Fender's First Reissue

Fender's first reissue, being a reissue of the original Precision Bass. This 12 3/4-inch-wide bass guitar weighs just 8.90 lbs. and has a nut width of just over 1 3/4 inches and a full bass scale length of 34 inches. Solid ash body, one-piece fretted maple neck (with a skunk stripe) with 20 frets and black dot position markers. Single circular string tree. Headstock decal with Fender logo in silver with black trim and with small circled "R" (for "Registered"), with "TELECASTER BASS" and one patent number ("PAT. 2,968,204") in two lines in black beneath it. Individual Fender tuners with "Fender" logo and with cloverleaf metal buttons. Four-bolt neck plate with large Fender "F" logo and with serial number ("234839") between the two top screws. Single-coil gray pickup with four staggered polepieces (the bobbin wound in white). Lacking the pickup cover (and with the two screw holes visible). Eleven-screw clear Lucite pickguard painted black underneath. Two-screw thumbrest on the treble side of the pickguard. Two controls (one volume, one tone) on a chrome-plated metal plate adjoining the pickguard. Chrome knobs with flat tops and knurled sides. Combined two-saddle bridge/tailpiece with original cover. With an inlaid mother-of-pearl cross on the lower treble bout by the volume and tone controls. The neck is dated "27 OCT 68 C," the pots are dated "304 66 31," and the pickup is dated "10-24-68 3." This guitar is in excellent plus (8.75) condition, with some finish checking, some light belt buckle scarring on the back and the edges, a few little marks on the top, minimal fret wear, and some playing wear (loss of the top finish on the treble side of the neck). Housed in the original brown hardshell case with fleece lining (9.00).

"In 1968, the original Precision Bass design was re-introduced as the Telecaster Bass with the majority of the original appointments: the strings went through the body; the bridge had two saddles like the original; the pickguard, covers, headstock and controls were resurrected, as was the slab body. Other features differed: the pickguard was white, rather than the original black single sheet Bakelite; the neck was constructed with a maple fingerboard lamination cap, unlike the original one-piece maple design. Some models featured the original one-piece maple neck later that year. The ferrules on the new Telecaster Bass were smaller and no longer seated flush into the body like the original 1950s model" (J.W. Black and Albert Molinaro, The Fender Bass: An Illustrated History, p. 49).

"A curious version of the Precision Bass appeared in 1966, apparently only for export to the U.K. It had a slab body and black pickguard, like the original P-Bass, but was otherwise the same as the contemporary models. The slab body returned again in 1968 on the Telecaster Bass, a new model patterned on the '51 Precision, right down to the strings-through-body bridge and single-coil pickup. (Some of the product literature claimed that 'the Telecaster Bass was originally introduced before 1950.' Under CBS, Fender couldn't even get its own history right.) The choice of finishes included psychedelic Blue Flower and Paisley Red bodies. The single-coil pickup was replaced with a large chrome-covered humbucker in 1972; not many bassists found this to be an improvement. The Tele Bass was discontinued in 1979" (Jim Roberts, American Basses: An Illustrated History & Player's Guide, pp. 56-57).