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Fender 60th Anniversary Precision Bass

#903
I just bought a blond one used; it came with a Hipshot de-tuner.

I didn't care for the full-sized headstock on it, so I bought a custom Musikraft neck with the older Tele-style headstock, maple slab fretboard (no skunk stripe), black dots a slightly flatter fretboard radius, a really great fast-feeling finish, and a set of the older small Hipshot tuners. It looks, feels and plays great!

One problem: Like some of the folks posting on this thread, I'm getting excessive hum/noise, like it's not shielded properly or the humbucker pickup is not humbucking properly.

Has anyone noted and fixed this problem on their 60th Anniversary bass?

A side note: I bought '51-style bridge and pickup covers, which I haven't installed. As others have noted, the bridge cover fits, but the pickup cover does not.
 
#904
I believe someone posted a photo of their control cavity earlier in this thread and it was bare wood, no shielding at all. I bought the 3-pack of shielding tape from Stewmac Invalid Link Removed and used it to shield one guitar and two basses and still have a lot left over. The 3/4" size is the most useful.
 
#905
The only time I got hum/buzz out of mine was if my thumb touched the pup pole. A little clear nail polish is a quick easy fix.

The '51 pup cover won't fit as the single coil pup size is quite different than the split coil type. I found that the cover for
the split pup didn't sit on the PG very well (kind of hangs off the side a bit on the bottom edge. Could be done if you modified the PG to fit. But I wound up putting the covers in a drawer instead and save them for another P bass.

Congrats on the bass. Mine quickly became a favourite go to bass.

Pics of the bass with the new neck?
 
#906
60th Anniversary Precision Bass-small.jpg
60th Anniversary Precision Bass back-small.jpg


The neck is 1-1/2" wide at the nut, like a Jazz Bass. Frets are stainless steel.

The original neck was heavily tinted, almost yellow. I like the way this neck looks much better.
 
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#907
#908
bholder said:
Nice, but... ...that pickguard really just screams for the single coil, looks strange with the later split.
Click to expand...

Not for me. I'll take the split coil pickup anyday over the single coil. I had a '53 Precision and the single coil pickup was definitely the weakest feature of that bass, other than the weight of the slab body.

This bass has everything I ever wanted in a Precision Bass: a gorgeous '55-style blond body, black pickguard, a slab maple neck with 1-1/2" wide nut and black dots, and a very fast neck finish. It weighs 8 pounds, 4 ounces.

If I can lick the hum/noise problem, it'll be the perfect Precision Bass for me, both in how it looks and how it plays.
 
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#909
LenMinNJ said:
Not for me. I'll take the split coil pickup anyday over the single coil. I had a '53 Precision and the single coil pickup was definitely the weakest feature of that bass, other than the weight of the slab body.

This bass has everything I ever wanted in a Precision Bass: a gorgeous '55-style blond body, black pickguard, a slab maple neck with 1-1/2" wide nut and black dots, and very fast neck finish. And it weighs 8 pounds, 4 ounces.

If I can lick the hum/noise problem, it'll be the perfect Precision Bass for me, both in looks and how it plays.
Click to expand...
I prefer the single coil, both in sound and looks, but if I ever get another bass with one, it'll be the split inline hum-cancelling flavor.
 
#912
I find it deeply ironic that you seem to have created a Frankenbass (or FrankenFender) from a model that was designed specifically to be a kind of Frankenbass (FrankenFender) in the first place. I think that makes yours a Meta-Frankenbass (or Meta-FrankenFender).

I'm not really sure, though, because I think my brain just imploded.
 
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#913
Lobster11 said:
I find it deeply ironic that you seem to have created a Frankenbass (or FrankenFender) from a model that was designed specifically to be a kind of Frankenbass (FrankenFender) in the first place. I think that makes yours a Meta-Frankenbass (or Meta-FrankenFender).

I'm not really sure, though, because I think my brain just imploded.
Click to expand...

Then have a look at this:


Frankenfender

Frankenfender


It's a 60th Anniversary neck on a Squier body with EMG GZR-PJ pups and a BAII bridge.
 
#914
Lobster11 said:
I find it deeply ironic that you seem to have created a Frankenbass (or FrankenFender) from a model that was designed specifically to be a kind of Frankenbass (FrankenFender) in the first place. I think that makes yours a Meta-Frankenbass (or Meta-FrankenFender).

I'm not really sure, though, because I think my brain just imploded.
Click to expand...

I think that Fender just went too far with the modifications. I would've been perfectly happy with a '55 re-issue that had a split coil pickup.

Unfortunately, that's only available from the Fender Custom Shop for more than $6000!

www.ebay.com/itm/Fender-Custom-Shop-1955-Precision-Bass-Relic-Electric-Bass-Nocaster-Blonde-/161369669730

I also like the curved neck butt on the 60th Anniversary better than the square one on the original '55.
 
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#915
LenMinNJ said:
Not for me. I'll take the split coil pickup anyday over the single coil. I had a '53 Precision and the single coil pickup was definitely the weakest feature of that bass, other than the weight of the slab body.

This bass has everything I ever wanted in a Precision Bass: a gorgeous '55-style blond body, black pickguard, a slab maple neck with 1-1/2" wide nut and black dots, and a very fast neck finish. It weighs 8 pounds, 4 ounces.

If I can lick the hum/noise problem, it'll be the perfect Precision Bass for me, both in how it looks and how it plays.
Click to expand...


Nice. You lost a few ounces with that neck. Mine is about 6 Oz heavier. I wouldn't mind one of those necks myself.
Similar to the one on the Dusty Hill CS bass.
 
#916
Lowendtech said:
Nice. You lost a few ounces with that neck. Mine is about 6 Oz heavier. I wouldn't mind one of those necks myself.
Similar to the one on the Dusty Hill CS bass.
Click to expand...

It's very lightweight and resonant.

Before I bought this bass, I bought a Mexican Mike Dirnt Precision Bass, also blond (well, more like yellow than blond) but with a rosewood board. It weighed 10 pounds, 4 ounces, but it felt like a ton! And it was as dead as could be.

Nice looking bass, but I couldn't wait to be rid of it.
 
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#917
LenMinNJ said:
Before I bought this bass, I bought a Mexican Mike Dirnt Precision Bass, also blond but with a rosewood board. It weighed 10 pounds, 4 ounces, but it felt like a ton! And it was as dead as could be.

Nice looking bass, but I couldn't wait to be rid of it.
Click to expand...

Not sure what it is about those Dirnt basses. Maybe the guy likes heavy basses so they set aside the heaviest bodies for his re-issues? I saw one at a local mom & pop music store priced very attractively, picked it up, 10+ lbs easy, put it right back down without playing it.
 

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