Vintage Fenders. Why??

[brianrost]

How many years old makes a bass vintage? I have bought a bunch of 80's basses in the last 6-7 years.
Also, does a bass have to be Fender, Ric, Gibson, Hofner, EBMM to get to vintage status?
Are '83 to '87 Peavey basses vintage?

When it comes to instruments and amps, vintage is a totally meaningless term. It means "old" and there is no agreement about how old something has to be to be considered vintage. It's not brand specific, at least not the way it gets bandied about for all kinds of crap gear.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Vintage Fenders. Why??

Why not? Some are really great, some are dogs, and they can be a good investment.

Instruments are seldom "good investments"
There will be a time in the not too distant future, where lots of vintage gear will flood the market as many of the collectors, owners reach their expiration date. The boomers are numerous like no other generation before or since.

 

[Mark Ambler]

Instruments are seldom "good investments"
There will be a time in the not to distant future, where lots of vintage gear will flood the market as many of the collectors, owners reach their expiration date. The boomers are numerous like no other generation before or since.

Agree that instruments are seldom good investments, and current vintage prices look a little ridiculous to me. I very much doubt I will lose any money on the early 70's Fender I bought a while back. Will the market be flooded with vintage Fenders? I very much doubt it.

 

[JIO]

Take this and go learn Shapes of Things from the Jeff Beck Group with Ron Wood playing his brand new '68. The unknowing will become known.

 

[JIO]

Agree that instruments are seldom good investments, and current vintage prices look a little ridiculous to me. I very much doubt I will lose any money on the early 70's Fender I bought a while back. Will the market be flooded with vintage Fenders? I very much doubt it.

Realistically, there most likely will be a time when more end up for sale as players retire or step off the coil. It's just part of the cycle of life.

 

[markob]

Because you get a free year's membership in The More Money Than Sense Club.

Buy a new Fender Custom Shop in their 'aged relic' finishes ( . . . just look how realistic that cigarette burn and that rusted bridge seem so real!), and you get Free Lifetime Membership.

If these things float your boat, that's great. But I'll never understand the supposed mojo in these old, weary axes that is somehow unobtanium, unless you pay crazy money to build a brand new instrument that looks old and weary and I guess has repro mojo.

I must be missing something . .

It's cool if you don't understand.

 

[58kites]

When it comes to instruments and amps, vintage is a totally meaningless term. It means "old" and there is no agreement about how old something has to be to be considered vintage. It's not brand specific, at least not the way it gets bandied about for all kinds of crap gear.

Most of my basses have been early 80's to early 90's which makes them 30-40 years old. I have never thought of any as vintage.
I will admit that I love an old used bass that is in great condition and could be mistaken for almost new, especially when I pay stupidly low money for them. Most have looked good enough to have no chance of being called reliced, aged or stressed. I enjoy the hunt for way undervalued used basses, which always leaves Fender out of the hunt. My fist guitar was a 1966 Fender Mustang ($65) and my second was a 1969 Stratocaster ($275) so I have had a few Fenders when I was a teenager.
My bass journey started with a $40 used 1989 Peavey Fury which I still have eight years later.
I am reducing down to two 1991 Yamaha Attitude basses (that I bought for used Squier bass prices) before we retire and move 1150 miles north and east next year.

 

[Bass4ThePublic]

After dealing with and meeting hundreds of musicians, I've learned that feel and taste are just so subjective. I've read this entire thread to support this argument. Lots of folks are saying things like "If I had $10k to spend on a bass I'd rather get a Ken Smith/Fodera or something". If I had a Fodera I'd sell it to get an old P bass.

Live and let live I say. I'm glad we're in the 21st century because there are so many options out there at every price point. As for OP's question, well, I just think they're neat. I mean, aren't they cool? They're just my favorite kind of bass, that's all.

 

[MrClassicMetal]

Authenticity. Same reason art museums buy the real the paintings instead of the reprints they sell in the gift shop. Collectors from vintage cars to comic books want real history, and are willing to pay for it. Musicians sometimes want particular instruments from certain eras for how they sound but can't afford or don't care to pay for real ones, so reproductions work for them. Not for everyone, not for you, and that's cool too.

A musical instrument is more like the equivalent of the brush that was used to make a painting.

 

[TyBo]

Authenticity. Same reason art museums buy the real the paintings instead of the reprints they sell in the gift shop. Collectors from vintage cars to comic books want real history, and are willing to pay for it. Musicians sometimes want particular instruments from certain eras for how they sound but can't afford or don't care to pay for real ones, so reproductions work for them. Not for everyone, not for you, and that's cool too.

Yeah. If one enjoys history, those old vintage instruments are history incarnate, and are the sound of rock and roll at its inception. They look cool, imo, and generally sound cool, imo, but they're just too expensive to own.
Of course they can vary in sound, playability, etc., kind of the nature of the beast. I will say that the best production Strat I ever played was.a nice '64 that played "like buttah" and had a marvelous tone. The only problem with that old stuff, for me, is the price.

 

[ad9000]

I only own one pre-CBS Fender bass at the moment (the one pictured here). I believe that new top quality instruments are generally better than old ones, given the progression of instrument building over the years, but this '62 P that I snagged about 12 years ago blows that theory out of the water. It has some quirks (moderate neck diving, faded dots on the side of the neck that are hard to see, original pickguard with the typical shrinkage and cracking, and a significant hot spot in the region of the C on the E string), but despite them it's got some kind of magic that always takes me to a different place when I play it. It is super resonant and it responds equally well to a very light touch all the way to a gorilla-level right hand attack, as well as to thumb playing or playing it with a pick. It weighs in at about 8 lbs. 9 oz.

Out of the dozen-plus basses I own this is the one that always sounds reliably sounds great recorded or live. I've played a lot of high end pre-CBS P clones from Olinto, Alleva Coppolo, the Fender Custom Shop, LSL and others, and none of them came close to the sound, feel or resonance of this bass.

For a few years I had been patiently on the lookout for a good pre-CBS P that might be underpriced. This one popped up on CL, and since the seller was looking to move it quickly the price ended up being well below what they were generally going for at the time. Needless to say, even at that time market value was a lot less, probably about 60% of the even more astronomical and out of reach prices of today. I'm not a collector, and I play this bass instead of keeping it in a vault, but I am at least smart enough to keep the insurance up on it.

 

[GIBrat51]

no, 70's and 80's basses aren't vintage.
There are also too many still around.
If you said you had a vintage bass to sell, the assumption would be it's 50's or 60's. imv

Well...
You certainly have a point; and one that I do sort of agree with. However;
The used bass/guitar market, rightly or wrongly, seems to consider anything older than 25 or so, as "vintage". IMO, "vintage" is a stupid concept- except for wine, and a particular era of old automobiles, airplanes, and boats; in their case, mainly because collector organizations said so. But, nevertheless; 25 y/o bass - or older? "Vintage". Yes, it's hard for this 73 y/o player to think of my '93 Gretsch Broadkaster as a "vintage bass", but... it is almost 32 years old, now. And, my '73 Rick 4001? It was made 50 years ago, last October. And, when I bought my '78 Fender P-Bass, in the summer of 1988? It certainly wasn't "vintage" then; it was just a heavily played, 10 y/o "used" bass. It just sorta morphed into a "vintage" Fender, when I wasn't looking. Hard for me to think of it that way, because it wasn't - when I bought it... Same goes for a lot of my "vintage" basses...
So... whether or not you and I like it? The marketplace decided what "Vintage" is, and we just... have to play along...

 

[MrClassicMetal]

I only own one pre-CBS Fender bass at the moment (the one pictured here). I believe that new top quality instruments are generally better than old ones, given the progression of instrument building over the years, but this '62 P that I snagged about 12 years ago blows that theory out of the water. It has some quirks (moderate neck diving, faded dots on the side of the neck that are hard to see, original pickguard with the typical shrinkage and cracking, and a significant hot spot in the region of the C on the E string), but despite them it's got some kind of magic that always takes me to a different place when I play it. It is super resonant and it responds equally well to a very light touch all the way to a gorilla-level right hand attack, as well as to thumb playing or playing it with a pick. It weighs in at about 8 lbs. 9 oz.

Out of the dozen-plus basses I own this is the one that always sounds reliably sounds great recorded or live. I've played a lot of high end pre-CBS P clones from Olinto, Alleva Coppolo, the Fender Custom Shop, LSL and others, and none of them came close to the sound, feel or resonance of this bass.

For a few years I had been patiently on the lookout for a good pre-CBS P that might be underpriced. This one popped up on CL, and since the seller was looking to move it quickly the price ended up being well below what they were generally going for at the time. Needless to say, even at that time market value was a lot less, probably about 60% of the even more astronomical and out of reach prices of today. I'm not a collector, and I play this bass instead of keeping it in a vault, but I am at least smart enough to keep the insurance up on it.


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That's a cool instrument, and I bet it sounds pretty awesome.

One specimen does not disprove that newer, top quality instruments are generally better though. As you've stated, instrument building has progressed. People learn from past mistakes, there's better tooling, etc. And the results are more consistent.

 

[Mastermold]

That's a cool instrument, and I bet it sounds pretty awesome.

One specimen does not disprove that newer, top quality instruments are generally better though. As you've stated, instrument building has progressed. People learn from past mistakes, there's better tooling, etc. And the results are more consistent.

Lots of specimens here in the Fender pre-CBS Club. (Link in my signature.) Modern woodworking with CNC machines is definitely more consistent than the old way, but a good Fender is still a good Fender even if not as consistent as the one next to it. My two '64 Precisions are both very good instruments though they are not identical, same quality as my modern Custom Shop basses. Fender guitars and basses are pretty simple designs and they intentionally don't change them much, customers still want the vintage specs.

 

[Bass Viking]

Threads like this are one sided and inevitably contentious. One either likes/owns vintage Fender (or any brand) basses - or not. I've yet to see a thread "why would anyone own any bass other than a vintage Fender?" It's because those who own/play vintage Fender basses own and play their basses and they don't hold it as a reason to debate someone's choice of why they don't own/play one.

As if there are enough vintage Fenders to go around!

 

[JIO]

As if there are enough vintage Fenders to go around!

...or if everyone only owned one bass...

 

[Stephen DeBoard]

You've got to judge each instrument on its own merit and get what speaks to you. Ignore the hype. Ignore the bad press. Make your own decision.

Kind of like tennis; go to the net or play from the baseline. Don't get caught in the middle. And be aware of your surroundings.

Doesn't matter if it's new or 10 years old or 60 years old or an FSO parts bass (Well, if I built it ); if it's good it is.

For me, that '68 just feels right. It's not just that it's vintage. It's that specific bass.

I really have no problem with paying an alpha for a great bass. Paying an alpha for a bass that was not relatively expensive in the first place and not playing it first, starts to get in the grey area. Paying an alpha for a bass because of it's age and it's recent increase in market value for speculative purposes is as financially insane as filling a wheelbarrow with $20s, rolling it to a dock, then dumping it into a swift river expecting the investment to grow.

It's about the individual instrument. Simple as that. There are some great older instruments and some great newer ones.

Fenders are simple designs, either executed well or not, regardless of when or how.

My thing is neck feel. If a bass has a neck feel I like and the sound and tone to go with it's a keeper. This comes from my 62 P bass. I like the neck feel and the lighter-weight body. I look for those things in any Bass I'm considering regardless of its birthyear

I've played a lot of vintage guitars and basses that were dogs and I've played some that were amazing. I've also played a lot of modern guitars and basses that were dogs and I've played some that were amazing. I base my opinions on a musical instrument on a case by case basis. I pulled these quotes from the whole thread which I've just finished reading and I share these perspectives on this vintage vs. modern issue. I want to play a great guitar or bass and whatever year it was made, while interesting, is almost irrelevant to me.

 

[selowitch]

I personally don't have interest in buying vintage Fenders, by which I mean pre-CBS, but lots of people like them and more power to 'em.

 

[T McClure]

I've played a lot of vintage guitars and basses that were dogs and I've played some that were amazing. I've also played a lot of modern guitars and basses that were dogs and I've played some that were amazing. I base my opinions on a musical instrument on a case by case basis. I pulled these quotes from the whole thread which I've just finished reading and I share these perspectives on this vintage vs. modern issue. I want to play a great guitar or bass and whatever year it was made, while interesting, is almost irrelevant to me.

That's my challenge. I have a couple of specific vintage basses on my wishlist, but I'm also not willing to pay the prices asked without trying them out first. Plenty of people will buy these things online paying thousands based only on photos, and a lot of them seem happy with those decisions.

I'm just too much of a coward.

 

[Jhili]

There are good instruments and there are bad ones, some are objectively so, others subjectively, some call this age vintage, some that, some like relicing, others not, some consider cracked lacquer ruined, others adorable,... this list is endless. In the end it is you and your bass.
It is like finding you perfect wife. You think she is pretty, you think she is nice, if someone else thinks so is completely unimportant. Then when you have a couple and think about which you... wait! something in this comparison is wrong