All Original Maple Neck 1975 Fender Precision Bass

1975 Fender Precision Bass

This 13 inch-wide lightweight custom-color 'Black' bass guitar weighs 11.30 lbs. and has a nut width of 1 5/8 inches and a full bass scale length of 34 inches. Solid alder body, contoured on back and lower bass bout. One-piece maple neck with a medium to thick profile and 20 original medium frets with black dot position markers. Type 'C' headstock decal with "Fender" in black with gold trim, "Precision Bass" in black and four patent numbers "Pat. 2,573,254  2,968,204  3,143,028  2,976,755" beneath. Single circular string tree. Fender cloverleaf tuners. Four-bolt neck plate with serial number "695401" between the top two screws. One split black eight-pole piece pickup with a great, fat output of 10.91k. Three-layer black/white/black plastic pick-guard 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. With  the original bridge (with original mute) cover, the original thumbrest on the bass side of the pickguard. Small metal shield under the controls on the pickguard. The neck code stamp is too feint to read. The potentiometers are stamped "137 75 36" (CTS, September 1975). This forty-one year old P. bass is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition with just a small area 1 1/4 x 5/8 inch where the finish has been worn away due to belt buckle wear, a few small and insignificant surface marks (one on the top and a few on the sides), and the top of one of the pickguard screws (between the volume and tone control knobs) has sheared off. Housed in its original Fender black hardshell case with black leather ends and reddish orange 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, 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.