LeftyBassist.com

Another nice vintage P bass on the 'bay, in a rare color too:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT

That color would be 'root beer' if I'm not mistaken? As opposed to the mocha brown color of the same era?

There really were 2 different colors of brown for the 70's era? I had a local guy with a P bass for sale that was not the crappy mocha brown for a reasonable price. It was like this finish in the listing. Hmmmmmmmmm

I think you guys need to adjust your monitors. That bass is red not brown.

Looks gorgeous. Not enough vintage red lefties in the world

Nah, just need some new glasses is all
I remeber seeing that shade of red, but a looooong time ago. Which is where the rootbeer reference came from.

IMHO Fender's 1970s basses sounded the best of any of their eras...

BUT their hefty weight makes them incredibly uncomfortable to play and combined with the general inconsistent build quality of the time, I just cannot believe how much money people ask (and get) for these instruments.

yeah, I must agree on the prices of 70's instruments. There's a great article in this month's Vintage Guitar of the difference between 'vintage' and 'collectible'. Seems the pendulum is swinging towards calling what was once a vintage guitar to calling it collectible. Makes sense to me. A 35 year old Fender may be vintage, but by no means collectible. We all know what kind of cr@p came out of the shops in the 70's and early 80's.

Yup, that era of Fenders was hit and miss. I have seen some HORRIBLE routings and heel placements on some of the 70's basses... then I have seen some really good well built and assembled ones (my 78 P for instance). Thats why if you get a good one, keep it. Vintage by any means is only in the holder of the instrument. Some call 80's Fenders Vintage. How the heck is that vintage... collectable maybe!!

There was a matching '78 lefty Jazz bass in that color for sale on Guitarbroker.com a few months ago.

Uh, hold on there with that "crappy"- I've got a mint condition Mocha Brown 74 P bass with Maple fretboard, and it is one lovely piece IMHO. Don't take my word for it, go check it out my gallery collection.

I will however acknowledge that Mocha Brown ain't a good color for a "road worn" look...

funny how times change. i remember when the Mocha color first came out, there was almost universal agreement that folks hated the color. It reminded them of skid marks on your skivvy's, especially when viewed under fluorescent lights. Or worse yet for us disco-era types, under black lights and mirrored disco balls

Nowadays, IMO, the mocha ain't so bad. Kinda reminds me of my favorite French pastry.

I definitely like the idea of using two terms for "vintage" and "collectible"!

I've always loved the look of Mocha Brown Fender basses.

And I dig'em road worn too...

Was Walnut the other brown finish? I personally like the Mocha finish as well, especially with a rosewood neck:

http://www.chicagomusicexchange.com/fen ... ,i-71489/#

The one finish that's very hit/miss, IMO, is Antigua, since I've seen it vary greatly. When it looks silvery, it looks great, but I've seen a few aged ones that have a snot yellow green shade to them. Ugh! Carmine, your antigua P in the photo looks to be closer to silver burst.

I dunno if it was ever a finish name, but I often refer to certain brown finishes as rootbeer. Did someone have a brown-ish finish in the 70's called rootbeer?

Well, I must say as much I don't care for the brown finish, your brown 74 is pretty nice looking Carmine. Damn you haver a lot of arsenal. I had 16 at one time and holy hell.. you got like 100. Hope you bought a house alone to store all those basses.

I always hated brown but kinda like some of them after doing a little research. The one at Chicago Music Exchange is pretty sweet with a rosewood board. I prefer maple on jazz and P's but the rosewood looks nice on brown. My fav for that era is of course black/black with maple board. BEAUTIFUL.

I was always attracted to both the Mocha and Antigua finishes from day one when they came out, but there is a lot of variation-- I held out for a LONG time until I found exactly the right examples of each, in mint condtion (I just don't think that either finish wears well- a beat up Antigua bass = yuck). Saw a lot of ugly ones while waiting--IMHO, when they look bad they look VERY bad... but when they look good, they look VERY, VERY good.

PJ, my Antigua is is right on the border- not too silver, not too snot... which is just the way I like it.

BTW, the seller is in Chatham, NJ, which is about 5 minutes away from me. If anyone is interested in this bass, I can inquire about going over to check it out. (Worst they can say is no). Let me know.