Help dating P Bass

The best way to date a P is to make sure she doesn't know about the J You've been seeing...

 

From your title, I was ready to suggest simply asking it out for dinner and a movie, then I read your post and realized you were asking something else entirely.

Anyway, it's hard to say with basses like these. Did the seller have any info about where he got it from? It appears that it's an old bass that has gone through quite a few mods and/or part replacements. The further back you can go in the ownership chain, the better.

I thought that Fender always stamped (rather than penciled) the butt of the neck, but I could be wrong about that. It would take a keener eye that me to tell if it's an authentic Fender or not just from looking at it. In any case, I hope you got a good deal on it. In my opinion, if you didn't pay an arm and a leg, it sounds good, and you like how it plays, then you did okay. Good luck figuring it all out.

 

The neck plate is gone. The tuners aren't legit. The "penciled" dating is FAKE. No penciled dating after '61ish. 70's Fenders are stamped. And they're stamped with a model number, month, year (YY), and neck nut width.

The body finish looks possibly non-Fender stock. The pickguard looks newer. The bridge is not period correct - even if it was older (which I KNOW it isn't - why would it have a 60's bridge when all the other hardware is knock-off?). Headstock has a peg on the back of it - they didn't do that in the 70's IIR.


The only way to really know the body and neck is to take the neck off and photo the butt stamps and the neck pocket. The body routes are key as well - under the bridge and the pickup/control cavity. A photo of the butt from bottom side and end.


And what are the pots dates?

 

Well.... I don't think that is a Fender Precision. I think it's more like an old Tokai or Ibby with a replaced decal.
With the feathering of old finish around the perimeter of the headstock, it's pretty clear someone sanded the headstock face.
This tuner posts are not Fender, neither are the back plates or screws, nor neck plate.
It has a slab fretboard.

 

Damn, that body wear is cool though. I thought it was a Fender at first glance...the paint (on the front of the body) almost resembles a 59 era sunburst. Even if it's fake, I'd leave that body as-is.

It's a really cool pre-CBS style faker. I'd sand that 70's logo and do a pre-CBS one.

Hope you didn't pay too much for it (vintage pricing) - it's still a REALLY cool P bass though.

 

Good job on salvaging something from those pictures, which do a fantastic job of just missing the needed info.

Can't even tell if that's a waterslide decal, which I guess would be the killer.

I've had zero experience with the old-timer close "lawsuit" fakes, but that would be a good explanation. I think it's pretty clear this isn't an actual Fender.

 

See various posts above.

 

Curious how much you paid for it...

 

Don't bother.

The first and only thing you need to do is check if that's an eBay waterslide decal, which I'm pretty sure it will be, because that doesn't look like a Fender neck with that fretboard and logo combination to me.

Don't. Don't even think about it.

If you have a real intact Fender and a fake Fender and you mix them up essentially all you have are two worthless fake Fenders.

That's just crazy.

We'll see if he's good for it. I'm beginning to think it's a total non-Fender and he knows it, especially after finding out that those conspicuously useless pictures came from him.

 

+1

And lets not talk about the builds from far away lands!

 

I'm just interested to learn what might be possibly legitimate, if anything.

 

Some of the fake components are very hard to tell from the real thing unless you have the original right there to compare it with.

 

neck plate appears a bit narrower than a standard Fender neckplate, I might add...

 

Headstock shape too rounded?

Shape at base of neck looks off.

Decal, don't look right....

Subbed anyway

 

Ehh...it would be alot more obvious if it was a MIJ copy. At least from what I've seen. It looks like Fender size to me. With the gasket it might be a later replacement or a Relic. Easy to find.