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$17,000.00 for a Jazz Bass

You'd think that would be true, but I've seen an awful lot of very good fakes over the last ten years, so maybe we'll never really run out of pre-CBS Fenders.

I'd like to think this is the real McCoy as Elderly's reputation speaks for itself. I do realize that with anything collectible, especially art/paintings, there have been some high priced dupes.

(Then there are those who don't realize they have the real deal and sell it for next to nothing to someone who knows better.)
 
The Fender 'transition' logo on the headstock was apparently used from July 64... This also looks to clean (those logos weren't put on too well). So, I believe this bass was refinished at some point... I ain't no expert or even that familiar (I do have friends that are).

Apparently the resale value for vintage guitars have increased exponentially over the past few years... still, US$17,000??? argh.

Jb
 
The Fender 'transition' logo on the headstock was apparently used from July 64... This also looks to clean (those logos weren't put on too well). So, I believe this bass was refinished at some point... I ain't no expert or even that familiar (I do have friends that are).
Apparently the resale value for vintage guitars have increased exponentially over the past few years... still, US$17,000??? argh.Jb
I also have strong doubts as I said in my first reply along with the shot of my own 65 Jazz Bass, everything is too clean especialy when you look at the machinehead keys which show the signs of some use yet the rest is os so perfect, the finish on Fender instruments at that time and before was rather poor, I know , I was there my Jazz Bass started to show wear and tear from very early on also our guitarist bought a light blue Strat in 1963 the paintwork damaged and chipped if you as much as looked at it
 
One of the kind fellows over at the FDP generously sent me over a
quote from the 1965 Fender price list:



From "Fender Fine Electric Instruments Price List Dec.1965"
Jazz Bass, Sunburst Finish: $271.00
Jazz Bass, Blond or Custom Finish: $285.00
Case: $59.50


Sunbursts must have been less time consuming or didn't need any extra missing. Now you seem to pay a little more for SB.
 
A friend of mine works at Elderly. He's always shocked at these "pie-in-the-sky" prices that get placed on the vintage stuff, but the fact is someone will always come in and pay that, he says. Sometimes it takes a few weeks, but eventually it moves.

And that's what determines vintage prices, the highest amount the craziest person will pay, not the reasonable concensus of the masses.
 
i will grab my 65 price list that i have filed back at home tonite and see what the poop was
i recall the standard outfitted p was around 250 and the j was around 280
custom colors were around thirty bux extra
and cases were about 30
i do not think there was ever any case with a bass policy

oh
there was no discount in 64/65
fender had a very strict franchise and territory arrangement with its retailers
if they caught you discounting anything
you were screwed
as i recall there was a famous issue here in the bay area where franchisee sherman clay was caught selling fender product to leo's because leos did not have a franchise
as i remember sherman clay was denied instruments for a fair period of time over this issue

as i recall the fender policy was thrown out later in a case brought to the court by the calif state board of eq
 
i have a 62 in this color scheme
and while the body is waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy
rough
a little less than srv bass guy
the head stock and decals looks better than this one

bought mine in 66 with a bassman for 260
thank you ray, ed, and john for kicking me in the butt to buy it
 
Sunbursts were cheaper to finish because they required less paint in Fender's finishing schedule.

They used a yellow tinted sealer called "fullerplast" for every body (regardless of trans or opaque finish)

A sunburst - especially the 50s sunbursts only required one or two shades of brown lacquer around the outside of the body.

Custom colors would require many more hours and paint to finish.

For example - Fiesta Red not only needed red laquer to coat the entire body but also a white primer underneath to ensure the Opaqueness of the color.

And Candy apple red - forgetaboutit - yellow sealer - white primer - laquer with bronze - red - then your top coats. Not to mention you had to spray the metallic lacquer carefully to ensure depth.

Today Sunburst finishes are more expensive not because of the finishing schedule but because the quality of wood.

now where's my time machine so I can go back to 1970 - see Jimi, jim, and Janis before they died - and spend about $2000 on a stable of early 1960's custom color jazz basses.
 
Make hay while the sun shines. The day will come when "1965 Fender Jazz" will mean nothing to the younger generation.

A friend restores old Chevrolets, and drives a gorgeous yellow '57 Bel Air convertible. He told me recently that it has dropped about a third of its value in the last few years.

This seems to be due to several factors: the generation that "just gotta have a '57 before I die" has started to die, and those alive who just gotta have one, well, they already have one.

The potential market is made up of people who lusted after a particular car in their younger days, and now they are making enough money that they can buy what they want.

The people now coming into the market for the car of their dreams don't remember the '57, or anything else from the '50s. They want an early Sting Ray, or maybe a Corvette from the '70s (when they were, after all, still hot rods).

So I predict that the bubble for "vintage Fenders" will burst, to be replaced by a new bubble based on a younger generation's obsessions with whatever the hell bands they have listened to.

For many years I owned a nice '63 Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman, which I sold a couple of months ago for $3100. Not bad for a guitar I paid $425 for. But every sign pointed to the market having topped out on that model of guitar [disclaimer: I sure could be wrong] to the extent that current Gretsches, made in Japan, fetch almost the $3K that I got for mine. Maybe future Gretsch collectors will drool over Brian Setzer axes the way an older one did over "the George Harrison Country Gent" or, heck, the way an even older one did over Chet Atkins.

Whoever said the price paid is determined by the richest, craziest idiot seems to be onto something.

Me, I'm a player, not a collector.
 
I think they went for something around $350 in 1965, back in Kansas City. :ninja:

That is assuming new, not used.

Guess I was pretty close, if you include the case. I think it is hard to conceive of how much money $350 was in '65. I know my dad bought a low-mileage used '55 Chevy Bel-Aire for $340. I learned to drive in that sweet little machine! :cool:

I used to go to the local music store and marvel at those beautiful Fenders in the glass case...that's right...you had to have the sales guy unlock it and sit with you while you tried one---which I did with the Jazz and the P-bass. They seemed so shiny, so heavy, and so so cool to this (then) 15 year-old bassist. :p