Bass mods in 1963

[haimesy]

8 hours ago, police squad said:

it's actually only the guitarist who is original but the current bass player, Frank Allen did join them early on

The new singer has been there 35 years now

 I saw them a couple of years ago, they were fabulous

My first Pro band was with the current singer Spencer James in London 

[tauzero]

I'm not convinced they're mods at all. None of them are wearing parkas.

[Alanko]

Maybe a way of styling out headstock damage. Notice there is no visible headstock decal. That or he played with a pushy guitarist with a Telecaster who insisted on the matching showband look.

 

Another mystery bass is a P Bass played briefly by Chris Hillman of the Byrds:

 

 

I wager there is the remains of a split Fender headstock under a new veneer, plus extra wood to make up a 2 x 2 headstock. The bass has never surfaced, so pure guesswork on my part.

 

[Jono Bolton]

On 01/05/2025 at 17:47, Hellzero said:

Indeed, but the idea of Leo Fender was not really moding, but fixing an instrument by changing the problematic part with another faster than fast and not spending time on repair: a typical moto from the post war society and the consumerism.

In this scenario though, the 51-style neck would have a squared off heel rather than a rounded one like the later Precisions, so would have required a fair bit of work to make them fit. It's a rosewood fingerboard too, so the more likely scenario is a reshaped headstock IMO

[Jono Bolton]

Double post

Edited yesterday at 10:32 by Jono Bolton

[MrFingers]

On 02/05/2025 at 20:59, Alanko said:

Another mystery bass is a P Bass played briefly by Chris Hillman of the Byrds

Chris Hillman was (and is) originally a mandolin player, and prior to joining the Byrds he never even picked up a bass (hence his rather melodic style: he approached it as a very big mandolin with very thick strings). That bass was loaned to him to mime in a TV appearance, he thinks it was a Fender body with a homemade neck, and it was absolutely atrocious. He later used a sunburst P-bass with transition logo on Monterey, which was then stripped and stained in brown, and used furher in the Burrito Bro's.

 

As for that '63 P-bass, it has a rosewood fretboard, so I'd suspect that someone took a hacksaw to the headstock, and reshaped it. Also because a true <57 P-neck had the square heel just like the Telecaster, which doesn't fit in the curved neck pocket. Hence you can install a curved neck in a square pocket, but not the other way around.