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Post subject: My 1964 Pre Bass
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 9:39 am
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Hobbyist
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Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2007 8:23 pm
Posts: 1
Hi there I have a 1964 Pre Bass that I found in a pawn shop in 1988. Now when I found and bought it it actualy had its 3 color sunburst taken off and was hand painted and very messy with white oil base house paint. I worked a few weeks cleaning it up and have since had it restored to its 3 color sunburst. My question is does it loose value because of this. I was also told that Leo Fender had initialed his name on the bottom of the neck and that the neck is supposed to be the P Bass Dream neck because it has a c mark stamped in with the date at the but end of the neck . Neck Date
I beleive is JAN 13 64 C something like this. I was told that the C stands for the shift it was nade on when I had it appraised 5 years ago. Can I get a little light shed on the topics here. I am quite up to date with a lot of the vintage guitars and basses as to when they were made and what changes they underwent during their transition periods. Where can I find a 1963-64 Fend Catolaug ? My email is garhart@sasktel.net


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Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject: Nice Find!
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 9:09 am
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Rock Star
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Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 3:12 pm
Posts: 6355
Location: Albemarle, NC
Hi Hartyg,

Nice find. The refinishing job also finished off the collector value. In the strictest sense, any modifications bump an instrument out of the collector class. Sometimes even non-original solder joints will bump one down a grade.

Refinishing in nitro as original would have less effect on it on it as a player though. So it isn't worth $25,000 but it is still a nice player I'm sure.

From March 1962 to 1965 the following Ink stamp format was used on all Fender necks. "XX MMM-YY W"

The format decrypted:

"XX" Contrary to popular belief the first two characters denotes the type of neck and not the day of the month the neck was crafted. For example an "01" = Telecaster while an "04" or sometimes just "4" = P-bass.

"MMM" = Month of manufacture as in Jan, Feb, Mar, etc.

"YY" = Year of manufacture minus the "19," so they were not Y2K compliant.

"W" is the neck width profile where "A" is the narrowest, "B" is medium, and "C" is the widest.

The stamp colors varied appearing sometimes in dark blue and other times in red. The stamp appeared below the truss rod adjustment at the heel of the neck.

So far as pencil marks, they are notoriously difficult to authenticate and are sometimes even forged. I sometimes have had trouble reading them because they are smudged or faded. I have no idea why Leo Fender would personally be pencil initialing neck heels. He had plenty enough to do around this time.

If the person that did your "appraisal" is the same person who told you that "C" shift made "DREAM NECK" I think I'd get a second appraisal from someone with a good reputation as an appraisal service. For example Gruhn Guitars here: http://www.gruhn.com/
Any appraisal service that issues a detailed written appraisal would work for insurance purposes, but Gruhn is considered an irrefutable authority.

Enjoy it! It sounds like you are taking good care of it by restoring it to be as near original as possible.

Regards,
Dave


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