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Post subject: ???? 70's P Bass
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:16 pm
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I have owned a P Bass since the late seventies. I bought it used and don't know a lot about it. Can someone offer me some insight as to how to identify the year, type of neck etc. Everything is the same as when I bought it and it plays and sounds great.


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Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:56 pm
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As far as identifying a year, you can check it out here
http://www.fender.com/support/product_dating.php


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Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 8:12 pm
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Hi,

I just posted a similar question (see Information on Fender Precision Bass)
I bought mine used in 1980 and from the neck plate numbers determined it was a 1976 (634475).

If you take it apart there are stamps on the body and neck with what I think are the people who worked on it. As well sometimes a date stamp.

From what I have seen and been told, if you have a 70s era Pbass with original equipment and in good condition it is worth $2000+

From what I gather the 60's are the new 50's and the 70's will hit the stratsophere in a couple more years when they turn 40 ..


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Post subject: I owned a 70's P-bass, here's my story
Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:00 am
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I owned a Natural fender P-bass that appeared in the 1973 fender catalog. I had the "then" optional narrow neck, that was offered back then, in the pricing catalog, of the same year. My "friend', had the thumb rest on the left side instead of the right side. The salesperson told me, this was a "new'" ideal by Fender, back then. Anyhow, the serial number was 410592. About 10 years later i bought this book, The Fender P-bass, and it had a dating system, by the serial numbers, Since mine, was in the 400,000 range, meant it was probably made in early 1973, or late 1974. I tell you this, I took it to NYC, and the guy took the neck off and looked at the number at the bottom of the neck. It was found out, that my "friend" was made in early 1974. Now, here is where it gets interesting. Later on in 1974, around Oct or Nov, a black oickguard replaced the white pickguard, that came with it, years before, so, in a way of speaking, my "friend" could been one of those Fender P-basses, that had a Jazz neck put on it, because, I heard stories about this about 10 years ago also. As it seems, back in the 70's, when Fender got back -ordered, they just,put on a Precision bass decal on a Jazz bass neck, and out went the P-bass. If anybody reads this reply, find a 70's price list for fender products, and locate the precision prices from back then. You will see, the standard Pbass price, then with the optional maple fingerboard, and then, either fretless or with the optional narrow width. Futhermore, after years of learning about fender P-basses, that 'option", the narrow width, started as far back as late 1968, and it also came with that other strap buttom in the back of the headstock, which was a "option" also.


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Post subject: A good site for dating a P Bass
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:19 pm
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http://www.guitarnucleus.com/fenderserial.html

Serial Number 634475 is from 1975.


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Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 1:36 pm
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Hi,

Do some Fender necks come without a date stamp? I have a '75 P bass which looks to be all original but there's no date stamp on the heel of the neck. There's nothing there. On the back of the neck there's a little round stamp and the stamp of a guy's name along with the number "5" that was written in what looks to be crayon. Did some necks come like this?
Thanks.


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Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 8:03 pm
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palskiric wrote:
Hi,

I just posted a similar question (see Information on Fender Precision Bass)
I bought mine used in 1980 and from the neck plate numbers determined it was a 1976 (634475).

If you take it apart there are stamps on the body and neck with what I think are the people who worked on it. As well sometimes a date stamp.

From what I have seen and been told, if you have a 70s era Pbass with original equipment and in good condition it is worth $2000+

From what I gather the 60's are the new 50's and the 70's will hit the stratsophere in a couple more years when they turn 40 ..


The problem with that logic is that demand increased in the early 60's with the dawn of the garage band era and demand built steadily through the 70's. While production numbers ballooned, quality went down beginning in 1964 and gradually deteriorated from there. More copies and diminished quality are both bad for collector value. The most valuable will always be the pre-CBS instruments which are more scarce because fewer were produced.

Granted the 70's instruments may probably not go down much more in value than we have seen the past three years, and in fact will increase in value.

But if you really expect them to go stratospheric I'm of the opinion that you'll be disappointed. There simply are too many of them. They are nowhere near as rare as the 50's and early 60's models because of the the higher production numbers. I don't think we'll ever see a VGC 1972 Precision bring $10,000 in your lifetime. A 1962, possibly. A 1972 no.

The principal in play here can be compared to a baseball rookie card for a hall of fame member. If there are only 1,000 surviving in the whole world they are far more valuable than the very same card would be if there were 5,000 of them. Roughly 5 times more valuable. This holds true for even marginal hall of fame members whose scarcer rookie cards are valued higher in the collector market than the far more plentiful rookie cards of major stars. It is simply supply and demand.

Sure a 70's Fender bass is nice to have and will go up a bit in value gradually over the passing years, but I wouldn't plan on buying one for 2,000 and selling it in 4 years for a huge profit. You also have to take inflation into account. Selling a 1962 P-Bass for $6000 sounds like a huge coup since the bass cost about $270 USD in 1962. However $270 in 1962 US Dollars is worth about $1894 in 2009 US Dollars due inflation. Other prices from 1962. Hershey bars were 5 cents. A pack of cigarettes were about 35 cents to 60 cents depending on state. A Coca-Cola cost 10 cents in a glass bottle. A loaf of bread was 30 cents. A gallon of gas was also about 30 cents. Gold, $35 an ounce. So YES, you would make money, but adjusting for inflation it isn't as dramatic a windfall as it seems.

People who bought basses or guitars as an investment about 3 to 5 years ago are having trouble selling them for what they have invested. Most are sitting on them waiting on the market to turn around. Others are selling and taking a loss. These people are not apt to invest in collector class instruments again which will keep the market slow as many investors in collector class instruments won't be back for more.

The upside of this is that if you want to own and play a 70's vintage Fender bass then right now is the best time to buy one in many years. Buy it because you like owning it or playing it, not because you think you can reap a bonanza down the road that may never come.

If you had bought 270 dollars worth of gold in 1962 that would have been 7 point 7 ounces. Today your gold would be worth $9,448. Your 62 Precision is worth considerably less than that today. If you are looking for an investment, buy gold...not guitars.


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 9:23 am
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The best reason to buy any bass is that you love it as an instrument. Its fun to play a 70's Fender. Who knows what the value will be in 20 years?

They are decidedly different than 60's or 50's Fenders.

I think it may be better for players to get the pure investors out of musical ijnstruments , but I think there are certain guitars and basses that will hold their value over time.

The best thing about buying a guitar or bass is that you can play them. You can't play gold and you can get really burned with gold as an investment. Nothing says its value is guaranteed to go up.
History is no sure prediction of the future in guitars or gold, but I will have more fun with a guitar or bass than bar of gold.

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If thine enemy wrong thee, buy each of his children a drum.


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 9:55 am
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BCbassman wrote:
The best reason to buy any bass is that you love it as an instrument. Its fun to play a 70's Fender. Who knows what the value will be in 20 years?

They are decidedly different than 60's or 50's Fenders.

I think it may be better for players to get the pure investors out of musical ijnstruments , but I think there are certain guitars and basses that will hold their value over time.

The best thing about buying a guitar or bass is that you can play them. You can't play gold and you can get really burned with gold as an investment. Nothing says its value is guaranteed to go up.
History is no sure prediction of the future in guitars or gold, but I will have more fun with a guitar or bass than bar of gold.


I could not agree more. I think a lot of players nowadays are very hung up on where the instrument was made and how much they spent on it as opposed to buying a bass or guitar for the main reason of playing it. There is nothing wrong with spending the money for a quality instrument and I'm not gonna get into the whole class envy thing here if you can afford it get it and hopefully play it like it is supposed to be and to hell with everything else.


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