LeftyBassist.com

http://www.gbase.com/gear/fender-precision-1978-natural Wonder what the "Super Fly" graphic looks like

Dear Kebo's Bass Works,

If the pots are '81, the bass is an '81 and not a '78.

Sincerely,

Concerned Citizen

Geeez. I'm starting to have real doubts about this gbase place.

I wonder if the neck is a baseball bat like some of those 80s P's I've seen.

Troof! I had a 1980 Sunburst P that I could have straddled the neck and floated down the Amazon on

Don't know that for sure until we see some pics with serial number. It wouldn't be the first lefty bass that sat semi complete at the factory for a couple years before final assembly.IMO the neck date of manufacture would be more of a factor in determining year than the pots.

Sent Kevin an email asking if he could post pics of both lefty basses on Gbase. If he replies I'll let y'all know.

Kevin just joined the board so he could be coming here to reply.

PICS http://www.gbase.com/gear/fender-precis ... 8-natural# Looks like a 78 to me. Pretty unique.

It's a well-known fact that Fender made a boat-load of lefty parts in 78 and there are many basses that were assembled and sold through the next several years.

Obviously, you want to look at everything to determine the date... Serial numbers, neck stamps and pot dates.

The neck stamp will only give you the date the neck was manufactured. Neck manufacture alone does not determine DOB. During the 70's, neck plates were pulled out of big boxes and have also proved to be unreliable.

However, the pot dates will give you the closest estimate to the final assembly date, which is what most people would use to determine the year of the bass.

In my experience, this method is pretty typical across the board.

So I think what you're saying is (correct me if I misunderstood) that if the neck,body, pickups etc were made in 1978 and the serial number is 1978, and the pots were installed in 1981 the bass is a 1981?

It would be an '81. It's usually determined by the 'newest' factory installed parts. That's what I've read for years.

OK. Thanks Matt.

If I remember correctly, that comes from the Fender Bass Book. Seems weird but makes sense I guess.

The Fender bass book written by my high school buddy Albert Molinaro?

Yessir, that's the book.

It's just called The Fender Bass. The Fender Bass Book is a different book, my bad.

I've known Albert for 45+ years. We both went to school in Livingston NJ and at that time were 2 of the few bass players in town and bonded in a mutual admiration kind of way. He moved to LA in the mid-seventies and proceeded to amass a huge vintage guitar and bass collection and along the way became a respected authority on vintage basses. He also opened Guitars R Us on Sunset in Hollywood (closed now for at least 10 years maybe longer) and sold instruments to the rich and famous. I bought a 74 P from him in the mid-nineties. He has a vintage Fender bass collection you'd have to see to believe. He contacted me about 2 years ago to tell me he was selling a bunch of his basses . Sadly none were lefties. He's a great guy. Small world.

Yes, exactly what Matt said... but it's not an exact science and you need to use your better judgement, some detective skills, and help from the online community to piece everything together.

Obviously, if the neck plate or serial number and the neck stamp all pointed to a '69 bass, but the pots were from '77, I think it would be pretty safe to assume that the bass was a '69 and the pots were replaced at some point with factory pots... logic would tell you that it wouldn't be likely that parts sat around in the factory for 8 years before they were built into a bass. However, I have read some pretty strange stories where similar things have happened... it's just very, very rare.

That "late 70's/early 80's" transition for Fender was a strange time, however... especially for lefties... and it's just safer to go with the newest date, if you don't have any other provenance (like a sales receipt) to corroborate the earlier date.