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Good years in the 70's for fender?

#4
P basses didnt have a 3 bolt neck. My 78 jazz is great. The rule of thumb is play it first, there were bad basses, but most of those have been modded or parted out so you have a pretty good chance of finding a good one.
 
#5
I own a 71 P bass and a 78 Jazz bass. THe 71 just required a little fretwork and it was ready to go. Absoluely rock solid bass.

The 78 was a different story. Whoever was in charge of qaulity control at Fender that day must have fallen asleep at the wheel. The neck pocket is so bad, I can almost fit a pencil in between the body and neck. Literally. The routing for the bridge pickup was horrible as well. This bass require all kinds of wood shims, refinishing, fret work etc before it was even playable. After investing about $500 in fixing it up, its a joy to play. Couldn't be happier. ;)

Second on staying away from the 3 bolt neck.
 
#7
Generally speaking, the 70-73's were still using alder (unless it was natural, then it was ash), and across the board were much lighter in weight. The feel and tone with these is identicle to the late 60's basses. The ash bodies went into full use and is generally very heavy. The quality control was better* on the earlier years too, and the jigs weren't nearly as worn out like the later years where you see sloppy pickup routs and neck pockets.
But with any kind of bass, you gotta try it out to see if it's for you.

(* I didn't say perfect, and it wasn't magic, I only said better.)
 
#8
My 78 P is fine. It's black with the all maple neck (like Aimee Mann plays in the Voices Carry video). A few years ago I was about ready to scrap it because it had become virtually unplayable but then I realized it was just cause I'd had it 20+ years and hadn't really kept it up like I should. Spent $200 to have the local guitar/bass guru give it a total overhaul (frets, set-up, re-wire pickups, patch up the paint job) and it was good as new - actually, better.

OTOH when I was in my college jazz combo I played the school's sunburst P-Bass with rosewood fingerboard that was total cr*p. I wound up telling them to keep their bass and I played my own. Not sure the year of that model though... would guess it was very late 70s if not as new as mid-80s.
 
#9
My 78 P is one heavy MOFO. Weighs 11+ pounds. Sounds great though. Fit and finish is tight, neck is wide and thick like a baseball bat. I agree with everyone, I think it depands on each bass themselves. When I got that one I saw another 78 P with a neck pocket like DEbassist describes. That actually made me think somebody had put a 78 neck on another body that didn't fit at all. At the time I was unaware of the QC problems in 70's Fenders.

God Bless R.
 
#14
My 69 J has a looser neck pocket than my 77 P. I bought my 77 P new in 78 and the neck pocket is tight and the bass has never had a problem. It has an ash body with a Walnut finish( trans brown) and rosewood board. The bass still plays great and has killer tone. As stated above, it depends on the individual instrument.
 
#15
73 and 78 J-Basses over here.

The 73 is lighter, tight neckpocket and of course 4 bolt neck, sweet tone.

The 78 is heavier, neck pocket is disgusting, 3 bolt neck and the tone is BRUTAL.

You´ll have to check out closely everyone of them, Marcus Miller´s Jazz is a 3 bolt so...go figure.
 
#17
I agree with playing it first. I would never buy a 70's P over the internet. It's like buying a MIM P nowdays. They varied so much in quality. Lots of bad and good ones. I started out on a brand new '75 P, and even then I could tell there was a variation in quality. CBS Fenders were considered majorly inferior to the Pre-CBS instruments.
 
#18
I have a few of these ( Jazz Basses) and have owned a few others over the years. I dont think it has to do with the year , but the individual bass. Some were heavier, some the necks were more stable than others, but I've played different basses from the same year that were all over the place.
 
#19
jgsbass said:
More like there were good basses and bad basses. Thats the problem with Fender during the 70's. IMHO, stay away from 3 screw necks.
Click to expand...
:cool:
Big plus 1.

My favorite years a 1970-1974.
These seem to be a little lighter, on average.
And have bigger profile necks, (which I like)

But, you can find a great bass from any year.
 
#20
bassmanrocke said:
Stick with maple necks. My '74 maple neck was wonderful and incredibly solid. My '72 Rosewood board sounded good, but had a typical kickup at the neck joint. While I can't say this problem was universal with all rosewood P's, it was far less common with the one piece maple necks.
Click to expand...

This is a very good point. While not always true, I think the maple necks may be less prone to humps over the pocket. Humps tend to result in maxed out truss rods, IME. The '69 neck fretted neck I use on my '71 fretless had a bad hump. However, my luthier (RSguitarworks) set it right.

I think that Caca's post also hit it right on the head. My rule of thumb is, play it, and look for lighter weight and good necks. These are more likely to be found on the late 60's and early 70's P-basses.

Of course, everyone who has a 70's P-bass they love believes that the year of their bass was a good year. I had a '69, a '70 fretless (that belonged to a friend) and now a '71 fretless. The '70 was the best of the three...go figure. All had rosewood FBs.

A buddy in San Francisco has a '73 with a maple neck that just kills---it is all a mystery, no? :p :p :p
 

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