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1983 Fender Precision Elite II

#61
johnnyfever said:
It is an Elite I. To my astonishment the guy pulls out not only the original pickups (which I knew came with it), but also the preamp out of the case! Now just looking for knobs and pots to have all original parts. Thing is mint, but the case isn't original. Adjusted the pickup height, new strings and away I went. Threw so rotosounds on it and sounds great. I have some nordstrand p bass pups I might throw in it as some point. Love that yellow faded arctic white.
Click to expand...


Congratulations!
Pots are available, visit my website for the schematics:
www.riverband.demon.nl/elite.html

Edit:

Because it is an elite I, you need a 50k audio pot for the volume and a TBX tone control. The TBX-tone control is still available as a kit.
 
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#67
The beast.
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#68
That's a beauty! Congrats! Very often at least some ofthe fine tuners are missing - you are lucky to have them all.

I had 2 of these, one alder and one ash. The ash was a Gold model - all of the hardware, including the pickguard screws, was gold! It was very very heavy as well.
I thought they sounded best with flats because the treble out of that preamp could peel back your eyelids. The pickups are regular passive P pickups in solid shells.

In '83 Fender felt they needed to offset players perceptions that their quality had gone down (rightly so) and they came out with the Elites. Extremely well made instruments. Yours is in great condition and should give you many years of joy.
Enjoy it!
 
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#69
Hi, thanks for the infos! Appreciate that.
This one weights 9.33, it’s in alder.
Your ash one probably have more than eleven pounds...
One question, why they don’t mention that the elites are Dan Smith era too?
Far as I know, he was one of the responsibles for the changes and improvements in that time...
 
#70
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#73
JMacBass65 said:
Wow, that's been very well preserved. I had a Sienna burst II, but with the gold hardware mentioned above. In the end it wasn't the bass for me and I sold it, wish I had held onto it though, just because. My number 1 is a 62 reissue jazz from the same time period, also an exceptionally well made instrument.
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Yes, it’s totally original, everything works. Researching about this bass, I realized that is love or hate bass, no between...
The common sense is that they are well done instruments.
Thanks!
 
#76
Noooooo super glue! Maybe some medium grip loctite, but don't screw up the threads on those things! Be aware that those fine tuners can vibrate off of the bridge, and they will end up on the floor in some bar or fall out of your bass case somewhere. If I still owned an Elite, I would remove the fine tuners, put them inside a small ziplock freezer bag, and tape the bag (yes tape it!) to the bottom of a drawer that you use for miscellaneous small parts. Then, after you sell your Elite, you can sell the fine tuners separately for $50 each! :cool:
 
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#77
Luckydog said:
Noooooo super glue! Maybe some medium grip loctite, but don't screw up the threads on those things! Be aware that those fine tuners can vibrate off of the bridge, and they will end up on the floor in some bar or fall out of your bass case somewhere. If I still owned an Elite, I would remove the fine tuners, put them inside a small ziplock freezer bag, and tape the bag (yes tape it!) to the bottom of a drawer that you use for miscellaneous small parts. Then, after you sell your Elite, you can sell the fine tuners separately for $50 each! :cool:
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The superglue part was a joke, but maybe the loctite will work.
The idea of take off the fine tuners and put in a safe place is really good too.
Thanks!
 
#78
Marco Frossard said:
The superglue part was a joke, but maybe the loctite will work.
The idea of take off the fine tuners and put in a safe place is really good too.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

I’ve owned four Elite II Ps and never needed or used the “fine tuning” capability offered by these screws. You don’t need them for tuning. Storing them in a safe place (that you will remember!) is the best thing to do with them.
 

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