This fretless Precision Bass weighs just 8.30 lbs. One-piece alder body, one-piece maple neck, maple fretboard. With a full base scale length of 34 inches and a nut width of 1 19/32 inches. One split black eight-polepiece pickup with an output of 10.62k. Three-layer (white/black/white) plastic pickguard. Two controls (one volume, one tone) and jack, all on pickguard. Knurled chrome knobs. Fender combined bridge/tailpiece. This bass is in exceptionally fine condition, with only minimal belt buckle wear on the back. Housed in a later Fender black hardshell case with black plush lining (9.00).

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 and it was in 1959 that 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 nor 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 fretless option became available in 1970.