75-76 Sweet Minty P

[thumbslam]

Even I'm gassin on this one...Maple board oh my!

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-1975-76-FEN ... 2a08483eda

[andrew]

Looks similar to my '73, only not beat to hell.

[AzWhoFan]

That is a sweet one. Only thing I can knock it for (and this is a real minor quibble) is the flaming on the headstock, neck and fretboard wood.

The only reason i quibble is because this is somewhat atypical for any mid 70's P bass (righty or lefty) that I've seen. But heck, some people would say it adds to the charm.

[Nilezd]

why is it that when one is saving money for a car so many beautiful basses come along!

[cangaroo]

why is it that when one is saving money for a car so many beautiful basses come along!

Murphy's Law applied to GASsed bass players.

[Addison]

[AzWhoFan]

Awesome pic. I swear I'm gonna grab that and use it for my Facebook avatar!

[bbl]

Anyone know why some 70's headstocks say "Precision Bass" but some don't? Just curious.

[cangaroo]

Anyone know why some 70's headstocks say "Precision Bass" but some don't? Just curious.

I asked this once in the official Fender forum and someone replied me that lefty decals on the headstock are very very inconsistent through the 70s. And (IMO) this is a drag because it raises the possibility of counterfeits.

[pjmuck]

Anyone know why some 70's headstocks say "Precision Bass" but some don't? Just curious.

From 1969-1976, Fender was using a larger "TV Logo" on their headstocks for Precision and Jazz basses, which did not lend itself well to a lefty configuration, since types read left to right on a righty headstock with Fender first, followed by the model name. (see link: http://www.elderly.com/vintage/items/im ... -front.jpg).

On a lefty headstock, there's no space to run a TV logo to read left to right unless you were to place the Fender name AFTER the model name, so Fender opted to leave the model name off and just keep the Fender logo. In late 1976, they switched to the smaller model logo typeface, and this is when you begin to see the model names listed on lefty basses again.

Fender experimented with logo placement throughout the 70's on both righties and lefties, and their treatment could get "creative" to say the least. But in all my years of researching, I have NEVER seen an original lefty Fender bass from the TV logo era that included a TV logo. (I have seen homemade lefties with TV logos that were added on later that actually looked pretty sharp, however, begging the question why Fender couldn't visualize it).

[andrew]

I have seen homemade lefties with TV logos that were added on later that actually looked pretty sharp, however, begging the question why Fender couldn't visualize it.

Agreed. I think the full TV logo looks cool on a lefty headstock.