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Fender Aficianados...

Fawkes007

Fawkes007

Sep 13, 2005
869
18
SF Bay Area
#1
Aside from the usual suspects, what years are considered to be "premium vintage" years for Fender Precision and Jazz basses? I am specifially interested in the 1970's. What years were considered good from a playability/sound/quality standpoint? What made a bad year a bad year?

Geez...I feel like I'm asking for wine reviews...
 
#6
I would not consider anything from the '70's to be premium. Rather, instruments from the '70's just happen to be the ones left over from the huge "vintage boom" of the '90's, primarily due to quality and the fact that the musical heroes of those buying older instruments played basses and guitars from the '50s and early '60s...not the '70s. Since all of the more desirable instruments from the early Fender years were bought up years ago, the instruments that were left (70's instruments) have become the "new vintage" by default.

If you're asking for the definition of "premium vintage", it would be 1951-1964.
 
#7
To truly anwer your question, Fenders from the EARLY 70's are the ones to look at. That would be Jazzes with 4 bolt necks, which takes you up to 74 or so. P's up to 75. In my experience of playing dozens, if not hundreds of these, a 70-73 can be really good., Some suck, but I have played quite a few nice ones. After 73, say a 75 or 76, the weights are heavier, the work is even sloppier, etc.

I have a 72 jazz, and a 73 P, and they both play and sound very nice.
 
#8
Again, I really hate it when people lump "all 70's" together.
There is an obvious difference between early and late 70's.
76 and up had poor-wornout jigs at the factory which made some sloppy fitting parts, and by 78 poor fretwork and bad assembly was the norm.

70-73 were mostly nice very-lightweight instruments with the details same details as the late 60's stuff, before they went and changed the details and using that boat anchor wood. And yes, Jazzes still had 4-bolt necks.

74/75 generally isn't bad at all, usually good fitting parts, but they were into using boat anchor wood that made for 12 lbs basses, which is a bit of a turnoff to me for a Fender.
 
#10
Again, I really hate it when people lump "all 70's" together.
Click to expand...

I understand your point, but you also have to play the numbers. When talking about musical instruments, or Fender Basses in particular, there are no absolutes. In all reality, there many dogs and bad apples in the '50s, '60s and early-to-mid '70s, with "most" people agreeing that quality took an even further dip in the late '70s and early-to-mid '80s. To discuss every possible contingency would be tedious.

When talking about Fender basses that are widely considered to be truely valued, either for tone purposes, collectibility purposes, and/or investment purposes, '70s guitars and basses are virtually never mentioned. Are there some undervalued instruments from this time period floating around? Yes. Did some very good sounding and playing instruments come out of the Fender factory during this decade? Yes. But, in the vintage/collectible instrument market, '70s instruments do not command a fraction of the interest or dollar amount that their brothers and sisters from earlier decades do.

I think that you would be hard pressed to find anyone who could discern appreciable differences between P-basses made in 1972 and those made in 1976. The original question gets at this point...can you make generalizations based on "years"? Based on my experience with these basses, you can't. Not with any degree of certainty, that is. Even thought each vintage instrument should always be judged on it's own merits, the numbers seem to be better for earlier Fender instruments and are more "hit and miss" for later ones. They're not all bad (as was mentioned above), but your liklihood of finding a bass with issues seems to be greater, and this is where those generalizations come into play.
 
#12
HI

I think alot of the early '70's jazzes were cool. I also like alot of the late '60s jazzes with the rosewood boards and blocks and binding. Same go for the precisons. Id try before Id buy. Many were duds so you have to give them a trial first. My faves are the early '70s jazzes with maple boards, black binding and blocks. Good luck with your search

Rob
 
#13
Fawkes007 said:
OK, so to that end, would a brand new production (not custom shop) Fender be of better quality than a '70's version? If so, why?
Click to expand...

FULL DISCLOSURE: I've never played a bass older than 1985.


However, I have been trolling on this board for a while and this is the trend I've seen: Workmanship is going to probably be about the same because aside from CNC machines and such, people are people and will always have human error (unless you're going boutique but you didn't ask that).

If I'm not mistaken the finish was different, the finish on the newer basses is pretty much indestructible; I have a bunch of little, itty-bitty dings from my stupid dorm chair, a ding from a piece of WOOD falling on it at a gig and one from the case closing on it, and my bass still looks mint. The older basses tend to wear quicker, in fact there was a thread on how long some basses will naturally "relic" and it was decided that the new fenders will take longer.

These are really the only points I can speak to and I still may be wrong, someone correct me lol.
 
#14
OK, so to that end, would a brand new production (not custom shop) Fender be of better quality than a '70's version? If so, why?
Click to expand...

In my opinion, more often than not...yes. And just to clarify, leaving the subjective matter of tone out of it, I'm judging "quality" by how precise the parts fit, how well the nut is cut, how well the frets are dressed, how stable the neck is and how easily it can be adjusted, how well the bass is finished, etc.

Playing the numbers game, I think that you have a better shot of finding a current bass that has a properly cut nut, has decent fretwork, has a neck that is straight and can be easily adjusted, has a neck that fits reasonably tight in the neck pocket (without the HUGE gaps that my all-original '77 has), etc. Are they all winners...no, not by a long shot. But, as was mentioned above, modern CNC machines have taken a lot of the guesswork and human error out of the process that was once very prevalent at Fender.

If I had "x" number of dollars to invest in a bass and was dead set on getting something with the Fender logo on the headstock (which I'm not, and probably never will be), then I would buy new vs. '70s virtually every time (unless you somehow stumble upon one of the good ones, find a great deal, or want to purchase a bass that could potentially be viewed as a collector's item at some point in time). The only reason I ended up with my '77 was because I paid somewhere around $250 for it and the OHSC and was not willing to risk any more money on an old bass that I knew very little about and wasn't even sure was functional. To me, the thing really wasn't worth much more than that, even though they routinely sell for 7-10 times that on the vintage market. All you need is a locked truss rod or a twisted neck for your '70s jazz bass invesement to quickly become a piece of "wall art"! :smug:
 
#16
JPJ said:
I would not consider anything from the '70's to be premium. Rather, instruments from the '70's just happen to be the ones left over from the huge "vintage boom" of the '90's, primarily due to quality and the fact that the musical heroes of those buying older instruments played basses and guitars from the '50s and early '60s...not the '70s. Since all of the more desirable instruments from the early Fender years were bought up years ago, the instruments that were left (70's instruments) have become the "new vintage" by default.

If you're asking for the definition of "premium vintage", it would be 1951-1964.
Click to expand...

JPJ, Where would your '62 Jazz fit into this. :hiding: :D
 
#17
Fawkes007 said:
OK, so to that end, would a brand new production (not custom shop) Fender be of better quality than a '70's version? If so, why?
Click to expand...

By quality standards, Heck yes!
The modern USA '75 reissue Jazz Bass is built 100 times better than an original '75/'76 Jazz Bass.
CNC cutting is accurate, no sloppy neck pockets, no sloppy oversized and crooked pickup routs. The bridges line up perfectly with the neck...theses were all common problems back in the late 70's from worn router templates, and a general disreguard for quality by management/workers.
 
#19
JPJ, Where would your '62 Jazz fit into this.
Click to expand...

HA! Good question. While I love that bass for sentimental reasons, it is not what I would consider a gig-worthy instrument. It was my first bass, and I love it dearly, but it came with upright-like action, and despite many tries over the years, the action can not really be lowered properly on that bass to get into a range of what most players would consider to be acceptible. Luckily for me, I do not require supre-low action and have been able to get buy. Other than that fact, if you can overlook a bass with super-high action, it is a great instrument, and the fit and finish is very good. But, I should also point out that I may only get it out of the case once or twice a year, and have never played it on a gig. It is a bass that I only keep for sentimental reasons and it virtually never sees the light of day anymore.

While this might not sound like a glowing ensorsement for my recommendation of "buy new vs. '70s", if that's the decision you're considering, I can say that in most respects, I feel that my '62 Reissue is of higher quality than my '77. But, as you can see, neither of these two basses gets any playing time at all compared to the bass that Mike Lull built for me almost 4 years ago. I've been playing that exclusively for quite some time.
 
#20
I remember speaking to my favorite music-store owner in 1972. His opinion was that the new Fenders weren't nearly as good as the pre-CBS ones.

I don't think you can consider ANY 1970s Fender as "premium vintage." HOWEVER, that doesn't mean there aren't some very nice instruments made in that decade.

When quality control suffers, what it means is that there are wider variations among the pieces that roll out of the factory. Some great, some poor, most in between.
 

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