Chef, you are always cooking up something.

The earlier 1968 Telecaster Basses would be the ones to repro as far as I'm concerned. Not the humbucker ones. If you ever played a '68 and a '72 side by side I bet you'd jump on the '68 and pass on the '72.

And there is no point in redoing these if they are not correct down to the bridge either.

CW, as a former Fender Telecaster bass guitar owner (ouch) I respect your respect for that bass guitar. However, while noticing that there aren't any new Telecaster Basses offered, I noticed this:
"Pickup Configuration: S/S
Bridge Pickup: Vintage Jazz Bass® Single-Coil Pickup (Bridge)
Neck Pickup: Vintage Jazz Bass® Single-Coil Pickup (Bridge)
Pickup Switching: 2-On/Off slide switches, one for each pickup, 1-Series/Parallel slide switch (operates only when both pickups are on)
Controls: Master Volume, Master Tone, Preamp Treble Control Wheel, Preamp Bass Control Wheel, Preamp On/Off Slide Switch"
clever engineer.
A Telecaster has a very different bass guitar sound, especially at higher volume's. I wouldn't want to change that. Thanks for posting.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

The tele bass they have right now doesn't even have a tele body, which begs the question; Why is it even called a Telecaster bass?

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Favorite bands:

Melvins
The Jesus Lizard
Cows
Big Business
R***man
Minutemen
Flight
Minor Threat
Big Black
Shellac
Karp
Scratch Acid
Wipers
Pixies

FTB, looking at the site again, I wasn't able to find a new Fender Telecaster bass guitar and am wondering if only the custom shop will make them.

_________________
you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

my mate has the modern player tele bass in butterscotch, it is a very good guitar at the price point. ive seen him play it live once, and it sounded great, even made him sound good looks good aswell. couldnt really notice anything wrong with the build quality either.

_________________
Favorite bands:

Melvins
The Jesus Lizard
Cows
Big Business
R***man
Minutemen
Flight
Minor Threat
Big Black
Shellac
Karp
Scratch Acid
Wipers
Pixies

Thanks FTB, I didn't see that when going thru the bass guitars. My pic of the old 68 Telecaster bass is awful but I thought a few of the differences were that noticeable.

_________________
you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

I want the bottom one. USA made just like the 1968. The Custom Shop does custom first generation P-Basses that are similar for about what I spend on a car. However these Custom Shop instruments, while VERY nice indeed, are not exactly the same as a '68 Telecaster Bass.

The tone of the single coil Telecaster Basses is totally unique. Yes as previously mentioned it is a more up front, more aggressive and brighter tone than the muddy thud of the Seth Lover (GIBSON bass pickup designer) humbucker version that replaced the single coil Telecaster pickup and the basis for the pickups in the Chinese made Fender Modern Player Telecaster. The single coil Telecaster Bass tone was extremely barky and had far more dynamic impact than a Jazz.

The original Fender 1968 Telecaster Bass was actually the first Fender 51 Precision Reissue and the most accurate reissue Fender ever did except for the tone circuit that had a ceramic cap and the larger fretwire. There will probably never be an as accurate Repro of the '51 P-Bass. This is because in 1967 CBS still had original '51 parts and those parts built the prototype Telecaster Basses. Yes they were mostly ash and blonded but you could order custom colors also. Candy Apple Red was a popular color for them. Kenny Rogers played a 68 Telecaster Bass in The First Edition and at that time was an endorsing artist for them.

If you want to put a 4-saddle bridge on them, fine. BUT I'm pretty sure that the 2 saddle bridge was part of the mojo that made them what they were. A bruiser for sure.