ID these pickups! Found in a '75 P Bass

[danalogue]

Hello all,

I found this beauty (with an "A" neck!!) in my favorite music shop the other day while passing through DC and had to pick it up. And like the cat that I am, my curiosity has me trying to ID everything on it. So far I've got everything nailed down to a 1975: neck stamp, pots are '73, cap is original, bridge and pickup cover have "5" written on the inside, etc.. only thing is, I can't decipher what's going on with the pickups. They've got black backs, are soldered to the copper plate typically found in 70's fenders, don't look like they've been re-soldered ever (but I could be wrong about that). The only thing written on the backs are in pencil and look like they say 17, or 61, or 19.. My initial guess is that the bass is a special/rare one because of the "A" neck (jazz nut width) and that might have something to do with the different pickups, but I can't be sure. Anybody else with a 70's fender have something similar?

 

[narud]

where does the serial number put it? my own early 70's fenders have had the last digit align with the year and not the second to the last digit like the common deciphering info out there. given that the pots are 73 and the black bottom pickup, that would make sense. ive seen black bottom pickups show up when the werent supposed to in basses from 67-68 and 73.

 

[danalogue]

serial number is 512077

i thought the last four digits of the neck stamp were two digit week, one digit year and one digit day of week. What else have you seen out there?

Are you suggesting these were random left over pups from the 60's? they've got the deep burgandy/brown wire..

 

[dafonky]

Wow, Fender mysteries also here :
I got a natural P bass, pots dated 76 and 77 ( might have been changed already before) body seems to be 76-77-78 ( banana body channel for wiring to pickups ) . Only the last two digits of the Neck stamp are visible (75)…….it also has these black bobbin pickups with dark burgundy wire, soldered to the same style copper plate as seen on this P bass in another forum here :

73-74 Fender black bobbin pickups

It even has these old rubber surgical tubing screw springs on it, which are typical for 50‘ies and early 60‘ies instruments. The entire pickup seems to be waxed…..the black and white cloth wire on the pickups and copper plate seem to be untouched……does anybody here have infos concerning the stamps and numbers in the pickup cavity and on the neck (4372 and 4474 ) ? Thanks