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To play,or collect??

#4
I would play the hell out of it if it was a good playing/sounding bass.

Unfortunately, many of the mint 70's Fenders are mint for a reason... Many of them are terrible basses.

I owned a '77 Jazz until last year that was very similar to the '73 in question. It was likely mint due to being almost 13lbs and having super low output pickups. It was not a good bass by any stretch.
 
#8
Baird6869 said:
Unfortunately, many of the mint 70's Fenders are mint for a reason... Many of them are terrible basses.
Click to expand...

I hear this all the time and I'm almost ready to start calling BS every time I hear it.

Why? Because every 70's Fender I've ever played or owned has been a great experience and I've played and owned quite a few.

As for the OP's original question, hell yes - play it. :)
 
#11
In a band I played in, the keyboardist (and some-time bass player) had that identical Jazz bass. Everybody else in the band (not bass players themselves) raved over this hold grail of MIA Fender bass-dom. I eventually got around to trying it (playing a Ric 4001 at the time) and I gotta tell 'ya, it was the heaviest, worst playing bass I've ever played. I couldn't even make it through 1 song and I had to put it down, couldn't stand playing it.

Like many of the 70's era Fenders, this line was really cool looking. But that's where it ends for me. Lotta $$$...too much $$$...to leave sitting around, while playing some MIM or MIJ also-ran, because it plays soooo much better. JMO...
 
#14
I currently have 5 - 70s' Fenders; 3 precisions, 2 Jazz
Some are heavy, 2 have weak pups (although very nice tone) and 2 have necks that suck

Question about playing vs collecting is purely based on your finances
If you have cash to burn; play it
If you want it to maintain or potentialy become more valuable; collect; seemed like vyer bad judgement for the owner to replace the strings

For that kind of cash, wouldn't buying something like a Sadowsky make more sense for a player?
Seems to me that the finish, playability, tone, etc would be better for less $$ and the only difference would be the headstock decal
 
#16
millsbass5 said:
Check out this beauty!! A brand new *MINT*,un-purchased,unplayed '73 Fender J-Bass!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/1973-MINT-Fende...QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item2a0384ced6

So,would you play the livin' hell out of it?? Or,would you encase it in something and just put it on display??

I know what I'd do!!:bassist:
Click to expand...

Being a true "time capsule" piece, the desire to store it would be great. If it were a player's bass and had some symptoms of being played, I would play it. But to take this out to a gig or the studio and be the first bonehead who put the first mark (or worse) on a 27-year-old perfect specimen with all original case candy seems wrong from my collector's point of view. I'm sure I have several used, gigged basses in my arsenal that sound just as good, so why take a risk on reducing the resale value?
 
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#18
A friend of mine just bought a mid seventies jazz. He LOVES it because of the 'vibe'. Complains every day though about truss rod rattle that drives him nuts, and he originally thought there was something wrong with the electronics because of the horribly low output. When he found out this was the way they were made and that was all part of the 'vibe' of it, he decided he loved it. Took him a while of course to figure how to dial in that perfect tone that works.

Another friend of mine (drummer) has a 74 Jazz that he keeps singing praises about. I aked him to take it to a rehearsal cuz I'd love to play it. "vibe" and "vintage" mean nothing to me and I swear this was one of the most horrible feeling and sounding basses I ever picked up. Even the owner who loves it had to admit my HS Stingray made this thing look and feel like a sorry old beat up chunk of wood that's seen it's day. didn't need his little EQ box and fiddling with knobs to get a good sound with the stingray. It had hundreds of them in comparison to the jazz that might have had 1 if I was willing to work at it hard enough.

Okay, I hate fessin up to this one, but about 10 or 11 yrs ago a guy I work with gave me a 76 P bass to see if I wanted to buy it. It had some severe neck issues. I think it was warped. I shimmed it and did everything I could but couldn't get any kind of action I liked. He told me he'd give it to me for $100. I took it. I sold it for $300. :crying: What can I say... it was like 2 days before these things started going for stupid money, or 2 days before I found out about it anyway. IMO the bass was complete crap and unplayable. Felt like I was ripping off the friend who bought it for $300.

Forgot to mention that my first friend above also has a mid seventies P bass that he's probably spent over $1000 on trying to relieve it's neck issues. New frets, setups, strings, that weighted thing you clip to the headstock... still has dead notes and problems he can't get rid.

I never played an old fender bass that I liked one bit, although I'm sure they exist.

I don't get it. If someone says they want them for collectors purposes, maybe it makes sense. If they pay crazy money because they think they're great basses, I don't get it.

I'd leave that Fender in it's case, or part it out. :)
 
#19
Baird6869 said:
Unfortunately, many of the mint 70's Fenders are mint for a reason... Many of them are terrible basses.

I owned a '77 Jazz until last year that was very similar to the '73 in question. It was likely mint due to being almost 13lbs and having super low output pickups. It was not a good bass by any stretch.
Click to expand...

Many 70s Fenders are wonderful basses. My 76 Jazz weigh around 8 pounds, and has the best sounding Jazz pickups I've heard. You can easily ask a seller about weight, and if the neck is straight then it will likely be a great bass.
 

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