1983 dual P Fender bass??!!

[Iridescentone]

Awesome basses, I should have snagged one years ago when nice ones were going for sensible prices.

 

[Luckydog]

You can find a substitute here: Frets On The Net

What a great find! Those micro tuners were hard if not impossible to source back then if you lost them, and they were VERY easy to lose! Because of this, I obsessed over losing mine to the point that I removed them from the bridges of my Elite II's and stored them in ziplock baggies in the cases. (While the basses were treasured by many, those molded cases sucked BTW, at least IMO).

 

[ihixulu]

Oh boy… memories…

My first bass was a P Elite II that was being blown out by E. U. Wurlitzer, paid 300 for it in '84. Had no idea that the neck was a bit of an oddity (very thin and very wide, ~9" radius) or that the electronics and hardware were a bit much. I learned to play on the thing (way more difficult than it needed to be, in retrospect) and it was my one and only for 16 years.

I still own the bass but the only thing original is the wood and paint. (Don't get me going about the hardware...) It's still in my playing rotation. Zero regrets on the extensive mods.

The neck has held up well despite years of abuse and the paint job is pretty much indestructible. The implementation of the micro tilt is phenomenal. If you're ok with some excess weight, some over-engineering, and a less than orthodox take on the P sound, it's a worthy player. I see it as an odd duck in the history of the instrument.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Several on Reverb in the 2-4k range.

2-2.5k most likely, if you actually want to sell it.

Gawd... I am clearly the Worst. Investor. Ever. I sold mine in 2000 to a friend for $200. ::::

otoh, I got my Elite Precision II in 1985 when Fender was blowing out the last run of instruments, so they were already priced pretty reasonably...but since I was working for a Fender dealer at the time, I only paid dealer cost. You don't wanna know what dealer cost on an Elite Precision II was
...but I'll give you a hint: When I sold it to my friend 15 years later, I made a profit!

it was missing 3 of the "fine tuning" knobs

Given how easily those things fall out and get lost -- I swear I've never seen one in the flesh that was more than ~2 years old and still had all 4 of its fine tuners -- if I had to do it all over again I'd slather some Loctite on those threads.

 

[TonH]

About those fine tuners; if you use them and put pressure on the strings, they won't come loose.