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Post subject: Telecaster bass question
Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2009 10:57 am
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I read I think here on the forum that Fender didnt call the orginal Precision bass a Telecaster until the late 60's. Is that correct?


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Post subject: Re: Telecaster bass question
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 5:34 am
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gnosticbass wrote:
I read I think here on the forum that Fender didnt call the orginal Precision bass a Telecaster until the late 60's. Is that correct?


You are correct, 1968 to be exact.

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Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 9:25 am
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How long was the Tele in regular production?


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Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 12:14 pm
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gnosticbass wrote:
How long was the Tele in regular production?


They changed over to the humbucker in 1971 and continued it until 1979.

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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 8:34 am
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Actually, the Telecaster Bass changed to a humbucker in mid-1972. It also was given a bullet truss rod and a three bolt neck attachment to go along with the humbucker.

I just thought you would like to know.

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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 8:31 pm
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The Telecaster I Bass was actually the first "Reissue" of the first-generation P-bass pretty much as it was 1951 through 1953 before body contouring came into general use at Fender. Another difference on the one I had was the oval shaped tuners that some call butterbean tuners or paddle tuners. They were reverse turners, but had a smaller profile than the ones on today's 51 Reissue. Another difference from a real 51 was that the ribbon wrapped around the pickup bobbin to protect the winding was a light gray instead of black. It had a ceramic capacitor in the tone circuit. The Telecaster II Bass as BC Bassman mentioned incorporated numerous changes, the most obvious of which was the humbucker pickup. The tuners had already changed before that as I recall. Pretty much they ruined a good thing with the Telecaster II and it pretty much died. The Tele I Bass was the most fun to play bass I ever had. For some reason every pickguard screw on mine rusted to bits though in about 2 years which is all I can say really that was bad about it. I think it was something about the pickguard material, but I'm not sure. I did play outdoors lots of times and always blamed it on that. But I have heard since that there was something about the first year pickguards that caused that screw rust issue. The Telecaster I's were very light, very tight and resonant with a nice ash see-through blonde finish. So far as I know they only came in blonde. Mine would buzz some when you took your fingers off the strings but not as much as the 71/72 Jazz did that replaced it. I missed the Tele almost immediately after trading it for that backbreaking buzz machine of a Jazz.


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Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 2:06 pm
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Thanks for the info. I really enjoyed reading that post. Besides music/bass playing history is my other passion and to be able to combine the 2 is pure heaven for me.


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Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 10:54 am
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brotherdave wrote:
The Telecaster I Bass was actually the first "Reissue" of the first-generation P-bass pretty much as it was 1951 through 1953 before body contouring came into general use at Fender. Another difference on the one I had was the oval shaped tuners that some call butterbean tuners or paddle tuners. They were reverse turners, but had a smaller profile than the ones on today's 51 Reissue. Another difference from a real 51 was that the ribbon wrapped around the pickup bobbin to protect the winding was a light gray instead of black. very light, very tight and resonant with a nice ash see-through blonde.


Dave, I think you may be remembering the bobbin color as being gray and there is no ribbon around the pickup on the Telecaster bass. It is white string as opposed to black bobbins and pu wrap string on the original 51-57 Precision basses.
The plastic pickguards on the first run '68 Telecaster basses emmitted a gas the heavily corroded all metal parts of the basses esp. if left in a case for a long time, so those rusting screws probably were from the pickguard.
I also want to point out that the paddle tuners or lollipop tuners were the first to turn correctly or nonreverse. I have them on a 65 Jazz bass.

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Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 3:25 pm
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BCbassman wrote:
brotherdave wrote:
The Telecaster I Bass was actually the first "Reissue" of the first-generation P-bass pretty much as it was 1951 through 1953 before body contouring came into general use at Fender. Another difference on the one I had was the oval shaped tuners that some call butterbean tuners or paddle tuners. They were reverse turners, but had a smaller profile than the ones on today's 51 Reissue. Another difference from a real 51 was that the ribbon wrapped around the pickup bobbin to protect the winding was a light gray instead of black. very light, very tight and resonant with a nice ash see-through blonde.


Dave, I think you may be remembering the bobbin color as being gray and there is no ribbon around the pickup on the Telecaster bass. It is white string as opposed to black bobbins and pu wrap string on the original 51-57 Precision basses.
The plastic pickguards on the first run '68 Telecaster basses emmitted a gas the heavily corroded all metal parts of the basses esp. if left in a case for a long time, so those rusting screws probably were from the pickguard.
I also want to point out that the paddle tuners or lollipop tuners were the first to turn correctly or nonreverse. I have them on a 65 Jazz bass.


Yes you are correct, it was like wax covered twine now that i think about it. For whatever reason I thought my tuners were reverse oval paddles. Of course that has been 38 years ago. Memory is obviously going.


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Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 8:34 am
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No problem on the memory lapse. I can't remember what I had for breakfast.
I have a Sting bass BTW. I really like it but I wish it didn't have that stupid signature inlay at the 12th fret.
I have noticed that the sting bass is the only original P-bass design that inlays the string ferrels flush with the body, like the original Precision but of course the new ferrels are about half the diameter of the originals.
The bass sounds good. Its a very good tone for blues bassplaying.

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Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 12:05 pm
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Jim Mayer played a Sting exclusively at the most recent Charlotte, NC Jimmy Buffett show much to my surprise. You could get a 51 RI neck and swap them out. The inlay looks lonely and doesn't fit the era or the image. I don't know if the neck profiles are identical. Wasn't aware of the string ferrule difference. Other than the inlay and the body contouring the sting looked real close to my sunburst 51 RI.


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