Found a video on youtube today with Kenny Rogers playing what looks to be a mid 50's blonde Precision in 1972. There are a couple of decent close up shots. Too bad that's not the color the RI comes in. The guitar play is also playing an early 50's Tele.
Thanks for that. Nice dual showman bass amp and killer old-school country & western pick tone. He is playing an interesting old p-bass, of the kind that was desirable back then, a sort of customized and, for want of a better word, bastardized mix of parts.
The bridge cover on his p-bass is not stock, but is from a '60s instrument. The bass itself looks like it could be a '55 or '56. Note, it does have a contoured body, control plate, and a single coil. The pickup looks like it came from a '68 or '69 telecaster bass, which is not surprising, as the old single coils were prone to failure. There is also something funny on the headstock face near the string tree.
That finish (which to me is the sad part) is typical of the homebrew "strip it and polyuethane it school of luthiers in training" of those days. It was fashionable to take old p-basses, and do this. :scowl:
I have one that had that kind of refin done to it by the previous owner (in 1972). I guess the cultural statute of limitations may have runout on those crimes...
