First Fender bass finished black?

[Bikeguy57]

A nice and super clean original black early '62 J:

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How is it possible for a 62 year old bass to look this good!

 

[Dynacord]

Interesting relative to this thread, this just showed up on Facebook:

 

[SJLee]

I love how the black headstock washes out all the text other than the Fender logo. Looks killer! Fender Japan did a run of black J basses w/ matching headstock fairly recently.

Yes, it is a 66 jazz with blocks and binding that came out of Fender Japan in 2021. The overseeing of these builds is by former Fender Custom Shop master builder Mark Kendrick. I recently purchased one and it is a phenomenal bass with a surprisingly shallow front to back neck profile and lacquer finish.

 

[SJLee]

Super cool. I wonder if that wasn't a variation on the '66 blonde slab body/maple necks they did for the UK market (as used by Entwistle)?... That could be one of one if so. Supposedly only 25 of the UK ones were made.

It was. If I remember correctly there was a batch of the slab bodies released in the US. I believe this is mentioned in Keeper of the Slabs by Barry Midford-Millership. One of which was black and ended in the hands of Larry Taylor. I’m trying to see if I can track the article down. He talks about the shop he purchased it from in LA. The article also talked about a FCS reissue made for Larry.

Great story. Wild thinking about the prices/deals that could still be found in the days before everyone was online. I still kick myself over a '59 3 tone, gold guard, slab board with original case for $275... Bought the '61 original black with brown case and covers for $450. Lots of others. Couple shots from We buy Guitars on 48th St back in the day:

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'68 Paisley for $350... asking price.

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Those are some great shots! Hard to believe the prices back then.

 

[Dynacord]

It was. If I remember correctly there was a batch of the slab bodies released in the US. I believe this is mentioned in Keeper of the Slabs by Barry Midford-Millership. One of which was black and ended in the hands of Larry Taylor. I’m trying to see if I can track the article down. He talks about the shop he purchased it from in LA. The article also talked about a FCS reissue made for Larry.

Good details! Makes sense and it does seem like there's a straight line from those to the regular release Tele Basses. I know of Keeper of the Slabs by Barry Midford-Millership (and his initial custom order bass) though it's one of the few related books I don't have.

Those are some great shots! Hard to believe the prices back then.

And those were NYC top of the market prices!

 

[Dynacord]

The Stack knob was already phased out mid 61. 62 would be incorrect, and Fender's reissue is wrong.
the only person to procure a 62 with a stack knob setup is Bill Bolton.

I had an early '62 with stack knobs. Original 3 tone. HOWEVER the solder joints had been undone and the pickups wax potted. Still had the original resistors and the pots dated earlier. Not impossible that it left the factory like that (not the wax potting, of course) but I could not be sure and believe it much more likely that the controls had been switched at some point (stack knob Js were already sought after in the 70's - even then taking a stack knob set up off of a refin and swapping onto a different original finish bass could have made financial sense - or just been personal preference; Jaco did the opposite - switched stack knobs to 3 knob).

 

[Dynacord]

Yes, it is a 66 jazz with blocks and binding that came out of Fender Japan in 2021. The overseeing of these builds is by former Fender Custom Shop master builder Mark Kendrick. I recently purchased one and it is a phenomenal bass with a rather shallow front to back neck profile and lacquer finish.

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These are great basses. I have the version with dots and binding but from an earlier run - but body is alder, came with full size tuning machines, etc. Very cool that the newer run in in lacquer as the older was finished in poly so I stripped mine and redid in nitro. My only minor quibble is just cosmetic on the black ones that they used the wrong decal (can't tell on yours - but the earlier ones had full decals with "Jazz Bass", etc) and it's misplaced for the black ones - should be further forward rather than all the way back. Custom Shop makes the same mistake.

 

[SJLee]

These are great basses. I have the version with dots and binding but from an earlier run - but body is alder, came with full size tuning machines, etc. Very cool that the newer run in in lacquer as the older was finished in poly so I stripped mine and redid in nitro. My only minor quibble is just cosmetic on the black ones that they used the wrong decal (can't tell on yours - but the earlier ones had full decals with "Jazz Bass", etc) and it's misplaced for the black ones - should be further forward rather than all the way back. Custom Shop makes the same mistake.

It’s interesting as I have seen the black 66 reissue block binding basses, with both versions of the logo here in the TB classifieds. I was curious as to why mine was not the full logo, but I guess that was a thing on the black headstocks?

One thing I like on the Japanese made 66 as opposed to the FCS 66 is the Gotoh paddle tuners. They have the rounded metal back that the tuner fits in. It’s 4:50 in the morning here and I’m cozy in bed or I’d take a few pictures. The Aztec Gold 66 has hip shot paddle tuners that FCS uses on all the 66 reissue basses that have squared off metal backs that are not period correct. I’ll take a few pictures later today to show you what I’m talking about.

 

[Dynacord]

It’s interesting as I have seen the black 66 reissue block binding basses, with both versions of the logo here in the TB classifieds. I was curious as to why mine was not the full logo, but I guess that was a thing on the black headstocks?

One thing I like on the Japanese made 66 as opposed to the FCS 66 is the Gotoh paddle tuners. They have the rounded metal back that the tuner fits in. It’s 4:50 in the morning here and I’m cozy in bed or I’d take a few pictures. The Aztec Gold 66 has hip shot paddle tuners that FCS uses on all the 66 reissue basses that have squared off metal backs that are not period correct. I’ll take a few pictures later today to show you what I’m talking about.

Logo only on black headstocks only is how they were in the 60's. Everything else had the full decals. Position was typically like this:

It's was still like that once they moved to blocks and binding. Jack Daley's (Lenny Kravitz, Little Steven, Spin Doctors, etc) main player is a black '66 with blocks and it's like that. He recently had a CS copy made but the logo is back in the corner. Obviously this is super nit-picking - not like it effects tone or playability...

The Hipshot paddles/lollipops/ovals look pretty correct from the front as the posts look close - the Gotohs look much more correct from the back but from the front the posts are more sharp edged.

My Japanese "66" came with a set of the Gotohs - though in nickle - the originals were chrome.

What's the story on the gold one? Beautiful!!!

Good night!

 

[SJLee]

Looks as if black basses may go as far back as 1955.

 

[mikeswals]

I had an early '62 with stack knobs. Original 3 tone. HOWEVER the solder joints had been undone and the pickups wax potted. Still had the original resistors and the pots dated earlier. Not impossible that it left the factory like that (not the wax potting, of course) but I could not be sure and believe it much more likely that the controls had been switched at some point (stack knob Js were already sought after in the 70's - even then taking a stack knob set up off of a refin and swapping onto a different original finish bass could have made financial sense - or just been personal preference; Jaco did the opposite - switched stack knobs to 3 knob).

Yeah could have been easily swiched.
20 years ago Bass NW had an original full stack knob control plate set for sale for well under $1k. One of those things I wished I had grabbed.