This bass seems to be correct ! I have two early NYC ' s from 1997. They were completely handmade in NY. They were offered with different pickups, Lane Poor, EMG, Lindy Fralins, Di Marzios . The first electronics had no passive tone control. The first of my NYC'ies has the serialnumber at the back of the headstock,But it's hard to see. The second one has no serialnumber at all. Some of these basses have the serial number not on the front or back of the headstock ,but on the upper side of the headstock, you see it when you look at the tuner pegs....All of these early NYC basses have slightly different body shapes. I had a pickguard made for one bass which did not fit to any other early NYC basses. If somebody has details about the old NYC series , it's definately Joey! He is the man who knows everything about these early NYC Empires. I hope this helps.
But anyway , I would like to know if this early example has a 60'ies or a 70'ies Pickup position. Seems to be a 60'ies configuration?