When did Fender start shipping basses with Roundwound strings as stock?

[zmix]

I remember the bassist in my first band bought a Fender Musicmaster in somewhere between 1978-79 and it had flatwound strings. Around the same time another friend bought a Guild B-301 bass and it had roundwound strings...

What year did Fender start shipping basses with Roundwound strings as stock?

 

[trothwell]

I know there's somebody here who worked in a music store at the time and knows exactly...

I believe it was around 1982/1983.

 

[michael_t]

I know there's somebody here who worked in a music store at the time and knows exactly...

That would be @JTE...

 

[Root 5]

I don't know with certainty. I would guess the late 70s?

 

[JTE]

The first Fender bass we got into the store with factory rounds was the first Precision Special. That was the P with brass hardware and the two-band active EQ, ca. '81 or so (don't have quick access to the actual dates). But, all the other basses still came with 850 flats.

In early '83 when the finally shipped the first Vintage Series basses, the "standard" basses came with Studio Bass rounds, a nickle plated steel string. The Vintage series came with Studio Bass flats, which the TI flats remind me of, except the Fenders were heavier.

 

[JTE]

BTW, there's a long thread here about the Fender string history with lots of information about V. C. Squier, GHS, etc.

 

[michael_t]

BTW, there's a long thread here about the Fender string history with lots of information about V. C. Squier, GHS, etc.

History of Fender Brand Strings

 

[Lowbrow]

I bought a '79 Precision off the rack and I remember it wearing rounds. My Mustang, bought new maybe 3 years earlier, definitely had flats.

 

[JTE]

Some of the Fender basses we sold "off the rack" between '77 and '83 had rounds (and Half-Rounds) because I was a bass player. We restrung some new basses with different strings so people could more easily hear
the differences between different kinds of strings instead of just relying on advertising and personal anecdote.