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To play,or collect??
- Thread starter millsbass5
- Start date
Agreed.
If I wanted a perfect NOS Fender P/J bass to play I'd buy a new Custom Shop one.
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.
Joe, most 70s Fenders are not going for crazy money. You can get a mid 70s P for a little more than a brand new one. I agree that EB basses are well made -- I have four Stingrays, and have had around 15 of them. But they are totally different animals than passive Fenders. I can see where someone might totally dig an active bass like a Ray, and think that a nice passive bass sounds weak or bad, but I can also see how another person may prefer the passive instrument and feel that the active bass is too compressed and processed sounding -- it really depends on what you are going for. I worked in a music store for about 10 years in the 80s/90s and had the opportunity to play and work on many basses and many 70s Fenders. Most of them just needed a proper setup to be fine basses -- like modern Fenders. This is not directed at you Joe, but I'm not really surprised that the same contingent here on TB that believe you have to try dozens of late model Fenders to find a good one also repeat the same tired cliche about all of the 70s instruments. Sure the routs weren't as crisp as modern instruments, and many were heavy, but like modern instruments, most just need a proper setup to be fine instruments. Find a light weight Fender with a straight neck, and it will likely be a great bass once properly setup. As far as the weak pickups, 60s/70s Fenders pickups were not wound as hot as modern passive pickups and certainly not as hot as EB pickups. To me that is one reason they sound great.
"Most of them just needed a proper setup to be fine basses -- like modern Fenders."
AGREED!!! my first bass was a seventies fender pbass and it became a local legend and got me a ton of work. bought new from GC, dropped off at LEO QUAN's shop in downtown SF, who set it up with a BA bridge and brass nut. i picked out a set of active d'marzios and installed 'em when i got home. my then teacher FREAKED over that bass then and even my young friend who owns it now just called me last week raving about it. that bass helped feed my family for two decades! when i retired i sold it to THAT very good friend who was "up and coming". maybe i lucked-out, but wasn't the seventies the start of the active pup revolution?
anyway, in defense of fender, i recently bought three jbasses as my son has just started gigging. i took him "bass shopping" to pick what he liked,... he choose fender and i laughed-out-loud!!! he calls me after every show to tell of compliments he get from other bassists about his tone.
BTW, if i had the bass in question i'd store it. i have old comics and action figures that haven't been touched!!!
ps: the only caveat with the pbass,.... THAT SUCKER WAS HEAVY!!! i actually started lifting weights to get through the long shows! gl.
AGREED!!! my first bass was a seventies fender pbass and it became a local legend and got me a ton of work. bought new from GC, dropped off at LEO QUAN's shop in downtown SF, who set it up with a BA bridge and brass nut. i picked out a set of active d'marzios and installed 'em when i got home. my then teacher FREAKED over that bass then and even my young friend who owns it now just called me last week raving about it. that bass helped feed my family for two decades! when i retired i sold it to THAT very good friend who was "up and coming". maybe i lucked-out, but wasn't the seventies the start of the active pup revolution?
anyway, in defense of fender, i recently bought three jbasses as my son has just started gigging. i took him "bass shopping" to pick what he liked,... he choose fender and i laughed-out-loud!!! he calls me after every show to tell of compliments he get from other bassists about his tone.
BTW, if i had the bass in question i'd store it. i have old comics and action figures that haven't been touched!!!
ps: the only caveat with the pbass,.... THAT SUCKER WAS HEAVY!!! i actually started lifting weights to get through the long shows! gl.
Looks like the 1976 Jazz I bought from Manny's Music. At least for this price you get the whole bass and a case. Investment piece for them. At this price, I'd look for an old String Bass that needs a home.
Yeah, I have to laugh about all the sudden enthu$ia$m for late-'60s - '70s Fenders, which you couldn't give away not too many years ago. I just got through putting away a '73 Fender P a few minutes ago. It's OK, but nothing special.
A mint '73 is pure collector stuff. Lots better players since.
BUT...a great find!
Do you also laugh at the people paying 10k plus for early 60s Fenders? What about people paying 250k for late 50s burst Les Pauls? 50k for a Batman comic? 10k for a diamond ring? Now where was that smug emoticon?
oh there it is:
An awesome '73 Jazz temporarily passed through my hands very recently...one of the best playing Jazzes I've had the pleasure of using. An overseas TB'er bought it and had me forward it to him overseas. But I got to play it at a couple practices, and this thing smoked! Light alder body/maple fretboard, just begged to be slapped. The tone just jumped and resonated off that thing.
Great old basses out there do exist.
Great old basses out there do exist.
i would not pay alot more cash for a mint bass if i planned on playing the crap out if it i would get a beat up bass instead.
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!!
What did Leo invent it for? Follow Flea's example.
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I'd never pay 5K for that bass. Sorry but I'm guessing its heavy as hell, and I'm not a fan of the seventies era Fenders. I'd much rather have an older P or J Bass that had been played throughout the years if I was looking for true vintage.
I would play and record with it. Like they said earlier many 70's fender basses sucked but up till about 73 they were still good. When 75 hit is when they started becoming heavy pieces of ****.
Dude, no offense, but I see from your profile that you are 22 years old, so you were not even alive yet in 1975. I have no doubt you have played a Fender or two you didn't like, but I'll bet your statement is based almost exclusively on stuff you have read on the internet. The fact is that many mid and late 70s Fenders were lightweight -- I have a 76 J that is eight pounds -- and many sound wonderful.
He's not wrong. Fender products started going downhill fast after '72. Not all Fenders were bad, but from my experience, and I'm well over 22, most Fenders were fair to poor quality instruments in the mid-late 70's. Fenders from that era have a well deserved bad reputation.
Actually Fender products started going downhill in the late 60's after the CBS takeover. While the buyout was in '65 iirc, there was a bit of a "grace period" with leftover components and talent.
I don't believe in collecting *anything*. Except maybe ex-wives. If I pay my money for something, I want to use it. If I don't end up using it, I sell it or give it away. And in fact I'm constantly looking around my apt at my stuff seeing what I can get rid of. The idea of taking something that was made to be used (bass, guitar, car, watch, etc) and putting it in a safe or a closet just rubs me the wrong way. Leo Fender didn't design his instruments to be put in a safe. Ferdinand Porsche didn't design his cars to sit in a museum. Tools are made to be used.
I don't believe in collecting *anything*. Except maybe ex-wives. If I pay my money for something, I want to use it. If I don't end up using it, I sell it or give it away. And in fact I'm constantly looking around my apt at my stuff seeing what I can get rid of. The idea of taking something that was made to be used (bass, guitar, car, watch, etc) and putting it in a safe or a closet just rubs me the wrong way. Leo Fender didn't design his instruments to be put in a safe. Ferdinand Porsche didn't design his cars to sit in a museum. Tools are made to be used.
Well I happen to disagree with him and you, plenty of good 70s Fenders out there, but I suspect the ones being bought and sold over and over are not the best of the bunch. And I too am well over 22.
As the saying goes, "even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in awhile."
I worked at Guitar Center back in the late 70's (meaning I'm likely a little over 22). The "great" newer Fenders from that era were few and far between. They did exist, but it wasn't the norm.
3 bolt neck? Just say no...
I doubt any blind squirrels have lived long enough to find anything -- natural selection and all that... As far as the three bolt neck, I prefer a four bolt, but my three bolt 76 works fine. Leo carried this over to Musicman and G & L. I'm not saying 70s instruments were perfect, but neither were 60s, 80s, 90s, 00s, etc... I keep saying this, but a Fender bass is not all that complicated; one only needs to find a light one with a straight neck, and I know here are plenty out there from the 70s that match that description.
My real point here is that much of the anti 70s Fender rhetoric that goes on nearly non stop on TB is from people that have probably played no more than one or two actual basses from the 70s; not exactly a representative sample!
wrt rhetoric you could be right - many opinions on the interwebs are based on hearsay, but in my experience there aren't "plenty" of light/straight 70's Fenders out there. Depending of course on your definitions of plenty and light. They do exist, but they weren't the rule.
I don't know that the percentages are that much better in any other decade though...Fender has always been pretty spotty wrt "keeper" instruments. I've played a lot more Strats than J-basses, but there were more "magic" ones from the pre-CBS era. There were mediocre ones too. Of all brands I would *never* buy a Fender without playing it first.
