1971 Mustang Olympic White over black?

[Mutzel]

I just bought this 71 Mustang, great tone, nice neck! There seem to be not many white ones from that period.

When I took off the ugly handmade black pickguard to reinstall the original shrunken perloid guard, I found the ugly parts where someone tried to scratch off the finish, to reveal a thin black coat under the white. The area is covered with some sticky glue, maybe an attempt to flaten the bend old guard?

I´m pretty sure the finish is genuine, I´m just a bit confused by the black under white. What do you think? Thanks!

 

[Lownote38]

The white is a nitro finish. I can tell due to the cracking in it. Poly doesn't wear that way. In 1971, Fender didn't finish bodies in nitro anymore, so I'm going to say it's been refinished. The pickguard also tells me that the orginal color would not have been white, but rather a darker color. I'm pretty sure the bass was black first.

 

[felis]

Many will probably disagree, but I'd give that bass some TLC.

 

[Mutzel]

It’s reported that some finishes had nitro colours topped with clear poly topcoats, while others had poly basecoats topped with clear nitro. I can find many pics of olympic white Fenders of this period with the same crackling in the finish.

What is TLC?

 

[felis]

Tender Loving Care.

 

[mongo2]

No definitive idea about the paint however, I'm usually not a fan of white MOTS guards but I like it on that Mustang.

 

[Bboopbennie]

The Guitar player in my band back in the 70's had one. It was a mutt and didn't get much respect. banged around like a Mic stand. When I played it.... it was all meaty Fender, and still in my mind how great the sound
was out of that bass. Many times I put down my Dan Armstrong in favor of the Mustang Bass. She was a real
sleeper. Thanks for sharing !

 

[bobba66]

Neat old bass!

 

[The Bass Clef]

The white is a nitro finish. I can tell due to the cracking in it. Poly doesn't wear that way. In 1971, Fender didn't finish bodies in nitro anymore, so I'm going to say it's been refinished. The pickguard also tells me that the orginal color would not have been white, but rather a darker color. I'm pretty sure the bass was black first.

I can not tell you how many 1970s poly Fenders I’ve had that have checking just like that. Many in the ‘70s many were shot with a mixture of nitro, acrylic and poly, depending on the color and whether they got a clear coat or not. The idea that Fender either shot in 100% nitro or 100% poly is incorrect, but that’s what most peiople have been lead to believe.

We can’t go on the pickguard color to determine the originality of the body color becuse pickguards are an easy part to change out. Also, vintage Mustangs, Broncos and Musicmasters did not follow the same color trends as P and J basses.

Fender still did colors over colors well up into the mid ‘70s, and although they aren’t super common (or as common as the ‘60s), I’ve personally had a few examples. I actually believe this is original oly white over black.

 

[JIO]

Nice Mustang - I'd do a bit of clean-up and whatever else is needed (set-up, new strings...) and play it!

 

[Mutzel]

Thanks for your input guys!

Yes, I set it up to my liking with new fat 106-44 pressure wounds, and the bass sounds and feels really good! The bridge screws for the G and D strings are a bit short, so I can´t adjust the intonation all the way. As these are US screws it might be difficult to find longer ones over here in Germany.

But anyway, I like this bass a lot! Coming from Precisions, I still need to get used to the shorter scale, although I´m used to my old Hofners which have the same scale... I just never had a solid body Fender with this scale.

 

[Jim C]

The white is a nitro finish. I can tell due to the cracking in it. Poly doesn't wear that way. In 1971, Fender didn't finish bodies in nitro anymore, so I'm going to say it's been refinished. The pickguard also tells me that the orginal color would not have been white, but rather a darker color. I'm pretty sure the bass was black first.

No, this is not true.
I have 2 Fenders from the early 70s with lots of checking and cracks in the finish that are original.
CAR was the worst in my experience.

 

[Lownote38]

No, this is not true.
I have 2 Fenders from the early 70s with lots of checking and cracks in the finish that are original.
CAR was the worst in my experience.

Fender had leftovers from before '68, and I'm betting they used them into the 70's. Bodies that were newly painted wouldn't be nitro at that point, though. Only the front of the head stock was still nitro, and that was due to the decal and the way that went on.

 

[Lownote38]

I can not tell you how many 1970s poly Fenders I’ve had that have checking just like that. Many in the ‘70s many were shot with a mixture of nitro, acrylic and poly, depending on the color and whether they got a clear coat or not. The idea that Fender either shot in 100% nitro or 100% poly is incorrect, but that’s what most peiople have been lead to believe.

We can’t go on the pickguard color to determine the originality of the body color becuse pickguards are an easy part to change out. Also, vintage Mustangs, Broncos and Musicmasters did not follow the same color trends as P and J basses.

Fender still did colors over colors well up into the mid ‘70s, and although they aren’t super common (or as common as the ‘60s), I’ve personally had a few examples. I actually believe this is original oly white over black.

White over black is probably one of the hardest to make work, though. I doubt Fender would go to the trouble of doing that.

 

[Jim C]

Fender had leftovers from before '68, and I'm betting they used them into the 70's. Bodies that were newly painted wouldn't be nitro at that point, though. Only the front of the head stock was still nitro, and that was due to the decal and the way that went on.

Agreed on the finish materials.

I've read a fair amount about Fender history.
Is your theory that they kept leftovers over 5 years (in the case of my 73') something you can document or an opinion?

 

[The Bass Clef]

White over black is probably one of the hardest to make work, though. I doubt Fender would go to the trouble of doing that.

Yeah, who knows with Fender at that time. White over almost any color would be pretty hard. I'd think Sunburst would be the hardest to make the white look even, since its over 3 different colors, but I've seen examples of it. I wouldn't try to say definitively without seeing this one in person, but I'm leaning to the white being legit.

 

[Lownote38]

Agreed on the finish materials.

I've read a fair amount about Fender history.
Is your theory that they kept leftovers over 5 years (in the case of my 73') something you can document or an opinion?

It's pretty well known that CBS was using old parts for quite some time after they purchased the company. It's why my '68 Precision bass has lollipop tuners and the '67 logo on the head stock. They were using up the tuners leftover from Jazz Basses from '66 to '68, and they weren't quite ready with the new logo yet. The CBS period of Fender is full of odd things like that. If Fender had a black Mustang Bass body laying around, and someone wanted another white one, they certainly would have had no problem painting over the black body.

 

[The Bass Clef]

It's pretty well known that CBS was using old parts for quite some time after they purchased the company. It's why my '68 Precision bass has lollipop tuners and the '67 logo on the head stock. They were using up the tuners leftover from Jazz Basses from '66 to '68, and they weren't quite ready with the new logo yet. The CBS period of Fender is full of odd things like that. If Fender had a black Mustang Bass body laying around, and someone wanted another white one, they certainly would have had no problem painting over the black body.

I agree. And I’ve seen lollipops still being used on as late as 1970 (and I’ve seen several ‘69s J with pops). I’ve even seen a 1969/70 Tele bass with pops once or twice.