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'63 P-bass

If money were not an issue, would you?

  • Yes

  • No

  • Only if I made my living as a musician

  • I'd rather invest in a carrot farm

  • I'd fire the drummer to get the money

Results are only viewable after voting.
#41
Alexander said:
Ok - I guess my point is I wouldn’t pay that for the rare original finish, regardless of what it was - Is take my all original slab board Precision over that for half the cost. There’s a bunch of 63s on Reverb right now for roughly 1/3rd that cost in fact. No disrespect to anyone who would pay that for something so rare. I just wouldn’t, that’s all...
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I've not paid that much but have friends who have paid that much and more for pre-CBS Fenders. When "money is no object" it's just another purchase.
 
#42
Leonid Nidis said:
Played a few vintage guitars never understood the appeal,cant see how they are better than new ones.
Maybe i would get it if I was a collector.
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I had a 1965 Fender Jazz bass that I bought in 1966. Played it through high school and a couple of years of college and then on the road with a touring nightclub band playing 5-nights a week, 50-weeks a year. Toured like that for 3-years. Then played it on weekend gigs after I started raising a family and had to get a real job (you do not want to be taking babies or toddlers on tour with you and you can't really leave them behind). Then in 1976 in Oregon, our house was burglarized and they stole my '65 Jazz Bass along with all the rest of my musical gear, which was top notch gear for the time period.

It took me almost 10-years to find another Jazz Bass with the same neck profile and radius (60's shallow C shape with 7.25" radius). That's it in my avatar. My '65 was stolen in 1976 and I finally found this one in 1985. For some reason, Fender refuses to put a 7.25", shallow C-shape neck on a Jazz Bass now. Even their "reissues - done to original specs" us a darn 9.5" radius on the neck. If you're going to do a vintage re-issue of a 64 Jazz Bass, them make the neck the same as it was - 7.25" neck radius. Shouldn't call it a re-issue if you change the neck that comes with it. That would be an incentive to try to buy an original 1965 Fender Jazz for me.

You can have one built through the Fender Custom Shop (not the build your own wizard they have online) if you give them the specs you want, or you can buy an original. The custom shop is probably a better choice. Even if it comes to $3,000 to $4,000 at the custom shop that would be less than buying an original 1965 Jazz. The caveat here is that you really need to know the specs of the bass you want.
 
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#43
Keger Jupit said:
I can't believe there's a big enough market to support prices like this...
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Let's say you were into old cars and you were walking around in London UK on holiday, maybe in Portobello Road market. You see a small replica of a favorite car, beautifully made and with real heft. You wander around some more but keep thinking about that replica. At the end of the day the shops are closing and you go back for one last look. The price is 80 quid and the shopkeeper says 'Give me 40 (about $52) and it's yours'. Would you buy it?

Now think about this... there are many people for whom $33,000 is a smaller fraction of their net worth than the $52 is of yours.
 
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#46
Mastermold said:
I've not paid that much but have friends who have paid that much and more for pre-CBS Fenders. When "money is no object" it's just another purchase.
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I totally understand that. I just personally dig the standard issue sunburst basses. They’re my favorite especially after 60 years of fading. Paying a huge premium just for the rare finish isn’t something I would do - but I totally respect someone who would do that. I also love Martin acoustic guitars - $33K won’t get you very far in the pre-war market at all!
 
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#47
For the cost of a '63 I could get several instruments with top-quality Warmoth parts made. Or buy some CVs or Am Stds or whatever. I might be able to get a Wal (I remember when they were £400 in the 90s!). I might be able to get someone to build me some electronics to get me the sound of a Wal in a Warmoth P-bass body and have money left over for a fretless version of the same.

I saw the price - I could get all of the above and a tow hook and enclosed trailer for the car for gig gear for that price.
 
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#51
No, because Fenders aren't my thing... but if money were no object I would totally buy any bass I darn tootin' felt like. And yes, I would play it - at a gig. :smug:
 
#52
If money were no object it still seems to be about $20k over priced. But I don't know much about that market. I've been looking for a 1969 P-bass in something other than Sunburst and I think if you find one the price gets much higher so maybe it's the same for sherwood green.
 
#54
Keger Jupit said:
I'm not a collector, so maybe that clouds my vision a bit
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yea man, this is what happens when you put on your collector glasses.

2xx1xn.jpg
 
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#55
Pre-CBS Fenders are somewhat rare. They have historical/collector's value - to some people. I'm a musician, not a history buff or a collector. If someone dropped $33K on my head, my first thought would not be "I'll buy ONE bass". If I played, cello, that answer would likely be different, because there you need a lot of cash to get a good instrument, but here you're not paying for a better musical instrument. You're paying because it's "rare" (though common enough that a fair number of people understand what it is). It doesn't have intrinsic value other than the demand is higher than the supply -0 the value is only in the minds of the people that want them. Like the housing bubble, prices can go down. Unlike the housing bubble, since no-one needs a bass guitar (people do need housing), they can actually go down a lot faster. If the next generation isn't into old guitars, this is something that will fall in value over time.

If you can afford it and can afford to right that money), and collecting is your thing, go for it. If you're thinking it will make you sound better, I'd humbly suggest that $33K worth of lessons would do a whole lot more.
 
#59
tradernick said:
Let's say you were into old cars and you were walking around in London UK on holiday, maybe in Portobello Road market. You see a small replica of a favorite car, beautifully made and with real heft. You wander around some more but keep thinking about that replica. At the end of the day the shops are closing and you go back for one last look. The price is 80 quid and the shopkeeper says 'Give me 40 (about $52) and it's yours'. Would you buy it?

Now think about this... there are many people for whom $33,000 is a smaller fraction of their net worth than the $52 is of yours.
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So, like a Singer, an Eagle, Factory Five or Superformance maybe? The difference is that it's not a replica, it's a real '63 P-bass.

I get the smaller fraction bit, but it doesn't matter, to me...YMMV. To each his/her own
 
#60
I'm sure that we could all do much better with price and condition with a pre-CBS Fender than $33 grand for this one. I mean, yeah, Sherwood green (Robin Hood?) might be a rare custom color and all but there were other colors nicer.

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