Hey all!
A friend is offering a bass for sale that he believes is a '58/'59 Precision. It plays and sounds great and I'm thinking of buying it, but I neither want to shortchange my friend if he's got something worth a lot of money, nor pay too much for the bass if it's not justified. Here's what he's told me...
The bass was refinished before he bought it -- natural wood finish. Neck date is not there. I don't know about a body date. The neck plate says 61974.
The pickups, pots, pickguard and decal are all replacements. He has what he believes are the original pickups (level pole pieces) and pickguard (gold anodized).
Maple fingerboard, reverse tuners.
It seems to me that it's simple enough to replace a neck plate and, without the neck date, body date or original pots, establishing the bass's provenance might be impossible.
What do you all think? Might there be a way to date this bass that I'm unaware of? Failing knowing the date, is it's value just as a really nice player?
A friend is offering a bass for sale that he believes is a '58/'59 Precision. It plays and sounds great and I'm thinking of buying it, but I neither want to shortchange my friend if he's got something worth a lot of money, nor pay too much for the bass if it's not justified. Here's what he's told me...
The bass was refinished before he bought it -- natural wood finish. Neck date is not there. I don't know about a body date. The neck plate says 61974.
The pickups, pots, pickguard and decal are all replacements. He has what he believes are the original pickups (level pole pieces) and pickguard (gold anodized).
Maple fingerboard, reverse tuners.
It seems to me that it's simple enough to replace a neck plate and, without the neck date, body date or original pots, establishing the bass's provenance might be impossible.
What do you all think? Might there be a way to date this bass that I'm unaware of? Failing knowing the date, is it's value just as a really nice player?
