Does Elderly is known to be a trusted company as far as vintage gear? Just asking......


Sly

Oh yeah, very trusted. They've been around a long time. I used to hang with them about 15 years ago when they would show up at guitar shows in Chicago. One of their vintage equipment managers is a lefty, which is why they always stock decent lefty pieces when they can get them. Their pricing is very competitive too, as far as I can tell. I'd have no problem buying something from them.

Any Vintage Fender experts in here?
The bass looks very interesting but I suspect that it is not an original neck because of the logo. It looks more like a reissue to me. Any body can comment on this ?

Sly

There are definitely some inconsistencies going on here.

They claim the neck heel is stamped, "5 May 69 B", but to best of my knowledge (and according to the Fender Bass book), B necks were not offered on P basses until '72. There's also no such thing as a 1 11/16" nut width. B necks are 1 5/8". If it were a '69, it would be a 1 3/4" C neck. It's possible they measured wrong, but the most obvious discrepancy is the spaghetti logo. Fender phased the spaghetti logo out in '64 and went with the block transition logo soon after. They also started adding patent numbers under the logo as early as '61. I've seen a few vintage lefty Fenders (pre '72, including the few I own), and they can differ from the righties, especially with regard to the model name whereby lefties often just have the Fender logo and leave the model name off ("precision" or "jazz" bass), but I have NEVER seen a vintage lefty without patent numbers. So maybe it's a real '69 neck (The "B" neck size argument aside) but was sanded and refinished. But at the very least, the logo is definitely not original.

Elderly Music strikes again!
http://elderly.com//vintage/items/56U-178.htm

Sly,
such a small world! I'm from Montreal originally. Who are you taking it to to get appraised?

You might even consider going to Steve's Music and ask for Sheldon. He's seen a lot of guitars over the years. Last time I looked, which was a couple of years ago, he was still one of the managers.

Ok I got the bass yesterday..................................WOW.

Thanks AzWhoFan for posting it here,

Sly

You're very welcome! And very lucky too!! If I hadn't just bought a Rob Allen, I probably would have bought it for myself.

And as far as the neck width being a B, I can confirm that a buddy of mine who now lives in Toronto has a 3TS sunburst 1970 lefty Precision with a B neck stamp. He bought it new from Steve's music in 1970, it arrived early 71, he still has it today. Of course like all lefties at that time it was a special order. But he does not remember specifying a particular neck width. We used to loan each other our basses. I'd get the P-bass, he's get my Ric or '63 Thunderbird ( both righties ). I really liked the sound of it, but used to moan at how heavy it was.

Congrtats again!