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Post subject: Fender Percision Bass dating
Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 9:21 am
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Hi-
I'm new and want to thank you all for being here.
Twenty or so years ago I played Bass-a Fender Percision- I bought it from a guy who played in a band that opened for the Clash- he became my teacher- also it was once played by a friend, Taj Mahal, fast forward- I've been interested in the exact age of my instrument for some time, and recently , thru the computer , have been trying to sleuth the age out - Here are the particulars.
The guitar is white- (yellowed out now)
the neck is maple with ebony inlays (dots)
The finger rest is missing but it went below the strings (there are two holes there)
visually it looks like a fifties model,
The bridge looks seventies era
On the neck butt is stamped 0103 1953
the fiddle head has the decal logo of Fender Percision Bass all on one line
The neck plate is numbered 405 118 ((seventies, 1973 according to what I could find)
There is normal use, neck is straight and true, it plays great, the case has been around and is a rich purple (royalty I assume)
How old could it be, these are hard times and I may want to sell it.
Peace-
Sailor Bob


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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 10:35 am
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Welcome. Check out BrotheDave.com, he has a great website. Go to the resources link and it will be a big help. Knownng Dave, he's probably sending a reply right now.

Good luck.


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Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:26 pm
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Sure - 0103 just means it is a Pbass neck. 1953 dates the neck to the 19th
week of 1975 (5) on a Wednesday (3). The 400000 series neck plate confirms
mid 1970's too.


-mingus61


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Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 5:54 am
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Welcome to the forum Sailorbob.

Well this is all a bit puzzling. Your neckplate serial, 405118, dates to July 1 1973 through June 30, 1974 production. However your assessment of the neck serial seems accurate which dates the neck to one year later. Sometimes the stamps are smudged and hard to read. About half of them are not ledgiable at all. I'm wondering if perhaps you mistook 1933 for 1953. If you are certain it is 1953 without any doubt then it is possible this bass has a non original neck, which is not that uncommon or even that the neckplate was swapped. I'm not saying for sure any of this actually happened. Just that things don't match up.

It might be wise to check the pot codes too.

Is there a name stamp on the neck?


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Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 9:08 am
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Thanks for the reply brother Dave-
on the body where the neck fits in there are a few stamps- one name which is clearly visible is LEWIS the others I can't make out I'll try to send you a photo. The 1953 is very clear. I was told that means it was produced in the 19th week of 1975 (5) on a wednesday (3). The 0103 means it is a P Bass. Sound right? This came from mingus61.


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Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 8:58 pm
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Sailor Bob wrote:
Thanks for the reply brother Dave-
on the body where the neck fits in there are a few stamps- one name which is clearly visible is LEWIS the others I can't make out I'll try to send you a photo. The 1953 is very clear. I was told that means it was produced in the 19th week of 1975 (5) on a wednesday (3). The 0103 means it is a P Bass. Sound right? This came from mingus61.


The serial: 01031953 decodes thusly.
01 = Precision Bass
03 = Fretted Maple Capped Neck
19 = 19th week
5 = 1975
3 = Wednesday

The neck was stamped on Wednesday May 7th, 1975.


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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 1:59 pm
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Thank You Brother Dave-

the pots numbers on the '75 P bass we have been discussing are

032367 250K

304 7304

Any help in further dating or de-coding would be greatly appreciated

Bob, TVBOB (sailor bob)


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