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Fender Classic Series '50s Precision Bass Lacquer

Mind Eroded

Mind Eroded

Apr 25, 2003
677
448
Brooklyn/Buffalo, NY
#1
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/bass/fender-classic-series-50s-precision-bass-lacquer

anyone pick one of these up yet?...not too crazy about the lack of finish options(the black looks badass but still kinda boring)..what really floors me is the neck on these. The way they finish it off reminds of an AV '57 P bass. I love the glossy "nuclear yellow" necks.

I wonder if these are a 'step up' from the ordinary '50s classics(which are already great basses) or if its just a paintjob difference and you are paying for the extra costs associated with nitro vs. poly
 
#3
Jeff K said:
I think the only differences are the nitro finish and the tweed case (included with the newer model).
Click to expand...

Pretty much so, but neck profile may be shaped to a given year (thicker, thinner, U-shaped, flatter backed neck, etc.). One could buy all the components through Warmoth or USA Custom Guitars, have a tech do all the work on it, and have a better yet cheaper bass, IMO. Seuf guitars in Kansas City does a spot on vintage bass, but (of course) it doesn't say Fender. I owned and/or played true vintage and RI Fenders. I like their pups, but I won't be buying anymore of their basses. I'm not wishing to come off in a negative manner - just being realistic. Because of the difference in aged wood, building techniques, and components...you can't expect a massed produced bass to be the "real deal" compared to a hand formed and assembled instrument.
 
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#4
Mind Eroded said:
anyone pick one of these up yet?...not too crazy about the lack of finish options(the black looks badass but still kinda boring)..what really floors me is the neck on these. The way they finish it off reminds of an AV '57 P bass. I love the glossy "nuclear yellow" necks.

I wonder if these are a 'step up' from the ordinary '50s classics(which are already great basses) or if its just a paintjob difference and you are paying for the extra costs associated with nitro vs. poly
Click to expand...

Ha! I just responded to the this same topic on another thread a few minutes ago. I have a 57 AVRI, and I don't know what the bid deal is with the nitro finish.

I have a ric that has a lacquered finish, and the necks almost feel the same. I still like both basses, but I would rather have oil rubbed necks. The lacquer/poly/nitro necks tend to have a stickiness to them, depending on atmospheric conditions. More moisture in the air, the more resistance between skin and neck.

Fender probably upgraded the MIM bass because there has been plenty of positive feedback on the nitro finishes as compared to the poly finish.
 
#5
sorry for reviving this thread from the dead...just wondering now that some time has passed...has anyone on here pulled the trigger on one of these yet? I'm surprised I haven't come across even one "NBD" thread concerning this bass

still gassing HARD for one of these...
 
#7
I just got a seriously good deal on one of these, so I pulled the trigger. I don't mind the gold pickguard, but a '62 reissue guard will fit other than one screw near the controls (which I always just glue in). I might go with a mint green guard at some point, or tort, but the gold looks pretty awesome if you install the finger rest (which I already have ready to screw on). It also might get a set of Fralin pick ups (already purchased and waiting for a bass) to replace the MIM pick ups that are in it (oval bobbins under the pick up covers. Blech!). I'll report back when I receive it and play it a bit. I personally prefer nitro to poly and don't mind the sticky feeling. At least with nitro, it will wear through eventually.
 
#11
Giving this thread a bump.

Can anyone verify these are 100% poly free from the wood out?

I have the older poly version Classic 50s and love it but I'm thinking about grabbing one of these. I would hate to buy one only to find out it has a poly primer or clear coat.
 
#12
Jeff K said:
I think the only differences are the nitro finish and the tweed case (included with the newer model).
Click to expand...

If this is the case then the price is comparable to the 50s MIM P bass, which i own, a Fender Case would cost around £150+ from a retailer, so if Fender supplied one then that would be reflected in the cost.
My one is in every way as good as any P bass on the market and the only 'downside' it has seems to be the fact is MIM.....but that is the perception of others, not me.

I changed my pick guard for a black one, many to choose from on the web, because i did not like the feel of the anodised one against my the side of my thumb, and also the gold plate made it look more pink than red. The black scratch plate really shows it to be red, it is an optical illusion and a trick of the light i must assume.
I tried about 60+ models of the 50s bass before i settled on this one, it seem that i picked a heavy one compared to others i have tried. Maybe one of the reason mine sound so good is the wood is denser, so heavier and that contributes to the resonance the body creates. Add to that the nitro finish and there is no reason for it not to be as good as any P bass out there.
My advice in choosing basses is always play many, even of the same model, do not buy in haste and do not buy a bass you have not handled.
 
#13
SlingBass4 said:
......One could buy all the components through Warmoth or USA Custom Guitars, have a tech do all the work on it, and have a better yet cheaper bass, IMO. Seuf guitars in Kansas City does a spot on vintage bass, but (of course) it doesn't say Fender. I owned and/or played true vintage and RI Fenders. I like their pups, but I won't be buying anymore of their basses. I'm not wishing to come off in a negative manner - just being realistic. Because of the difference in aged wood, building techniques, and components...you can't expect a massed produced bass to be the "real deal" compared to a hand formed and assembled instrument.
Click to expand...


+1000000...

{long-winded rant warning...}

This was EXACTLY my experience with alot of the 60's type RI Fenders.
(obviously excluding Fender Custom Shop, and maybe the Pino Palladino Sig.Bass,..)

At first grab, the Necks on the mass produced Fender reissues, felt like cheap plastic... And sounded like a shadow of what it should sound like..
I went so far as to talk to a lot of people in the know about the new mass-produced Fenders,
they said there is some cheap laminate, or something like that, that they didn't use back then,
My biggest issue is what Fender is $-CHARGING-$ for these mass-produced pieces of Crap..

i've played 60's and 70's P's & J's my whole life... I KNOW what they're supposed to FEEL and SOUND like...
Thus, I got very disillusioned with Purchasing new Fender Basses.

I Lived in the Midwest for a while, and found myself in Lawrence, Kansas. The big music store there is 'Mass Street Music'...
To make a long story short, I saw this 63,64-ish type Precision on the wall, grabbed it, and immediately noticed that the neck felt like wood,..
(...put together by a local builder/chemist by the name of Dave Seuferling...){Seuf Guitars}
So I got em down...er.. I mean,..bought it for a reasonable $1700+ tax.

Does it feel and sound exactly like a pre-CBS Fender precision??. ....No.....
Does it Feel and Sound more Authentic than any Mass-produced Fender reissues that I've played? (for hundreds more?) You Betcha!...

...And that's just sad..

This has been been baffling me for 20+ years... So It's obviously all about marketing these days,..
Fender & Gibson have the Legendary History, so they capitalize on it, by screaming "Vintage" on everything...
and most young kats today never got their hands on Vintage Fender P's and J's because of their 'Mortgage-type' price tags,
so they have nothing to compare it to... (and Fender and Gibson know this..)

Think about it,.. why should there even BE a Fender "Custom Shop"?? Fender 'Custom Shop', should 'BE' "Fender USA©"..
...and make Guitars like they did from 1951 to 1978... and charge No More than $2K-3K...PERIOD!

I personally would be very hesitant to buy any new mass-produced Fender nowadays,.
I'd rather deal with the 'knockoffs', made/put together by more 'hungry' and caring Builders & Luthiers.

{damn,.. I really got to lay off the coffee}
 

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#14
Not so long rant. I have a MIM Precision, and it is a Road Worn. So, it is a poser bass with a Fender decal, so it should be easy to find something else cheaper and better, right? Well, maybe, maybe not. The RW thing was secondary to how it felt in my hands. It may be a mass produced machine product, but really, that's what Leo Fender's genius was in the first place. He figured out how to make playable guitars using machine tools and skilled assemblers who didn't have to be full on luthiers. So, no difference. I have taken apart and put back together several Fender type guitars and basses, and they are similar. Sometimes the fit is better, sometimes it isn't, but that's got to do with the skill of the machinist. Use a CNC pin router and that is a non-issue.

If you want an oiled neck, great, but Fender never did that, as far as I know. They were nitro until they were poly or a poly under nitro finish. They always had grain fillers and so on. If you pick up a Gibson guitar going all the way back to whenever, the neck has a smooth finish and you can't feel the grain. I suppose that could feel like plastic, too. My point is that oil finishes or open grain finishes aren't typical of Fender or anybody else for a very, very long time.

I'm very happy with my Fender P. It sounds like a P, it feels like a P, and it cost less than what it would have taken to buy the parts from Warmouth. Maybe the Warmouth would have been a better bass, but what does that mean, anyway? I don't know so I don't care. What I have sounds and feels great to me. No, I haven't owned a pre-CBS Fender, but I have picked up a couple to see what they are like. The worn surfaces feel great, but that's not what came from the factory when they were new. My P is rapidly developing that kind of feel, since I play it so much. So what's the difference? The wood isn't even that different. I am pretty sure there's a poly undercoat, but my hands seem to be wearing through it over time. The top finish, whatever it was, wore off fairly quickly. You might complain that the finsih on these is lousy because it's not durable!

It's a machine product, and so are all the knock-offs. I have my suit on now, so flame away.
 
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#16
Juicyanalog said:
+1000000...

{long-winded rant warning...}

This was EXACTLY my experience with alot of the 60s type RI Fenders. (obviously excluding Fender Custom Shop, and maybe the Pino Paladino Sig.Bass,..)

At first grab, the Necks on the mass produced Fender reissues, felt like cheap plastic... And sounded like a shadow of what it should sound like.. I went so far as to talk to a lot of people in the know about the new mass-produced Fenders, they said there is some cheap laminate, or something like that, that they didn't use back then, My biggest issue is what Fender is $-CHARGING-$ for these mass-produced pieces of Crap..

i've played 60s and 70s P's & J's my whole life... I KNOW what they're supposed to FEEL and SOUND like... Thus, I got very disillusioned with Purchasing new Fender Basses.

I Lived in the Midwest for a while, and found myself in Lawrence, Kansas. The big music store there is 'Mass Street Music'... To make a long story short, I saw this 63-ish type precision on the wall, grabbed it, and immediately noticed that the neck felt like wood,.. Put together by a local builder/chemist by the name of Dave Seuferling...(Seuf Guitars) So I got em down...er.. I mean,..bought it for a reasonable $1700+ tax.

Does it feel and sound exactly like a pre-CBS Fender precision??. ....No..... Does it Feel and Sound more Authentic than any Mass-produced Fender reissues that I've played? (for hundreds more?) You Betcha!...

...And that's just sad..

This has been been baffling me for 20+ years... It's obviously all about marketing these days,..Fender & Gibson got the Legendary History, so they capitalize on it, by screaming "Vintage" on everything... and most young cats today can't get their hands on Vintage Fender P's and J's because of their 'Mortgage-type' price tags, so they have nothing to compare it to... (and Fender and Gibson knows this)

Think about it,.. why should there even BE a Fender "Custom Shop"?? Fender 'custom shop' should 'BE' Fender USA...and make Guitars like they did from 1951 to 1978... and charge no more than $2-3K...PERIOD!

I personally would be very hesitant to buy any mass-produced Fender nowadays,. I rather buy the knockoffs, made by more hungry and caring luthiers.

{damn,.. I really got to lay off the coffee}
Click to expand...

Funny. Every time I try to price out anything close to these basses through Warmoth, I go about $300 higher.
 
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#17
both of my warmoths were put together for a little bit less than a fender american standard. i didn't go crazy with woods and finishes though. also, even though warmoth doesn't offer nitro finishes, their poly is VERY thin. it's explained on their site.

"Urethane is our primary finishing material though we do use several thin coats of polyester as a base coat to fill the wood grain. The process is first to fill the grain, then the color coat is applied. Finally the top coats are laid down before final sanding and buffing. If the body is dyed, these colors are put on the raw wood prior to the base coat application. There seems to be much controversy about finishing materials and poly seems much maligned… Without sinking into the depths of this debate, let us just say that our finishes seldom exceed twelve thousandths on an inch in thickness. For the lacquer fans, there are others that spray this material though the cost is generally at least double for a very questionable sonic difference."
 
#19
To me if you're going to pay $899 for a Mex Fender(that I'm not too fond of myself) you might as well bump up the funds a bit and get the Dan Lakin bass. I'm blown away at the tone these basses produce. ( and NO I'm NOT in the Lakin Ambassador program).
 
#20
Just bought this beauty and it's mint!! Although it's mim the neck is superb, paint finish is spot on and after a couple of minor adjustments the action is nice and low with no fret Buzz.. I've noticed on here Mexican fenders get a bit of stick, but I've owned a couple now and for the price can't fault em!!
 

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