A Near Fine Pre-CBS Custom Color Precision Bass

This 13-inch-wide lightweight "dream" bass guitar weighs just 8.50 lbs. and has a nut width of 1 3/4 inches and a full bass scale length of 34 inches. Solid alder body contoured on back and lower bass bout, one-piece maple neck, and veneer rosewood fretboard with 20 frets and faux pearl (i.e. pearloid) position markers. Single circular string tree. Fender cloverleaf tuners. Headstock decal with Fender logo in silver with black trim, "Precision Bass" in black below it, and five patent numbers below that: "PAT. 2,968,204 2,976,755 2,573,254 3,143,028 DES. 187,001." Four-bolt neck plate with serial number ("L67741") between the top two screws. One split black eight-polepiece pickup with a great, fat output of 11.33k. Four-layer (tortoiseshell/white/black/white) plastic pickguard with thirteen screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) on the lower treble bout. Chrome knobs with knurled sides and flat tops. Combined four-saddle bridge/tailpiece and both original bridge and pickup covers. With the original finger rest on the treble side of the pickguard. The neck is stamped "5 FEB 65C" and the pots are stamped "304 6450" (Stackpole December 1964). This guitar has been played, but looked after extremely well -- with only a small amount of belt buckle wear on the back and a few marks on the top and the edges. Overall, an exceptional and totally original example of a mid-sixties "custom color" Precision Bass. Housed in its original Fender black hardshell case with reddish-orange plush lining (8.00).

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 had one-piece maple necks, but in 1959, a slab-board rosewood fretboard was introduced, and then finally in 1962 the "veneer" 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.