Much like a Badass bridge on an otherwise original pre-CBS...
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Vintage Fenders. Why??
- Thread starter tb-player
- Start date
Much like a Badass bridge on an otherwise original pre-CBS...
Yes, and sell it for profit immediately.
I used to the think the same thing. Until I picked up and played a real vintage J bass (I actually think it was a 64 or 65). Pre CBS, there is something special about those old basses. They play great, they sound great and IMO look great. If I had the money at the time, I would've shelled out $10,000+ for it. IF I had the money. Which just isn't in my realm. But if it was, and I found the right one, I'd be all over it.
I agree. I kept my particular 1964 P because IMO it really is extraordinary... But it almost never leaves the house, so I have a Faberge Egg of sorts. I have owned and sold a 1960 P, a 1962 Jazz, two 1965 Ps, and a 1968 P because they were only "just fine"... (well two of them bordered on being "not good"). I kept one other 1965 P refin to leave the house with if I need "a vintage four string P" for something, and there was a time when that component was important to some people.
I usually go to an EB gig with a five string these days though, so that fifth string makes the "vintage passion" component of the decision kind of evaporate.
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Glenn Hughes: "It’s been rumored that I’m the only pick bass player who sounds like he’s playing with his fingers"
"As Glenn explains, “I used Bill Nash’s 1957 P-Bass on the new album, because we went for a different bass sound – an ambient sound which will be really huge live. Kevin and I decided that we’d use a rounder tone – more of a late-60s sound than a 70s one – which makes the track sound bigger.
“The album is generally heavier than the first one: we talked about how people might have done this in the '60s and '70s to get a big sound. There’s more low end and less top. Compare it to the song ‘Black Country’ from the first BCC album: that song has the Glenn Hughes tone of yore – the sound that people have always associated with me.”
Nash’s gear was chosen for this return to a classic sound, Glenn says, simply because of the undeniable quality of his instruments: “I usually like to go with the originals when it comes to the old Fenders and Gibsons, but I was so impressed by how brilliant these guitars sounded. Bill’s guitars have that vintage tone: I have no idea how he does it.
“So I’ve got a red Precision, which I played with Black Country Communion at Shepherd’s Bush last Christmas, and a creamy-white one. They have the signature Glenn Hughes sound that I had in Deep Purple and Trapeze: the sound that I really always wanted to go back to.”
He adds: “I’ve had all the five-string, six-string and eight-string basses; I’ve been the active bass thing; I’ve done all that. Now I’ve gone back to the passive four-strings. I have a lot of Fenders, but these Bill Nash basses are insanely good.”"
"As Glenn explains, “I used Bill Nash’s 1957 P-Bass on the new album, because we went for a different bass sound – an ambient sound which will be really huge live. Kevin and I decided that we’d use a rounder tone – more of a late-60s sound than a 70s one – which makes the track sound bigger.
“The album is generally heavier than the first one: we talked about how people might have done this in the '60s and '70s to get a big sound. There’s more low end and less top. Compare it to the song ‘Black Country’ from the first BCC album: that song has the Glenn Hughes tone of yore – the sound that people have always associated with me.”
Nash’s gear was chosen for this return to a classic sound, Glenn says, simply because of the undeniable quality of his instruments: “I usually like to go with the originals when it comes to the old Fenders and Gibsons, but I was so impressed by how brilliant these guitars sounded. Bill’s guitars have that vintage tone: I have no idea how he does it.
“So I’ve got a red Precision, which I played with Black Country Communion at Shepherd’s Bush last Christmas, and a creamy-white one. They have the signature Glenn Hughes sound that I had in Deep Purple and Trapeze: the sound that I really always wanted to go back to.”
He adds: “I’ve had all the five-string, six-string and eight-string basses; I’ve been the active bass thing; I’ve done all that. Now I’ve gone back to the passive four-strings. I have a lot of Fenders, but these Bill Nash basses are insanely good.”"
Instruments speak and appeal to us personally for any number of reasons, and obviously vintage instruments speak to a lot of players.
For me, they're just not on my radar, as any number of Fender re-issues or other builders' FSO's would be better for me.
Vintage to me are axes that have been discontinued that likely will never be re-issued or revived, like the Roscoe Becks, the 24 fret Jazz, the P Bass Lyte. Conventional Jazz or Precisions of most any flavor are still produced every day.
For me, they're just not on my radar, as any number of Fender re-issues or other builders' FSO's would be better for me.
Vintage to me are axes that have been discontinued that likely will never be re-issued or revived, like the Roscoe Becks, the 24 fret Jazz, the P Bass Lyte. Conventional Jazz or Precisions of most any flavor are still produced every day.
That's me. My 2010 Precision V of my Dimension Dlx 5. They're great basses with good vibe. Someone else may not like them at all but they work.
That seems strange. The only thing I have that no one else can have is me. I own a Buck 110 that I bought 5 decades ago; no one else will own that specific knife, but there are millions of other 110s out there. My wife and I are not the first owners of our house and we’re very unlikely to be the last. While I don’t want it to fall down on my head, I don’t really care that much about it as a physical object.
It's all good, many here are both players and collectors.
Like I said, if you can afford to pay for scarcity or intangibles like "mojo", have fun.
My comments aren't meant to disparage collectors. Just to say strictly as a player, those things add no value. Modern instruments do it all, often better, for less money.
Some people think there's some mojo involved. Some people are collectors. While I get the appeal and think there are very nice vintage instruments, I think instruments are made better these days in general and I don't own a vintage bass because I'd modify it the way I like and that would would defeat the purpose owning a vintage bass. And I don't want to take the neck off to adjust the truss rod or change the tuners for lighter ones, etc. I think I'm more of a player than a collector.
Have you ever read DC resistance across your 68 P's pickups? I have TI flats on mine also.
I'm not sure that buying a 60s or 70s Fender now would still be a good investment. The bass-buying public is getting younger every day, and soon the average buyer will not have any special attachment to that era, if they are even aware of it at all. Or, I could be wrong and they will keep appreciating.
mimetism,ignorance, insecurity,brain washing..could be some reasons in my opinion.
I played music full-time in busy touring bands for most of my twenties in the last half of the seventies into the first half of the eighties. My first full-time band was a Country & Western band that played on the Holiday Inn circuit. I toured in that band with a '73 Precision that I bought brand new (and was an excellent bass that I should have never gotten rid of). However, the singer in that band had a '63 Jazz that he used to bring along on the road and let me play it on stage whenever I wanted to. This was my first introduction to pre-CBS Fender basses and I caught the bug. This was right at the dawn of the concept of "vintage guitars" being collectible with places like Gruhn's Guitars and Norman's Rare Guitars first appearing on the scene. It was also right at the cusp of when vintage Fenders could still be purchased simply as "used instruments" with no extra mojo assigned to them. Once I made up my mind to get into it, I managed to pick up and all original '58 P and an all original '60 stack knobs J for $500 and $550 respectively ($2300 and $2500 in current dollars). By this time I was playing these basses in a fairly successful bar band who played a lot of opening for national act and festival gigs where I met a lot of other bass players who would often comment on and/or ask me about my old Fenders. Through these contacts, I gotta whole lotta leads on other inexpensive old Fenders and had also picked up refinished '57 and '60 Ps as well as '63 and '65 Js over the ensuing years. They were all were good basses for me, but I ended up selling them all to finance my return to college to get a computer science degree after I quit playing music full-time. Flash forward to now after I've gradually built my collection back up (AND THEN SOME). Most of my basses are post-'95 Fender American Standard variants or parts basses made up of Warmoth, AllParts, and USACG bodies and necks along with a smattering of Fender USA, MIJ, and MIM bodies and necks. Most of my basses (and particularly my Fender 50th Anniversary P, 60th Anniversary P, 50th Anniversary J, 2016 American Standard J and my two 2013 American Standard Ps) are just as good as any of my pre-CBS Fenders ever were. The code has definitely been cracked, IMHO. While I still think the old ones are REALLY cool, there is no way on earth I'd spend the kind of money that they currently command. In addition, what do you do with a $10,000 bass? Take it on the road? Leave it up on its stand on breaks in tiny joints where there's no stage to separate the band from the audience and have drunken knuckleheads knock it over? I think not.
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My vintage bass story. Over 20+ years ago my band was cranking and I was flush with gear money. I had about 15 or so very nice basses but the vintage bubble at that moment went up and suddenly it seemed like everybody had to have one. Nobody was more skeptical about this me. I had a buddy who was a licensed dealer and had 6 Jazz basses to show me between '62 and '69, including 2 '66's. Sat for 2 hours and finally boiled it down to one '66. He bought it from the original owner at a Dallas guitar show, and now it's mine. I cannot describe exactly why I feel it embodies what I expect from it - a combination of things that imbue their own character, but it stands alone among all of my basses including 5 "modern" J's.
It completely sold me on "that vintage thing" and is a prized position.
It completely sold me on "that vintage thing" and is a prized position.
I've two basses.
A 64, passive, 4 string Fender Jazz and a 2014, passive/active, 4 string Fender Elite Jazz.
I've had the old one since 1972.
After all these years it's still my gigging/do everything bass.
As much as my ears and hands like the newer bass, there's just no denying there's something special, sound and feel wise, from the old one.
A 64, passive, 4 string Fender Jazz and a 2014, passive/active, 4 string Fender Elite Jazz.
I've had the old one since 1972.
After all these years it's still my gigging/do everything bass.
As much as my ears and hands like the newer bass, there's just no denying there's something special, sound and feel wise, from the old one.
Why not? If it's good it's good.
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.
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.
I get it if they grew up in the 60s or 70s. I had to have an 80s Steinberger in my hands, if only for a while, for the same reason: to recreate the sound in my head from when I first emerged into musical consciousness. The appeal proved short-lived.
Why do string players bid up and compare anything to Stadavarious viol pieces? How do they compare to state of the art instruments? Same analogy with old Fenders I think.
