LeftyBassist.com

Oh man do i want this so bad but iam dead broke i mean dead broke i have $80 dollars right now anyone wanna gimme a loan
http://elderly.com/vintage/items/56U-187.htm

That looks like a good one. My '73 is a featherweight too. Wish I could afford to pick up a few of these featherweight early 70's Fender basses.

i bought the '69 from them last year. It is a great bass and this one looks as good . i love the color !

Hot

Hmm. A few odd things about this.

I've never seen a "1 piece maple neck" with no skunk stripe from this period on a P bass. Fender did offer maple capped necks as an option in the mid-60's and early Tele basses, but by 1968 all maple necks had the skunk stripe. This bass's neck is either some special order or a left over neck stock from the 60's, which could make it even more valuable.

Elderly states the replacement nut is 1-11/16", which is not a standard neck width Fender offered. (C neck = 1-3/4"; B neck = 1-5/8"). Again, perhaps it's some weird custom order anomaly, but I'm guessing it wasn't measured correctly. If it were truly a 1-11/6" nut, then it would be sticking out past a B sized neck, and judging by the 1 picture showing the nut it looks like it's slightly short. This would make the neck a C size, which would support my theory that it's either a custom order or an earlier maple capped 60's C neck. Fender changed to B necks in 1972.

Interesting Peter! Thanks. I wonder what the neck stamp would say. When did Fender first offer maple fingerboards on basses, I thought that was in the 70's.

B neck on my '73, I really like it.

Sold already !

Who bought it ??? lol

Found this in the description:

"(dated 5 12 70B, truss rod nut is replacement)"

Something's not right here.

B size necks were NOT offered on the P bass until '72 and this stamp is indicating a 1970 stamp + a B neck. Even if this happened to be some special order neck width predating the inception of B necks, they've stated that the replacement brass nut is 1-11/16", which would mean it would be sticking out beyond the neck's width. What I'm seeing in the photo is a brass nut SHORTER than the neck width.

FYI, Fender discontinued the 1 piece maple P necks in '59 and replaced them with rosewood necks from '59-'69. In 1970 they offered both maple and rosewood necks, according to the Fender Bass Book, but as I mentioned I've never seen a 70's maple P neck without a skunk stripe. (Fretted, that is. The fretless maple neck P was also introduced in 1970 and the examples I've seen didn't have a skunk stripe). The only 1 piece maple neck P I'm aware of that Fender offered from '59-'69 that I have seen evidence of was on the 1966 contoured P made for the UK market (Entwistle owned one).

I don't think there is something fishy here. It is possible to have this kind of neck on a 70-71 P-bass.

here is a link for a 1971 from Arni: http://www.leftybass.com/71_fender_precision.htm

But that's a rosewood board.

Yeah but in the Fender book it is mentionned that they were offering both maple and rosewood at the time. The thing that may be not right is the logo where there is patent numbers normally. I know left-handed necks were a problem for fitting logos so I don't know if it is an older logo or not!


Well I just checked with Arni's 71 and his too doesn't have patent numbers on the logo, so it might not be bad after all.

This is true, Fender did not always put patent numbers on. Here's my '73 P headstock:

Yes, Fender did offer rosewood AND maple at this time (beginning 1970), but it doesn't explain the "70B" notation on the neck stamp, the "1 piece maple" without skunk stripe, or the neck width discrepancy regarding the replaced nut. As mentioned, B necks were not available until 1972, though this and Arni's examples show otherwise. So maybe the Fender Book's got it wrong or B necks were offered as a custom order, I dunno. I still think Elderly got the size wrong, though only the purchaser can confirm that at this point. I don't have any reason to believe that the neck is a fake, but it is a curiosity and inconsistent with Fender's documented time line. It's possible it was some transition neck or left over from some earlier run before finally being assembled. Who knows.

When I talked to the guy at Elderly, I mentioned the 1 piece neck was probably wrong and he had to check the bass himself and it is a laminated maple fingerboard. I guess it looked really like a 1 piece with maple on maple.

Also I have seen some pics with the B stamp on the during that period. I guess the changes made by Fender weren't beginning on January 1st.

I think also that these logos were ordered special for left-handed necks. Too bad there is no mention of how lefties were actually put together at Fender at the time.

But rosewood board necks aren't skunk striped because the rod is installed beneath the board, no? That's why I pointed the difference between Arni's rosewood board neck and this maple one, not because a rosewood fingerboard itself was an anomaly.

Then i don't understand the process.

To me it doesn't matter if it's a rosewood or maple fingerboard as long as the installation of the truss rod is the same meaning by the top instead of the back.

Peter, isn't that what you were pointing out as being odd, that the sale listing said one piece maple neck, but there was no skunk stripe?

My understanding is 70's one piece maple necks meant that the fingerboard was part of the same piece of wood as the neck, not glued on later, so the skunk stripe is how Fender put the truss rod into the neck, through the back of the neck. Whereas on rosewood boards Fender didn't need to do the neck with a skunk stripe because they installed the truss rod from the front and glued the rosewood fingerboard over the top of it. Is my understanding on this wrong?

Exactly. If it's a 1 piece maple neck then the only way they can install the truss rod is via the back of the neck, thus the walnut skunk stripe. Look at even the earliest known Fender P basses - there's the skunk stripe. Rosewood necks never had the skunk stripe for the reason you indicated.

Even if this P bass in question has now been confirmed to have a laminated maple capped fretboard, it's still very rare to see one on a 1970 P bass when Fender was pretty much using 1 piece maple necks (with skunk stripe) again when they reinstated maple necks. (All Fender basses had rosewood boards as standard from '59-'70 except the earliest '68 Tele bass, '66 UK Entwistle P, and '70 fretless P).

I made them correct the listing as a laminated maple top.

Like I said before it is too bad we don't have any inside infos about how lefties were built at that time at Fender