Has anyone ever seen the Fender IV before?

[knarleybass]

I was at my girlfriend's Mom's house in fullerton last week, having dinner. We got to talking about her father, who had passed away many years ago. Turns out he was a fabric sales man, and also sold Tolex, he sold Leo Fender tolex back in the 60's. Anyhow, my girlfriend's Mom said the he and Leo became friends over the years and Leo gave him this bass. I now have it here at my house, she knows I play and thought it would be nice if I could clean it up for her... I had to put a new pickguard on, when I got it was missing.
it's an ash body and the fingerboard is a slab Brazilian Rosewood, there are no markings on the neck aside from the decal... I have never seen one like it nor have I ever heard of this model ever being made

 

[AltGrendel]

Never seen it, but I remember reading about Fender experimenting with injecting various dies directly into a tree to get that kind of color.

Looks like you got something like that, pretty one of a kind to me.

 

[T-MOST]

I've never seen that logo before. The colors look like they were rubbed in. Notice how the color was masked off around the bridge pup.

 

[loinmute]

FWIW I have read about an over-abundance of "prototype" guitars within the Fender company.

 

[AltGrendel]

I've never seen that logo before.

Well, it is April 1st.

 

[flyingfinbar]

Dude....Don't mess with it! Don't throw out the old pickguard, don't put anything new on it, anything! It could be worth a serious amount of money, and any messing with it will detract from that value.

 

[Bardley]

Well, it is April 1st.

+1

I never believe anything I read on April 1st.

Cool looking bass, though.

 

[knarleybass]

the pickguard was missing when I got it. it's not my bass, it still belongs to my girlfriend's mom

 

[AltGrendel]

the pickguard was missing when I got it. it's not my bass, it still belongs to my girlfriend's mom

I would send a PM to johnk_10 and ask what he thinks. As I recall, he's in CA and might be close enough for you to drive by and get an eval of the bass.

 

[Fresh Eddie]

If it is a Leo Fender era J-Bass, would it even need a pickguard? I have a '78 that has no ugly routes if you take the pickguard off.

 

[jim777]

Stained but not cleared, or stained and oiled or something? I think it's gorgeous, whether it's worth a ton or rare or what. How does she play and sound?

 

[knarleybass]

it has a great sound, the pickups have a higher output and aggressive sound

 

[onestring]

very well-played sir.

 

[Rumblefisher]

Betcha that was Mike Port's bass

 

[afireinside]

nice

 

[knarleybass]

ok,
April Fools! it's a bass I put together from parts, and I had the decal made from a guy on the internet. In all fairness it's a great sounding bass, I wound the pickups myself

 

[A-Step-Towards]

Yeaah leo was to cheap to give a bass to some one haha.