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Question for Fender Experts

Top_Ten

Top_Ten

Jun 14, 2008
752
104
San Francisco Bay Area
#1
Hoping I can get some info from some of you Fender experts . . .

The pics below show a '57 RI P-bass that I've had since the mid-80s. I bought it used but very clean at Guitar Center. All of the "mojo" is from me playing it and touring with it over the years.

The serial # stamped on the neck plate is V0074xx. The pot codes date to 1982. As you can see, there is an "J Torres" neck stamp, but no penciled date that I could see.

The wear on the finish shows a black undercoat. Someone mentioned to me that this could indicate that the bass had been refinished at some point in the past.

Anyway, I've got plenty of good use out of this bass over the years and don't even remember what I paid for it, though it couldn't have been too much given my financial state at the time I bought it. I'm not super worried about the value, just curious about what exactly I have. Any info will be much appreciated!

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#2
BTW, in case anyone notices, the original vintage thin frets wore out, so what you see in the pics is the refretted bass. The original bridge also disintegrated from years of blood, sweat and beer, so that's a replacement too.

And just in case you are wondering, I treat my gear better these days!
 
#4
I would guess that its over sunburst as well, but its hard to tell from the pictures. I've never heard of a 57 RI in LPB, so that would point to either a one-off custom from the factory (over original finish, which would be something Fender did) or a non-Fender refin.
 
#5
It appears to be a complete Fullerton era 82/83 AVS RI.
The 250k pots were consistantly being used up for each year (unlike the stack knob J), so the pot codes on the P's were usually very accurate to match the build date.

What's the headstock decal look like?

Now onto the finish; The color of that Lake Placid Blue is the correct dark color they were using back then. At first looking at your finish, it seems to have quite a bit of orange peel in a couple of the close-up pics, but it has the correct metallic undercoat. On many custom color basses I've seen from back then, Fender did somewhat try to replicate on the RI how they did custom colors in the 60's by spraying over sunburst. Yours apprears to have a burst base coat, the metallic solid coat-which is correct, and the blue.
Now, usually during refins the screw holes get filled up with paint, which makes refins a dead-giveaway. I don't see paint inside your screw holes. So it seems it is untouched.
I hate to say the pictures kinda suck. but they are grainy and too blurry in some. Also best to use natural sunlight near a window to see details better.
 
#8
That's the thing....
LPB came in very different shades over the decades. Todays LPB is incorrect and way too light. The dark LPB sprayed on the Fullerton reissues is very much similar to the old LPB sprayed in the early 60's.
member here JTE has an '83 62RI P factory painted in LPB same dark LPB.
 
#10
Thanks very much for the great info, everyone. And apologies for the crappy pics -- just snapped them quickly on my phone. If there are particular details that can't be seen, I can try to take some better pics.

I'll put up a pic of the headstock later, but the decal is the "Fender" spaghetti logo in silver with black outline and "Precision Bass" underneath.
 
#17
62Jazzbass said:
Everything Caca said is spot on.

Do a search for JTE and maybe you can find some pics of his. IIRC, he worked for a Fender dealer when the RIs first came out. He has some good info on these. And yes, his is LPB, but I don't think it's over burst.
Click to expand...

Yep, mine's a 1983 LPB '62. It has layers of blue over metallic silver over the alder. Can't link a photo from the 'droid phone but if you search for my user name in the Vintage series thread there are a few photos.

John
 
#18
Right on, thanks everyone for chiming in. This bass has been out of commission for a while due to some fret sprout issues, but I got that dealt with so now it's back in the rotation.

walterw, it does have the flat/shallow neck. Been a while since I've played it and I had forgotten how comfortable it is!
 

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