pdusen

...More what? More thumbrestingness?

The OP's thumb just isn't well rested on plastic.

[msb]

Switched to plastic and two screws in 57 when Leo re-designed the Pbass .

[steamthief]

Originally Posted by pdusen

...More what? More thumbrestingness?

Quoteworthy!

[giacomini]

Yeah, Fender thumbrests are made of plastic and have been for years.

I like how it looks in a P, but at that 'classic' position it is quite useless

[Cadfael]

I agree with msb ...

AND ...

Plastic may be "cheap crap" today - but it wasn't in 1957!!!

I worked in a factory which produced slide mounts and so know how machines who form plastic parts look like. This surely was High Tech in the mid 1950s!

The "new" plastic thumbrests on the P57 and Jazz Bass were much better because of two screw holes, but also the were light weight AND their colour could not go off!

It lasted until the 1970s that plastic became "natural"! My parents still had a lot of kitchen equipment made of metal or wood which is nowadays made of plastic. And to get plastic equipment was not "cheap crap" but "modern and stylish"!

[bikeplate]

It's not a Porsche. Did you think it was going to be carbon fibre? Lol