Fender pre-CBS Club: pics mandatory!

[SJLee]

Barrie is a great guy and has a wealth of knowledge on the Precision basses Fender produced in 66 that had the slab body and split coil pickup. The pickguard is an original 1967 complete with its factory paper protection intact. The tug bar is made of boxwood.

That jazz bass sounds like it would have been a dream catch, particularly with the appointments you mention and the documentation of who owned it. Gold dust!

 

[Dynacord]

That jazz bass sounds like it would have been a dream catch, particularly with the appointments you mention and the documentation of who owned it. Gold dust!

Yeah, Holly also said Owens retained ownership on the sparkle Fenders - they were loaners to the band members and belonged to "the enterprise". Highly likely that bass was illicit (though I do think it was legit). I keep wondering when/if it might resurface. It was $7K then (late 90's) which was real nose bleed money but I was ready to do it as I knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

 

[Dynacord]

Double post! (internet disconnection...)

 

[SJLee]

I’m curious about the production methods of the Telecaster bass. I have seen varying necks with what seems to have no rhyme or reason to the year of production. Some having a maple veneer with skunk stripe, others maple cap no skunk stripe, some with the skunk stripe and what appears to be a one piece maple neck; it's all over the map. What's perplexing to me is why one bass would have a maple veneer while another has maple cap. One would think that a maple fretboard would be produced in the same manner, yet there are examples of both.

 

[ukulelelab]

From a manufacturing point of view I can see the point of veneer rosewood boards on maple if you wanted to save on rosewood materials but not veneer maple boards. Those maple cap variations were prob Fender experimenting for a while with their production lines before rolling out the skunk stripe way

 

[ukulelelab]

Yeah, Holly also said Owens retained ownership on the sparkle Fenders - they were loaners to the band members and belonged to "the enterprise". Highly likely that bass was illicit (though I do think it was legit). I keep wondering when/if it might resurface. It was $7K then (late 90's) which was real nose bleed money but I was ready to do it as I knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Read a bit about Fender pre-cbs sparkle finishes and apparently they were mostly done at the local garage rather than factory. Is that true? Anyway that particular one sounds like a factory job.

 

[bterry]

Yes, they sent them out of the factory to a local specialist for the sparkle finishes in those days!

 

[ukulelelab]

Here is my early 64 P with unfortunately un-original body in sparkle LPB finish

 

[9mmMike]

This was sparkle at some point. Not likely courtesy of Fender though!

 

[Dynacord]

Read a bit about Fender pre-cbs sparkle finishes and apparently they were mostly done at the local garage rather than factory. Is that true? Anyway that particular one sounds like a factory job.

Story I always heard was the spray guns at Fender were not right for the large particles in sparkle finishes and thus those instruments were sent out to be finished in local shops. Many were done by Dennis Swiden in the back of his parents furniture shop.

 

[ukulelelab]

@davidprice yes just seen that really interesting post there Dick Dale's The Beast in the transitional Burgundy Mist/Candy Apple Purple in '63! and I quote:

"There was a guy named Dennis Swiden. He painted guitars for Fender. He claimed that they used to drop of up to 12 at a time at his fathers furniture store, and he would paint them. He said most were for shows, or special orders for Fender customers. He charged $20 a body, and they were usually a fade, or metal flake. He's the guy that painted The Del-tones surf burst guitars,

and he painted Dick Dales guitar. He and Dick were buds. here's a pic of them at Dennis' wedding.

And, here's some pictures of guitars that Dennis painted.

There sure are a lot of Dennis Swiden paint jobs that look an awful lot like Dicks guitar in the one picture. I don't see how this story can't be true. I got Dennis Swiden's name from Steve Soast. I got all the above pics from a tribute page to Dennis on Facebook.

Dennis Swiden is the missing link to all this."

 

[ukulelelab]

btw I recently saw a '64 precision bass with a light blue sparkle finish VERY similar to that tele (above). It was listed as a refin on cash converter's website here in the UK for approx £3k. I saved the link but it's currently showing a coronavirus message:
[This invalid link has been removed]
Anyway that bass is sold out.

 

[johnk_10]

I’m curious about the production methods of the Telecaster bass. I have seen varying necks with what seems to have no rhyme or reason to the year of production. Some having a maple veneer with skunk stripe, others maple cap no skunk stripe, some with the skunk stripe and what appears to be a one piece maple neck; it's all over the map. What's perplexing to me is why one bass would have a maple veneer while another has maple cap. One would think that a maple fretboard would be produced in the same manner, yet there are examples of both.

fender discontinued one piece maple necks on all of their guitars and basses in '59 and went to having slab rosewood (brazilian) fingerboards. in mid-late '62 they went to veneered fingerboards. due to the demand for maple necks, they started putting a maple fingerboard instead of rosewood on them in 65. i've seen telecasters, tele basses and p basses with maple capped necks from that era and the slab bodied '66 p bass that i had also had one on it. by '68 they went back to one piece maple necks with the skunk stripe.

 

[SJLee]

fender discontinued one piece maple necks on all of their guitars and basses in '59 and went to having slab rosewood (brazilian) fingerboards. in mid-late '62 they went to veneered fingerboards. due to the demand for maple necks, they started putting a maple fingerboard instead of rosewood on them in 65. i've seen telecasters, tele basses and p basses with maple capped necks from that era and the slab bodied '66 p bass that i had also had one on it. by '68 they went back to one piece maple necks with the skunk stripe.

Thanks for the response John. Do you know why a maple neck with a skunk stripe would have received a maple veneer or cap?

 

[johnk_10]

Thanks for the response John. Do you know why a maple neck with a skunk stripe would have received a maple veneer or cap?

i have no idea and have never seen one like that. definitely a very rare bird.

 

[SJLee]

i have no idea and have never seen one like that. definitely a very rare bird.

If you go back to post #1849, I posted some photos of a bass that has both a maple cap/veneer. There’s an arrow that points to the cap where you can see the cross grain of the cap. Must have been an accident.

 

[johnk_10]

yeah, i saw that. very strange. it's probably a one off, or it was possibly (but not likely) a repair of a one piece maple neck that they had with issues of it not being straight so they installed a new maple fingerboard on it. that's about all i can think. '67 was the first of the tele basses, so who knows?

 

[Jinobass1]

@davidprice yes just seen that really interesting post there Dick Dale's The Beast in the transitional Burgundy Mist/Candy Apple Purple in '63! and I quote:

"There was a guy named DennisSwiden. He painted guitars for Fender. He claimed that they used to drop of up to 12 at a time at his fathers furniture store, and he would paint them. He said most were for shows, or special orders for Fender customers. He charged $20 a body, and they were usually a fade, or metal flake. He's the guy that painted The Del-tones surf burst guitars,
View attachment 3806161
and he painted Dick Dales guitar. He and Dick were buds. here's a pic of them at Dennis' wedding.
View attachment 3806162
And, here's some pictures of guitars that Dennis painted.
View attachment 3806163 View attachment 3806164 View attachment 3806166
There sure are a lot of Dennis Swiden paint jobs that look an awful lot like Dicks guitar in the one picture. I don't see how this story can't be true. I got Dennis Swiden's name from Steve Soast. I got all the above pics from a tribute page to Dennis on Facebook.
View attachment 3806167
Dennis Swiden is the missing link to all this."

I wonder if this 59’ P Is from Dennis

 

[TheDialog]

First track recorded with my 64P.

 

[shadven]

First track recorded with my 64P.

Dig it!