The 1st ever made Precision Bass

[Dark Horse]

you need to take a lighter to that pickguard

actually that's a pretty good job of relic'ing, dh. at least it looks more natural than most.

Thanks - I tried to make it a "lesser worn" version of the 53. I keep trying to improve with every bass. Gonna be a while till I get one to look exactly like that 53, but I'll get there eventually.

 

[Dark Horse]

you need to take a lighter to that pickguard

BTW, here's a close up of the pickguard -

Link Removed

 

[A-Step-Towards]

how come there is no American Vintage 51 P bass? there are only the japan models and then it jumps to custom shop.

 

[marchone]

It's a really good job.

 

[darkstorm]

I thought I had read that Leo did destroy it and that he himself said it ws pretty terrible. Still hadnt got to comfortable neck or somesuch. I really dont think the first one is important. O maybe the first batch made that where for sale to musicians looking to buy one of these new fangled things for playing music with. But not the trial and error ones made before that. Imo.

 

[mikeswals]

Here is the picture I took of serial# 14

 

[johnk_10]

when i had my shop in La Habra (1985-1999) a customer came in with a slab body P bass that had a three digit serial number stamped on the bridge plate. its serial number was 001!

i don't know if that meant it was the actual first one, but it very well may have been. the customer told me that his father worked at fender when the first started building guitars and amps on harbor blvd and commonwealth in fullerton, CA.

unfortunately, his father had all of the hardware (pickup covers, machine heads, bridge & neck plate) re-plated with copper plating. the neck had been amateurly shaved way too thin, and the body reshaped, sawed in half and had a walnut stringer running down the middle of it. i told him that the bass was way past any sort of 'restoration', so i just restrung it and adjusted it for him, and after that it still didn't play very well. i actually wanted to buy the bridge from him since i'd heard that they never had three digit serial numbers, but this one did, and it wasn't 'restamped', just replated. all of the original parts were there, but it was really sad to see #1 end up this way.

 

[EAdanikDG]

This is it right here:

I swear. Wanna buy it?

Of course i do, especially since the '51 basses had a single coil pickup that looked like a strat pickup and Tele style headstock among other things...

 

[smcd]

Depends on what one considers low. I was offered a stack knob Jazz in the early 80's for $2500 which was a bunch of money at the time.

$2,500 for that bass at that time was crazy high. For that dough you could have bought a mid-50's Telecaster that would now be worth twice what a stack knob Jazz is worth today.

 

[tombowlus]

when i had my shop in La Habra (1985-1999) a customer came in with a slab body P bass that had a three digit serial number stamped on the bridge plate. its serial number was 001!

i don't know if that meant it was the actual first one, but it very well may have been. the customer told me that his father worked at fender when the first started building guitars and amps on harbor blvd and commonwealth in fullerton, CA.

unfortunately, his father had all of the hardware (pickup covers, machine heads, bridge & neck plate) re-plated with copper plating. the neck had been amateurly shaved way too thin, and the body reshaped, sawed in half and had a walnut stringer running down the middle of it. i told him that the bass was way past any sort of 'restoration', so i just restrung it and adjusted it for him, and after that it still didn't play very well. i actually wanted to buy the bridge from him since i'd heard that they never had three digit serial numbers, but this one did, and it wasn't 'restamped', just replated. all of the original parts were there, but it was really sad to see #1 end up this way.

About 2/3 through this post, I was really hoping that it would turn out that you were joking.

That is just a sad, sad story...

 

[FunkMetalBass]

Looking at Dark Horse's pictures...


Why in the hell did Fender get away from side jacks and string-thru bodies? That 51 looks better constructed than anything I've seen from that company in 40 years. Top-loading and front jacks are probably the two biggest reasons that I wont buy a Fender.

 

[mikeswals]

Early on Fender kept having issues of people pulling the side-mounted jack cups out of the bodies.
During that time, the cups were simple knurled cups that pressed into the wood. The fancy spreader mechanism type cups didn't exist till alot later.

 

[Brad Johnson]

i don't care how rich you are...$2500 is still a lot of money!

Bflat, that's a really hot collection of original precisions! didn't you post a thread of the restoration of that first one a few years ago? i seem to recall that was a really ugly duckling when you first got it, unless of course i'm confusing you with someone else.

No, it's not. Maybe you meant you don't care how rich you are. Some people spend that much on a suit... or even less.

 

[Ricks Fine 52]

Here's mine, early '52, #387. I also have a '53 #1400

 

[Bear_Bass]

i thought John Entwistle (r.i.p.) had it?

 

[punkinfantry]

No, it's not. Maybe you meant you don't care how rich you are. Some people spend that much on a suit... or even less.

i spend that much every week on different basses for metal but i can never find the right one...

 

[Coolhandjjl]

Actually Fender started in 1946, making lap steels.....

Actually, Leo began as Fender Repair Service in 1938. Ironically, they repaired Rickenbacker amps from that period.

Francis Hall (who would later buy Rickenbacker in 1953), owned one of the largest electronics distributor in So Cal during that period, Radio and Television Equipment Company and used the Fender Repair Service.

Leo formed Fender Electric Instruments Co in 1946, and Francis Hall became Fender's exclusive distributor for Leo's new lap steels and amps. Hall was a marketing wizard and is chiefly responsible for financing and getting Fender off the ground as a musical instrument manufacturer. There are many stories about Leo sending Francis boxes of instruments with worms coming out of the wood, guitars where someone forgot to route and install pickups, etc, etc. Getting tired of that, Francis Hall wanted total control of the product chain. He came across Adolph Rickenbacker who owned Electro String Company, manufacturer of Rickenbacker Electro String Instruments. Hall bought it in 1953 (The Hall's still own Ric.)

The look of Rics today is a direct result of guitar builders Roger Rossmeisl and Paul Barth, and even more irony, Roger Rossmeisl worked for Leo for a time as well.

There was so much cross-pollination going on back then, like a bunch of in-bred hillbillies.

 

[SJLee]

John Entwistle possibly had the earliest known/recorded '51's on record. I don't remember the serial number but, it was one of the first 20 made IIRC. It can be found in his book Bass Culture: The John Entwistle Guitar Collection.

 

[tojge]

Why in the hell did Fender get away from side jacks and string-thru bodies? That 51 looks better constructed than anything I've seen from that company in 40 years. Top-loading and front jacks are probably the two biggest reasons that I wont buy a Fender.

Without wanting to derail an awesome thread, or be a general smart-a$$, it's not like side jacks and string-thru bodies have never been seen again on a production Fender model I mean, if those are your MAIN reasons for not buying one, well... see attached file.

Now, don't get me started on slab bodies...

 

[king_biscuit]

when i had my shop in La Habra (1985-1999) a customer came in with a slab body P bass that had a three digit serial number stamped on the bridge plate. its serial number was 001!

i don't know if that meant it was the actual first one, but it very well may have been. the customer told me that his father worked at fender when the first started building guitars and amps on harbor blvd and commonwealth in fullerton, CA.

unfortunately, his father had all of the hardware (pickup covers, machine heads, bridge & neck plate) re-plated with copper plating. the neck had been amateurly shaved way too thin, and the body reshaped, sawed in half and had a walnut stringer running down the middle of it. i told him that the bass was way past any sort of 'restoration', so i just restrung it and adjusted it for him, and after that it still didn't play very well. i actually wanted to buy the bridge from him since i'd heard that they never had three digit serial numbers, but this one did, and it wasn't 'restamped', just replated. all of the original parts were there, but it was really sad to see #1 end up this way.

Oh that is just sad!