One of the Very First Contour Body Precision Basses

This 13-inch-wide lightweight "dream" bass guitar weighs just 8.70 lbs. With a full bass scale length of 34 inches and a nut width of just under 1 3/4 inches. Solid ash body contoured on back and lower bass bout, one-piece maple neck with a wonderful typical '57 deep "V" profile and 20 frets with black dot position markers. Single circular string tree. Fender cloverleaf tuners. Headstock decal with Fender 'Spaghetti' logo in silver with black trim and "Precision Bass" in black below. One split black eight-polepiece pickup with a great, fat output of 12.00k. Single layer anodized metal pickguard with ten screws. Two controls (one volume and one tone). Knurled chrome knobs with flat tops. Combined four-saddle bridge/tailpiece and both original bridge and pickup covers. The neck is marked in pencil "9-57" and the pickup cavity is also marked in pencil "9-57". The potentiometers are dated "304 732" (Stackpole Aug 1957). This guitar has been played, but looked after extremely well -- with only minimal varnish wear to the back of the neck. There are a few small surface marks and scratches, especially on the edges of the body and there is some fine finish checking. The fretboard and the original frets show almost no sign of wear. Overall this guitar is in 9.00 exceptionally fine condition. Housed in its original Fender tweed hardshell case (one broken latch) with orange plush lining (8.50). One of the earliest contour body Precision Basses we have ever seen and certainly the cleanest…

The Precision Bass, with its revolutionary new shape, was launched in 1951, and originally had a slab body. It was not until 1954, with the introduction of the Stratocaster, that Fender contoured the body. All early Precision Basses retained the 'slab-body' until the Summer of '57 when the first contoured body was introduced. For those first few months the two-tone sunburst was retained but by early '58 Fender started using the three-tone sunburst on all its guitars. In early-to-mid 1959, a slab-board rosewood fretboard was introduced.

Until the Precision, the bass was an upright acoustic instrument that was difficult to hear and cumbersome to transport. Leo Fender's invention allowed musicians to hold their instrument like a guitar, opening the bass world to curious guitar players, and allowing bass players a level of freedom they had not yet encountered. Due to the bass's solid body construction, it could be amplified to any level, giving it new found aural presence. In its first fifteen years of development, the Precision Bass changed as much as the music it influenced and the musicians it inspired, having been played by everyone from The Shadows to Led Zeppelin.