Pics now: early '80's Fender capri orange precision w/ 2 EMG pu's & Schecter neck

[Paul S]

Hi everyone,

thought I'd ask the Talk bass crowd some questions about this bass. I bought it in the mid to late 1980's, and it was sold to me as a Fender bass with a replacement Schecter neck. From the photos it certainly appears so, but I'd love to hear opinions about possible dates, and what would be a fair price from you guys.

First off, it has EMG pickups, both the precision style with two overlapping rectangles each handling two strings, and a jazz style, a straight bar across all 4 strings. I wasn't aware that Fender made basses back then with this two pickup configuration, but it certainly seems factory.

The body has two Fender logo stickers in the neck pocket, forming a T. The top one reads S901805, and the bottom one is obscured, but only the numbers 25 are visible, although there are other digits under the orange paint.

The neck has the Schecter Guitar Research stamp, and has two serial numbers at the base, near the screw holes: the first is F 7310, and below that is another, 7961. It also has hand written name, looks like John Noslas (?), and some notes: "Light tint," and "logged by John 4/84."

It also has a Badass II brass bridge, and what seem like the original tuners, exposed gears with the Fender logo on them. I'll try to upload pics, I have them on a shutterfly album, but can't seem to figure out how to get a url to post here.








Thanks, for any info,

Paul

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[Paul S]

and this one, which shows the routs looking pretty factory, at least to me, well covered underneath by the beautiful capri orange paint. But did Fender make a 2 pickup model in this era?

[JIO]

Originally Posted by Paul S

and this one, which shows the routs looking pretty factory, at least to me, well covered underneath by the beautiful capri orange paint. But did Fender make a 2 pickup model in this era?

Well, a few of things were happening back then. Most all Fenders were made in Japan, at least until the late 80's, the Fender Custom shop started back then as well, and Fender was doing twin P-pu's and P/J combo's. EMG's are and bridge are aftermarket for sure, as is the neck. And that colour was of it's time.

[the art guy]

Capri Orange was only available as part of the "International Series" colors, right? Which were only for a year or two in the early '80s. As far as I know, there was not a P/J available at that point. I may be wrong, but it looks to me like a Fender with some nice professionally done mods.

[JIO]

Originally Posted by the art guy

Capri Orange was only available as part of the "International Series" colors, right? Which were only for a year or two in the early '80s. As far as I know, there was not a P/J available at that point. I may be wrong, but it looks to me like a Fender with some nice professionally done mods.

OK, I'll back-pedal on the late 80's intro of the P/J combo, only because it may have occured a few years later, in the early 90's. Is there a definitive date?

Wikipedia only offers this:

From 1980 to 1984, the Precision Bass has been redesigned with new pickups, an active onboard circuit and a high-mass brass bridge. The range included the Special (1980) featuring a split-coil pickup with white covers, gold hardware and a 2-band EQ with an active/passive toggle switch and the Elite (1983) with one (Elite I) or two (Elite II) special-design split-coil humbucking pickups, TBX tone circuit and a fine-tuner bridge made by Schaller. Some models were available with a solid walnut body and a stained ebony fretboard. Japanese models appeared in late 1984, sporting the same specifications as their American counterparts, except for the addition of a downsized body shape and a modern C-shape maple neck with 22 medium-jumbo frets. The Elite Precision's Schaller fine-tuner bridge has been later used on the Plus Series models in the early 1990s.

Didn't know that those brown Fenders were actually walnut. I always assumed it was a "walnut" stain over alder. The TBX was also on the Fender Performer bass (1985) And it looks like they did do (Schaller) non-Fender bridges

[JIO]

After doing some more research, it appears Fender was late on the phenomena as Ibanez, Guild, BC Rich, Schecter, Charvel/Jackson, Spector and Hamer (to name a few) were doing P/J's from 1980 on. Bass players were modding this combo from the late 60's/early 70's. Fender did in fact intro the P/J in '89 (the Precision Plus-1989).

[Paul S]

Thanks for all the replies. The fender stickers had me convinced it was a Fender body, but another possibility occurred to a friend: is it possible it is a Schecter body? Did they make them with a circle rout in the top like Fender was at that time, and did they ever offer Capri orange as a color?

On the other hand, the scrawl in the neck pocket behind the stickers looks familiar also, I've seen other Fender bodies with these type of marks and the stickers for serial numbers. Hmm...

[winston]

Originally Posted by JIO

OK, I'll back-pedal on the late 80's intro of the P/J combo, only because it may have occured a few years later, in the early 90's. Is there a definitive date?

The earliest Fender factory P-J I remember was the Precision Bass Plus which had Lace Sensor pickups and was made from 1989-93. The Elite II had 2 P pickups.

FWIW, most of the Schecters I tried in the '80s had exotic wood bodies and were really heavy for their size. No pickguards so they wouldn't have had tooling holes on the front. See pic in post #7 of this thread.

[narud]

You've got nothing to worry about. That's definitely an early 80's body (realistically anywhere up to an 82) that's routed for a j pickup.

[PotsdamBass8]

That color looks great!