Yes, well played. The headstock of Klaus’ bass looks quite similar.
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SHOW YOUR DISTRESSED FINISHES!
- Thread starter JIO
- Start date
Yes, well played. The headstock of Klaus’ bass looks quite similar.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,618
- 222,151
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Spectacular example. I would bet factory refin 1965ish- finish looks totally like a Fender finish but Ocean Turquoise was not available until '65 and it has a post '64 plastic rather than celluloid pickguard. And '62s with matching headstocks are very scarce (is interesting that it has an earlier decal though).
That bass was a formative influence... I lived with the Dead Kennedys' manager, Paul Rat, as a roommate circa 1983-84. Wild times.
There was "Teal Green Metallic" which like Ocean Turquoise was an early CBS color. The Teal is super rare - I've never seen a real one (I have seen a number of Ocean Turquoise). The Teal is sometimes confused with Blue Ice Metallic (also a really nice color from the same date range) with yellowed clearcoat. The CBS stuff gets slagged a lot but many of the early ones were great and they introduced some really cool colors - all these but I also think of Charcoal Frost Metallic.
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
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- John K Custom Basses
It's interesting. According to Vintage Guitar (Fender Custom Colors in the 1960s), the name Ocean Turquoise Metallic was first used by Ford in 1962 (Dupont 4285-L) which is distinct from Fender's Ocean Turquoise Metallic (Dupont 4692-L). It's also known that Fender would do custom colors prior to them ever becoming part of their product line. I'm not confirming that's the case here as I don't know, but it could have been a customer request that later became part of their color line in 65 as the color was in existence in 62, and it could go to explain the early logo.
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That's true that Fender would do true custom colors - though I since did a reverse image search and see the bass was on gbase (and Reverb earlier) and was listed as "an older refin" - so while it looks like a Fender finish, perhaps it was by someone else or the decal is a later repro replacement. Great looking bass IMO regardless.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,618
- 222,151
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
I gotta say I'm pleased-as-punch (what does that mean anyway?) that there's been an injection of energy/envolvement into my thread - the recent pics you all have posted are spectacular examples of our focus here. It's exactly what I hoped for starting it (now) 7 years ago! And welcome @johnk_10 for joining in on the fun! This thread is at its best is when it works on the level of wonderful images and great historic background reference related to products used etc. Keep it up!
Does it count as distressed when most of it is just gone? New to me '69 Tele Bass.
Great idea to do the reverse image search. I was able to relocate it as well. Many times I'm looking for images late at night and half asleep on my phone. When I find them, I save them and post here. Sometimes - many times - I don't remember the exact details of the bass and may not remember where I found the images. A simple check through my history could have resolved the questions, but I appreciate you checking and now I have a new tool to check images sources.
Thanks JIO for starting this thread. I'm new to it, and love the pics and info.
Question for sneha1965?
That 62 green Jazz bass, it's not yours right? Your posting cool pics of bass you find on line correct?
I'm just wondering about the neck. It seems way darker than the Jazz basses I've had.
Is it made of a different wood? Could it be mahogany or something? A darker wood, or are my
eyes just fooling me. Great bass!
Dynacord- so Fender Bass Guitars were painted with auto paint? Interesting.
Have any of you guys figured out a way to put the thumb rest on the other side of the strings on
an older Jazz Bass.I don't want to screw something up, but would love to switch mine around.
I was at a music store that had a new Fender bass with the thumb rest on the E string side.
( I think it was a mustang bass)
Question for sneha1965?
That 62 green Jazz bass, it's not yours right? Your posting cool pics of bass you find on line correct?
I'm just wondering about the neck. It seems way darker than the Jazz basses I've had.
Is it made of a different wood? Could it be mahogany or something? A darker wood, or are my
eyes just fooling me. Great bass!
Dynacord- so Fender Bass Guitars were painted with auto paint? Interesting.
Have any of you guys figured out a way to put the thumb rest on the other side of the strings on
an older Jazz Bass.I don't want to screw something up, but would love to switch mine around.
I was at a music store that had a new Fender bass with the thumb rest on the E string side.
( I think it was a mustang bass)
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,618
- 222,151
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Classic Fender colours & the cars that they were derived from - PIC HEAVY :)
Some (not very many) vintage P bass bodies were made from mahogany but I'm not aware of a mahogany J. Sometimes on a very player-worn alder or ash bass the exposed wood gets darker from skin-oils/dirt/time and looks dark because of it. Those doing relic-finishes will stain the wood to approximate such.
You can position the rest wherever you wish - it just comes down to making your bass playable in the best way for you regardless of it being vintage. Back in the transition days (late '60s-early '70s) many players re-positioned it until Fender addressed their needs by positioning it above the E-string.
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- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,618
- 222,151
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Works for me - one could consider a 'de-finished' bass as being technically distressed... besides that, player wear (evident) is always acceptable here!
On that Ocean Turquoise one (yes, automotive paint - Gibson did this too), it's a regular maple neck with Brazilian rosewood fingerboard. The maple is darker just as the nitro lacquer has heavily yellowed - usually due to UV and/or nicotine, etc. The maple itself can darken with age and exposure, too.
On moving the thumb rest, if your bass has an original pickguard, I would STRONGLY encourage you not to drill any extra holes into it - just that part alone, if original, can be worth $500+ (I just anchor my thumb on the pickups or the edge of the neck) I have seen some people make their own thumb rests which used one of the existing pickguard screw holes and the hole for the chrome pickup cover on the E string side of the neck pickup. The idea is to make it as reversible as possible.
