I just scored a 1966 p-bass its a little rough but.... does anyone know what colors were put on the basses that year , mine seems to be a natural finish and a white pickguard.
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Need help with 1966 P-Bass
- Thread starter Mike Maher
- Start date
Sunburst finishes were the most common, I suspect this was refinished, probably years ago by the looks of it. Very common in the 70's to strip off finishes for that natural look. It was a hippie thing.
Assuming it's otherwise original, you may just want to leave it stripped and rock that thing. A proper professional refinish is pretty pricey. If it's structurally sound, if it were me I'd just play and enjoy it.
i kinda like the worn relic look myself im cleaning it a little now i just got home with it a couple hours ago, i had to drive 9 hours round trip to get it !
Fender didn't offer natural finish back then. The bass started it's life most probably as a 3-color sunburst and was refinished quite some time ago. It looks nice as it is, I'd leave it like that, possibly replacing the pickguard with a period correct tort.
Look under the pick guard to see if there are remnants of other color.
You can check in the neck pocket or cavity to see if any original color is still there, but barring that your best guess would be sunburst.
That’s not the original finish or pickguard.
In ‘66 the vast majority were sunburst with a tortoiseshell pickguard, which was the standard color scheme. Custom colors were most often black, white, candy apple red. Custom colors came with a white pickguard, but your pickguard isn’t original to that bass and it’s likely not a Fender guard. It looks like a single ply and has thumb rest holes.
If you take the neck off, you may find traces of original finish.
In ‘66 the vast majority were sunburst with a tortoiseshell pickguard, which was the standard color scheme. Custom colors were most often black, white, candy apple red. Custom colors came with a white pickguard, but your pickguard isn’t original to that bass and it’s likely not a Fender guard. It looks like a single ply and has thumb rest holes.
If you take the neck off, you may find traces of original finish.
It could be original, I don't remember if white was offered in 1966, but it could have been replaced later on.
Tort looks good on everything
If you wanted to keep that white pickguard, a solid color would look good, assuming you don't just leave it natural.
Crap! Really? Thought it was just me.
You may want to replace the pickguard, just because it is broken, and not original anyway. IMO a vintage tort would look killer on this body.
