The Ultimate Precision Bass

This 13-inch-wide lightweight "dream" bass guitar weighs just 8.90 lbs. With a full bass scale length of 34 inches and a nut width of 1 3/4 inches. Solid alder body contoured on back and lower bass bout, one-piece maple neck, maple-cap fretboard with 20 frets and black clay dot markers. Single circular string tree. Fender cloverleaf tuners. Headstock decal with Fender logo in silver with black trim, "Precision Bass" in black, and five patent number below it. One split black eight-polepiece pickup with a great, fat output of 10.75k. Four-layer (tortoiseshell/white/black/white) plastic pickguard with thirteen 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 has a pencil mark "5 JUN 65C" and the pots are dated 1376534 (Aug 1965). This guitar has been played, but looked after extremely well -- with only minimal varnish wear to the back of the neck. A near mint guitar with the exceptionally rare variant maple-cap neck. An exceptional example of the rarest of all precision basses (this was a special order). 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. Many players missed the comfort of the maple fretboard, so from around 1967 to 1969, a one-piece maple neck was offered as an option. Our guitar has an extremely rare maple-cap neck and fretboard, which was obviously specially ordered at the time. We know that maple-cap Telecasters were available to special order from around 1966, but we have never seen or heard of another 1965 maple-cap Precision Bass.

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.

The condition of this guitar is as good as it will ever get!