Fender '61 P-Bass

[The Bass Clef]

Thank you sir. Thinking about driving down to check it out. So i guess i would ask them to remove the guard and look for extra holes, and check the date on the pots at the same time. I think the penciled date on the neck checks out already from the pictures. What else needs to be verified in your opinion? Thanks.

That site I linked to will tell you most of what you want to look for to make sure it's all original. Pickups should be black bottoms, all cloth wire. Look to see if all the solder joints are original - it looks like it from the pic, but it's not the best quality, so just make sure there aren't any old solder marks and the solder doesn't look like boogers or anything. If it has virgin solder joints it also supports that the finish is original because the electronics are removed when painting a body. From the looks of it, I would be surprised if this bass is not all original, but yeah, when you're talking this kind of dough, you need to make sure. Good luck, I'm jealous!

 

[thomas-k]

Is that huge shielding plate original?

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[The Bass Clef]

The shielding plate is correct.

 

[Davo-London]

Have a look under the PUs. These are sometimes dated too.

It's got a proper slab of Brazilian rosewood, so it should sound and feel fabulous. Check out the action and check out for truss rod for any issues!

Davo

 

[Bassamatic]

Looks good to me - just someone being realistic about pricing these days. The huge prices are no more. My friend only got $8K for his '59 P (here in L.A.) and it took 3 months to get a buyer.

 

[The Bass Clef]

Looks good to me - just someone being realistic about pricing these days. The huge prices are no more. My friend only got $8K for his '59 P (here in L.A.) and it took 3 months to get a buyer.

There's no doubt the prices aren't what they used to be. $8k for a '59 sounds about right. A custom color '61 is considered a more "desirable" bass than a '59 though (I assume it was a burst), and the book value for this '61 is about $1500-3000 higher than a '59 burst. Not that the book is all that accurate, but I personally think this bass would go fairly quickly in the lower 48 (or on ebay) for $9k, quite possibly over $10 IMO.

I think 3 months isn't bad to sell an $8k '59 P. The niche is pretty small, so it can take a long while to find a buyer that has that kind of money to drop on a vintage Fender, but they are out there. Especially if the sale is open to the international market.