Legit 70's P Bass?

[Pings Bass]

put it on a scale... 9.5-12lbs = legit 70s Fender under 9.5 lbs = sus

only joking, my 76 P comes in under 9.5 lbs, and it's legit

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

I'm looking for some opinions on this p-bass and whether it looks all original or not. I'm certainly no expert so have no idea and it's not advertised as all original but I'd say my areas of concern are the headstock, tuners, and pickguard. The serial number puts this baby at 1976. I understand these CBS era basses can be iffy so I'm going to try and check it out in person and play this first but it looks like this can be had at a decent price. I dont have a ton of experience with these so any tips for stuff to look out for when I check it out in person would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hardware looks like actual aging. Body looks good. What's the tag?

 

[mcrawfordmusic]

It's a 70's Fender P, with a few non-original parts.

My only concern is that looking at the state of that garage (and how that drum kit has been stored), it probably hasn't been well looked after. I would be sure to inspect in person before buying.

 

[hotrodjohn]

its a mid 70's P - the pickguard, knobs, and strap buttons are not original. Depending on the price, i would clean it up and rock the eff out of it.

 

[Btone]

Nice bass. First thing I would look for is an acceptable neck pocket gap - and a reasonable weight.

 

[Amano]

Knobs, pickguard, strapholders not original. The skunkstripe on the neck looks trouble. 75 early 76. Many natural basses from the 70’s are heavy. Mainly because of the skunkstripe would check it out first.

 

[2tonic]

Shouldn't a '76 have a micro-tilt 3 screw neck and a bullet truss rod?
Or was that only the Jazz bass.
My '75 and '76 Jazz basses have both.

 

[Amano]

Shouldn't a '76 have a micro-tilt 3 screw neck and a bullet truss rod?
Or was that only the Jazz bass.
My '75 and '76 Jazz basses have both.

Only jazzbasses. Changed to four bold neckplate again around 82.

 

[Texaspandj]

I'm not too fond of the wood look BUT bitd, the first bass I ever lusted for was a '70s wood grain P-bass. I was inspired by the album cover Look out for #1 by the Brothers Johnson. It's the only woodgrain I'd ever want.
That bass looks C double O L. You gotta get it.

 

[Bleecker]

Looks like you got your answers, you can use the non-original parts to your advantage. Cool bass in any case...

Good luck, I hope it works out for you!

 

[Bleecker]

its a mid 70's P - the pickguard, knobs, and strap buttons are not original. Depending on the price, i would clean it up and rock the eff out of it.

...you'd end up with an _ender P-bass...

 

[RedMoses]

Ive played many 70's Fenders that were junk and terribly heavy but i have played a few that were truly amazing! I owned a '76 Jazz for a few years, it was a terrific sounding and playing instrument but on the heavy side, i ended up selling it to fund a pre owned Pensa bass, that was better in every way but more $ at the time. You ARE paying for the fact that it is vintage Fender, not necessarily that it is good.

The best thing to do is get your hands on it, if it makes you feel something then its the right one but if its not really inspiring i would walk away unless its a good deal and you can flip it if you grow tired of it. Many of the good 70's Fenders have had the hell played out of them so the frets are very low and need to be redone, if that is the case with this one and you dont absolutely love it i would pass otherwise you should expect to put a few hundred dollars more into playability.

 

[JMacBass65]

Yep, the headstock and tuners are legit. Pickguard is not original, they would be black that year.

Those dome top brass knobs are not original. It would have had flattop chrome knobs.

its a mid 70's P - the pickguard, knobs, and strap buttons are not original. Depending on the price, i would clean it up and rock the eff out of it.

All of that above!

Ive played many 70's Fenders that were junk and terribly heavy but i have played a few that were truly amazing! I owned a '76 Jazz for a few years, it was a terrific sounding and playing instrument but on the heavy side, i ended up selling it to fund a pre owned Pensa bass, that was better in every way but more $ at the time. You ARE paying for the fact that it is vintage Fender, not necessarily that it is good.

The best thing to do is get your hands on it, if it makes you feel something then its the right one but if its not really inspiring i would walk away unless its a good deal and you can flip it if you grow tired of it. Many of the good 70's Fenders have had the hell played out of them so the frets are very low and need to be redone, if that is the case with this one and you dont absolutely love it i would pass otherwise you should expect to put a few hundred dollars more into playability.

This is a great response. I see 70s fenders going for absurd prices, and for the most part, I don't get it. Don't pay through the nose for this just because it's old, it might not be worth the money.

Having said that, I own a 78 Fretless P that I got a few years ago. If you had told me before I bought it that I'd buy a precision, let alone 70s one, in natural, and Fretless, I'd have called you mad (never cared for natural, ditched Fretless decades before, and was strictly a jazz bass guy). But I stumbled into guitar center, and picked it up only because it was Fretless and I hadn't played one in decades. It was a reasonable weight, and it played like butter. Had typical 70s mods, BAII bridge, brass nut. They wanted $900, I offered $700, we met at $800. It's loads of fun and I bring it to most figs for a few songs.

My point is, make sure it speaks to you, don't get sucked in to the "vintage" thing. Good luck.

 

[prom311]

That basement is legit 70's. The blue junk hanging from the ceiling is period-correct and has appropriate age wear.

Definitely a sign of things to come.

Oh my goodness, that A string Must. Put. In. Saddle. Slot.

Yup, the A string was broke by the time i went to see the bass.

 

[prom311]

So I went to check out his bass and it certainly does exist and looks mostly legit but this was a hard pass for me. There was some questions about it but not so much the bass itself as much due to the proprietors being less than reputable. It's hard to accurately describe the situation but I just happened to be in town(about 2 hours from where i was staying) and wasnt able to come by until about 11PM. It wasnt the best neighboorhood, it was late, didnt help that I ate some edibles earlier in the night. When I pulled up a guy jumped out of the trailer off to the side, ran into the house, and then back to the trailer and grabbed the bass. This was weird already since I thought the person i talked to online was supposedly a woman not a man. I got out of the car but it was too dark to see anything and he called me over to the trailer to look at the bass. He handed it to me and the first thing I noticed was how much of a heavy monstrosity this thing was. Way heavier than i could imagine. We walked into the trailer and there's tools and junk all over the place. I spent more time watching my back to make sure i didnt get jumped from behind and robbed or raped than i could checking the bass out especially when he said his buddy was coming to talk about it. This guy obviously didnt know anything about basses and couldn't really tell me anything about it. When I asked where he got it he said, "You dont want to know" which later turned into a bumbling they "found" it somewhere. I went out back towards the car which was just sitting on in the street with my gf in the car when the buddy walked up. I couldnt tell me much either other than it's expensive and there was another "guitar expert" buddy with "a bunch of amps and stuff" who knew even more but wasnt available till the next day. They both acted super weird and the whole thing was extremely shady. I was planning on trying to do venmo or paypal and and super glad i didnt have bring much cash with me. To me it screamed stolen bass and I dont need any bad karma.

Besides the weirdness, the bass itself had a ton of discoloration in the middle of the neck that you cant see in the pics. And like i said before it was ungodly heavy like it was made out of lead and not wood. Unfortunately i didnt get to play it. One of the strings was broken but was pretty much more concerened with getting outta there than testing the bass out. It wasnt meant to be this time

 

[BurningSkies]

So I went to check out his bass and it certainly does exist and looks mostly legit but this was a hard pass for me. There was some questions about it but not so much the bass itself as much due to the proprietors being less than reputable. It's hard to accurately describe the situation but I just happened to be in town(about 2 hours from where i was staying) and wasnt able to come by until about 11PM. It wasnt the best neighboorhood, it was late, didnt help that I ate some edibles earlier in the night. When I pulled up a guy jumped out of the trailer off to the side, ran into the house, and then back to the trailer and grabbed the bass. This was weird already since I thought the person i talked to online was supposedly a woman not a man. I got out of the car but it was too dark to see anything and he called me over to the trailer to look at the bass. He handed it to me and the first thing I noticed was how much of a heavy monstrosity this thing was. Way heavier than i could imagine. We walked into the trailer and there's tools and junk all over the place. I spent more time watching my back to make sure i didnt get jumped from behind and robbed or raped than i could checking the bass out especially when he said his buddy was coming to talk about it. This guy obviously didnt know anything about basses and couldn't really tell me anything about it. When I asked where he got it he said, "You dont want to know" which later turned into a bumbling they "found" it somewhere. I went out back towards the car which was just sitting on in the street with my gf in the car when the buddy walked up. I couldnt tell me much either other than it's expensive and there was another "guitar expert" buddy with "a bunch of amps and stuff" who knew even more but wasnt available till the next day. They both acted super weird and the whole thing was extremely shady. I was planning on trying to do venmo or paypal and and super glad i didnt have bring much cash with me. To me it screamed stolen bass and I dont need any bad karma.

Besides the weirdness, the bass itself had a ton of discoloration in the middle of the neck that you cant see in the pics. And like i said before it was ungodly heavy like it was made out of lead and not wood. Unfortunately i didnt get to play it. One of the strings was broken but was pretty much more concerened with getting outta there than testing the bass out. It wasnt meant to be this time

Sounds like a good situation to dodge.