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McCartney: identify this bass
- Thread starter ryco
- Start date
The binding, block inlays and oval tuning pegs are all mid-'60s features, introduced by CBS once they bought over Fender. The binding and oval pegs started to appear around '65, but the block inlays came in '66, so my guess is it's either a '66 or a '67 with all those features combined, or possibly a very early '68 from before they started to slowly phase out the oval pegs.
If I recall, I had read the Beatles were given a fat stack of fender products to try to get their endorsement sometime around 67. I think that’s when Paul got the lefty j bass.
Was any actual bass used on Helter Skelter? I thought it was all Bass VI?
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
- 12,122
- 16,796
- Disclosures
- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
- 12,122
- 16,796
- Disclosures
- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
It's called a Jazz bass and was made by a company called Fender. You're welcome. 
Yeah I was wondering what I’m missing hereIt's called a Jazz bass and was made by a company called Fender. You're welcome.
I always kind of suspected the only reason he played a Ric ws because they gave him a custom lefty, though he did play it through the 70's with Wing. Now all he plays is a Hofner, full circle.
He said in an interview that he liked the Wal and other basses. The Hofner had some intonation problems as they do so he stopped playing it but that's what people expected to see him with and Elvis Costello convicted him to go back to it . So they fixed the intonation and he went back to playing it.
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Fender's Don Randall finally got the Beatles to accept a free consignment of Fender gear in July 1968.
songwriter21
I have an obsession for wood. The musical kind.
They all came standard with those chrome covers. The big one with the Fender F on it was commonly called "the ash-tray" cover because you could take it off, turn it over and use it as a communal ash-tray.
My 1965 Jazz and my 1982 Jazz both came with them. I was working part-time at a music store when I went back to college in 1985 and a fellow traded in what was to become "my white lady" for an active Aria Pro II bass. The Jazz was in mint condition and both covers were still in their plastic bags in the bass guitar case. Guy who took it in trade immediately pulled them out of the bass case and put them in the accessory display case for sale separately from the bass. I bought the bass but never got those chrome covers and I never missed them. I like being able to move my plucking hand back and forth as needed to get a brighter sound (move towards or over the bridge pickup) or a darker sound (pluck closer to or over the heel of the neck) as needed, when needed.
I pulled the neck chrome cover off my 1965 Jazz back in the 60's because it was in an uncomfortable place for me at the time. Kept the big ash-tray cover on because I thought it looked cool. Hadn't figured out yet about the ability to change my sound by where I plucked the strings.
My '65 Jazz in late 1971 or early 1972 playing through my Standel amp (peaking out behind our guitarist [RIP]):
My 1982 Jazz:
Of course it's a Jazz. 1966 or later Jazz would look like that, although that one was reportedly a 1968 Jazz. The '66 Jazz was the first one to come out with the bar fret markers and the white binding standard, but it had the lollipop tuners as opposed to the clover tuners on that bass. The lollipop tuners didn't stay around long as you can see on his '68 Jazz.
Somebody with way too much time on their hands made that video. Why do people even care about this stuff? 
John played the Beatles' Bass VI on that song while Paul played guitar.
