Johnnysonic

I remember the 61 At Bass Centre also and the £575 price. There was a ‘63 for £550 and a ‘64 for £525. Being a bit of a cheapskate I bought the ‘64, though it’s brown case was a nice extra enducement. Only kept it a few years. Yes, it was 1986.

Or for a gig...

This is interesting for Slab fans, and perhaps another chapter in the story. This is a loan agreement from Jan 1967 from Sound City in London to Noel Redding of the J H Experience. It’s a one day hire for a slab P Bass. The serial number (131437) is recorded in the Barry Matthews book, where it is said to belong to Phil Harris. It says Tele Bass in the invoice but of course they did not exist in Jan ‘67; it actually proves that the term ‘Tele Bass’ was being used for the slabs at the time. I presume it was used for a recording session with Jimi Hendrix! Forgive me if you’ve all seen this before. Johnny

Steve, I owned this bass from - I Think - 1991 to 1997. I bought it from Andy’s in Denmark Stvand sold it to Barry Millership who eventually sold it to Barry Mathews (whose widow is selling it at Andy Baxter’s) when did you own it? The bass centre invoice doesn’t have a date. J

Finish looks original to me. Someone got a good deal.

My guess is that it is factory original. The logo looks right. Here's my thinking: In the early '60s Fender basses were available with neck width options. Though very rare, the most common option was for a P Bass with a narrow Jazz width neck. At the time they simply put a Jazz neck on a P and put a P Bass logo on it. No one was any the wiser as the necks were interchangeable. The problem came when Fender started to put binding and then blocks and binding on their jazzes in '65/66. A narrow neck option on a P now meant getting these features. Fender eventually realised this anomaly and started to make bespoke narrow width P Bass necks, but this didn't happen till around '68. I have seen a couple of early '66 P Basses with bound, narrow necks, almost certainly because of this use of a stock jazz neck. There is also a well known Charlcoal Frost Precision from '68 which is not only block and bound but has a maple cap neck! It's appeared in a few books (most recently Fender, the golden years) and almost certainly was the result of an order for a narrow (maple) neck, which resulted in the factory putting the order through as if it were for a Jazz and not a Precision. I wonder if the owner was shocked to see the blocks and binding! Johnny

Bit of a corrective to that last post. I seem to have bought it (No 138700) from Andy's in the early 90s and sold it later in the decade. J

Steve, When did you own e Slab Body P Bass no 138700? I bought it from Andy's in Denmark St - sometime in the late 1980s I think. Is that where you sold it? I owned it for about fifteen years. Great bass! Johnny

Is that you Mr Pratt? If so, are you enjoying my old '64 Burgundy Mist Precison?! Johnny

The point is they're great basses and very rare compared to P Basses. The reissues have nothing on the real thing. New Kings Road Guitars has one for £9k, or there abouts, but is absolutely complete to the last screw and is clean. A bargain if anything. Johnny

Indeed, there was a lot of variation. Fender used a combination of nickel and chrome parts which must have looked similar when new, but which age differently of course, the nickel fading somewhat and the chrome remaining bright, if a little pitted. The interesting thing is that Fender mixed nickel and chrome within the same part. For e.g., the bridge plate is chrome but the saddles are nickel. This can also apply to the tuners, which though generally described as Klusons were partly made by Fender themselves, in particular the post. It's not unusual to find the main part of the tuner, including the cog and stem, to be nickel, while the post (into which the string goes) is chrome! As I said, when new this would have looked fine, but now appears quite odd. Sorry if I'm being a bit anal! Johnny

Here's mine, the third I have owned! Original apart from refinish in white. Rosewood neck. April '66 Neck/ week 17 of '66 pts. Thinking about putting it up for sale shortly. If so will put it on this site. Johnny