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P bass body with neck humbucker ('78?)


Ou7shined
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Just for fun, anyone wanna have a pop at ID'ing this body?

I bought this solid wood, 2 piece (I'm guessing ash) body off here the other day. As you can see it had a great wodge of copper tape from the pup cavity to the neck pocket. I just thought someone was being overly cautious with their shielding.



So I got quite a surprise when took the shielding off and found....



And that's not a wood infill.... it's cataloy. :)

It appears to be a good quality body - 2.4Kg. The neck pocket dimentions and screw holes match that of Fender's. The P pup cavity seems to be original (eliminating a tele bass from the equation - the control cavity shape supports this too) however the lugs have been amateurly done at a later point. The wiring rout between the P cavity and the control cavity is very shallow ~5mm (big clue?) and the same "surface" rout was used from the neck pup to the P pup. There are some filled holes around both pup cavities suggesting pickup surrounds.

It has 03-78 in pencil in the neck pocket which I'm taking to be a date.

The only P bass I know of with a neck humbucker is Billy Shehan's...


Was there production model that fits this description?

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I'm currently stripping a late 70s body (pic attached) & mods were very common back then. I'm mildly annoyed as the seller didn't mention this had been modded & I passed over a cheaper body because it had also been modded. I like the colour of yours but I think you'll struggle to put a year to it

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Yeah I'm a bit miffed at mine too. The plan was to make something resembling my G&L L-1000 out of it...



... well that's obviously not happening now, unless I go for a solid finish which is a shame as I love the grain on it. :) I guess a pickguard is another option.

[s]Regarding the mods, the thing is I'm almost certain that both pup cavities are original. The P pup lugs were obviously added to the cavity later on meaning that the pup could only have been held in with surrounds (I think). If so it's fair to assume that the same system was used for the neck pup too and there is strong evidence of that.[/s]

edited presumptuous horseshit :rolleyes:

Edited by Ou7shined
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Maybe it was supposed to be a tele bass, but then last thing on Friday afternoon someone realised they were a p bass short of an order and just monkey'd it together on the sly. Because he had a hot date to go home and get ready for and CBS weren't gonna pay him overtime were they? Money grabbing, neck mounting screw stealing (from the jazz) bastards!

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[quote name='cocco' post='957843' date='Sep 15 2010, 11:21 PM']Maybe it was supposed to be a tele bass, but then last thing on Friday afternoon someone realised they were a p bass short of an order and just monkey'd it together on the sly. Because he had a hot date to go home and get ready for and CBS weren't gonna pay him overtime were they? Money grabbing, neck mounting screw stealing (from the jazz) bastards![/quote]
Now this I believe. :)

[quote name='mcnach' post='957850' date='Sep 15 2010, 11:30 PM']Nice avatar... it took me a while to realise it was you despite looking at it with attention :lol:[/quote]
Aye, it's easy to miss the bass in that pic. :rolleyes:

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Slightly different routs for Mudbucker Tele bass = rout a bit further forward than is usual for a Precision,going by this pic,also the front of the body would be flat,with no arm contour.I think that the Mudbucker Tele basses were all 3 bolt neck plates too,mine was.Earlier style Tele bass,looks like it has a smaller rout for pots.

Edited by hillbilly deluxe
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I've found a good pic of a '74 P body and mine can exactly match all the screw holes (with some extras :rolleyes:) including the p/g centre one, the two upper thumb rest ones, the one on the north-west of the E/A pup, the one on the south-east of the D/G pup and the one to the front of the control cavity - all of which look to have been filled at the same time compared with other holes. I don't have the bridge rout though.

click for bigger pic
[url="http://img259.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=14557_fendercuerpo_122_342lo.JPG"][/url]

With this evidence, I think I'm gonna have to agree that it was a P and the humbucker is an after thought. :)

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