LeftyBassist.com

My god man. Killer

http://cgi.ebay.com/1978-Fender-Precisi ... _500wt_928

"ROOOOOOOOOXXXXXXXXXXX-ANNE!"

Talk about a rare bird/investment opportunity....

Pretty cool, but over 11lbs?! Ouch.

Chicago Music Exchange has had a lefty natural finish '78 fretless P with a maple neck for a couple of years now with no takers. I've never seen one with a fretless rosewood fretboard before.

Very sweet, sold in a heartbeat too.

Very nice, but at over 11 lb. . . unless you plan to put it on display instead of playing it.

I played the maple one at Chicago Music Exchange. It's not heavy at all, between 9 and 9.5 lb, and it's in really good shape. Shame is was not setup right, so it had high action, and with those late*'70s baseball bat necks, it was a chore to play. But hey, it was/is beautiful. They wanted $2400 +/- about 5 years ago. . .

Well guys, it looks like I bought this. I sent them an offer before heading out to play softball and came home to discover I won it. Didn't expect that, frankly, and at 11lbs I guess I'll have to get myself in shape.

I'll give a full report when I receive it. This will be my first unlined fretless, so it should be interesting.

Congrats! Now all you have to do is not tear a rotator cuff and you'll be in great shape.

I'd be interested in hearing about your dealings with the seller. i've talked to him a couple of times on the phone and he seemed kinda reticent. He does come across some great lefty pieces tho!

There is one 1976 fretless in sell here in france, not mind neither full original, heavy, but should sound nice :
http://www.zikinf.com/annonces/dispanno ... nce=534906

(price 1200euros)


pickup are passive benedettis (legendary frenck pickup), with an extra jazz pickup in treble position. Except PU, everything is original, and looked up by a french luthier (Leduc), with is also quite recknowed.

Congrats - a virtually unique item that prob sounds great and will appreciate in value more than most 70s Fenders I bet! And you got it for a very acceptable price IMO

But I feel ya in the back dept!! I love the sound of late 70s Fender basses best, but I can never play them for the weight issue. Ex: my 93 Jazz weighs under 9lbs. Why did they make them so heavy in the 70s??? Were people on so much angel dust that nobody noticed?

This one, however, is exceptional enough to warrant the weight-lifter belt LOL

Beautiful! The only P neck I like is the fretless.

Pretty close guess. Coke was rampant and cheap back in those days.

That and the fact that amps and cabs weren't up to speed in comparison to today's design's. The dominant thought was that to create sufficient low end you needed lots of mass. The denser and heavier, the better. In instruments as well as amps/cabs.

It's funny because 1960s Fender basses are pretty light. All their instruments got super heavy in the 70s so it must have been a deliberate choice for the company.

Exactly. Mass= more sustain. Artists were constantly bitching about not having enough sustain. Of course those were the days when your backline had to have multiple megawatt amps onstage and you were constantly fighting for sonic space on the canvas.

Come to think of it, I still am fighting for sonic space, depending who my drummer du jour is

Many 70's Fender basses have an ash body (such as Marcus Miller 77' Jazz) which sometimes can be really heavy.

I switched to Class-D last year. I'm too old for mass(ive refrigerator-sized sound reinforcement) and sustain(ing permanent back injuries).

Northern Ash specifically, at least on the finished models, and yes it was a deliberate move on the part of Fender based on the misconception(?) that more mass/weight meant better tone/sustain. 70's build inconsistencies aside, the extra weight does do a lot to reinforce the perception that you're playing a solid, indestructible instrument, IMO.

Likewise.