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What you know about this bass? II
- Thread starter Nelly Pantucci
- Start date
I can tell you its had a hard life. All-over bad spray paint job, random wood screws, potentially cracks in the headstock, missing electronic components. I think it might be a legit fender (tuners at least). Hopefully other people will be able to provide more details. It needs a full refinish and a lot of love. Could be a cool project but buy it as cheap as possible and be prepared to invest $ and elbow grease.
godofthunder59
Life is short, buy the bass.
- Feb 19, 2006
- 9,059
- 38,420
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Cataldo Basses, Whirlwind products, Thunderbucker pickups
Truss rod is messed up, looks like a hex bolt at the base of the neck that should not be there. Tuners look look like 70s Fender, logo looks right for 70s Fender. The back of the neck has been painted black, definitely not factory finish. Obviously missing the volume potentiometer. I would need better pictures to tell you for sure but it looks like a abused 70's Precision.
My guess it's a 1973 Fender Precision bass. It has the tug bar on the bottom and doesn't have the truss rod filled on the neck (seen on 1972) and 1974 has the thumb rest on the top. As mentioned the truss rod looks all messed up, I wouldn't be convinced that it's playable, but the body alone should be worth $80...
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1972
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1974
It looks like in addition to what's been pointed out already, it looks like the heel of the neck was modified to allow access to that bolt they replaced the original truss rod nut with. It also looks to me like they wired the pickup straight to the jack, which looks to now be located where the tone used to be.
I'm no mega Fender historian and could easily be wrong, but what I TENTATIVELY think might be going on there is an old crusty Fender Precision (early '70s-ish?). Looks like no pots? A lot of people like to wire bass pickups straight to the jack (especially when a pot fails, haha!). The neck heel's wrong, but looks like it's maybe been lopped off due to a broken/stripped truss rod and a regular nut put on it for adjustment? It's a hack job, but I don't see why it wouldn't work if that's what' going on.
Too bad it was bought - might have been very cool. If the truss rod end was stripped or the wood got worn there, I've seen people put larger nuts on like that. Not the end of the world if it worked.
Looked pretty damn punk. Probably sounded awesome. I suspect it felt gross to play though LoL
Looked pretty damn punk. Probably sounded awesome. I suspect it felt gross to play though LoL
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I know for what it is, it's $79 too much for that sled. Do yourself a favor and keep looking.
Maybe I'm weird but I actually would have a TONNE of fun cleaning that thing up.
....I should speak to my therapist.
Yeah maybe I could use gloves if they could be found in the country
I guess I'm lucky. Gloves were back in stock after the first few weeks of COVID here!
