Brought it in to my good friend Dave Reimer of Reimer Guitars, who knows a thing or two about old Fenders (and is a world-class luthier), and he determined that the ‘pink’ under everything else was the original color when it left the Fullerton factory. Being a pair of bass geeks, of course we HAD to find out! Dave carefully removed the lacquer, brown primer, and another thin coat of black before arriving at the original finish. A lot of cleanup, careful work, and attention to detail later, here it is.
Now, before anybody starts flaming, I have found this color on at least two other Fenders, a 71 Tele Thinline, and a 67 Strat that is in the Duchoisseur book. It is an acrylic finish as best we can tell, and the wear on the top contours and thumb rub indicate that the bass was played before getting the blackout treatment. Pickguard is standard issue white pearloid on the backside, body contours and routs/ grounding wire hole date the body to 1969 or earlier, the era-correct CTS pots dated 6642, pickups date to early 1970, original tug bar, tuners, etc...
I’d love to hear from the vintage freaks about this one. Was it a CBS attempt at Burgundy Mist? Was it a custom order, show sample, or promotional piece? Dave theorizes that the body is a 67, the neck went bad, shipped back to Fender for a new neck in 1970, got new pickups at the same time...
And it...sounds...HEE-YOOOOOGE!!! Total 64-65 DNA in the tone, but with a B neck width....
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