Fender should build a 60's "slab" body Precision ala J.A.E.

[godofthunder]

  What do you guys think of this idea?  I was at the HOG today and the Fender rep was there, Bruce said I should chat him up and fill his head with ideas. I suggested a 60's slab body Precision ala Live at Leeds. The rep told me they had done some through the custom shop......................... I told him that if I was going to spend that kind of money I'd buy another 60's Thunderbird. I suggested that they build it so boomers or young cats who are into Entwistle can actually afford one, MIM or MIJ would be fine, I would pay a bit of a premium for MIA but it wouldn't be a deal breaker. I played the new MIM nitro 50's P bass today and that is one nice bass, don't care where they made it.

[John Schoen]

Cool idea but the bass on Live at Leeds was not a slab Precision, it was a bass that he called Frankenstein. According to his notes in Bass Culture, the book about his collection, that bass was put together from the parts of five smashed basses. The neck, pickups and electronics came from a slab bass, the bridge from a Jazz bass and the rest of the parts came from other Precisions.
I would still love to own a reissue slab bass if they make one because of the almost mythical status that the originals have.

[godofthunder]

Huh? I thought it was slabs that he smashed to build Frankenstien.

[jumbodbassman]

same here

[John Schoen]

I can definitely see a forearm contour on Frankenstein's body in the picture in the book. There is also a slab Precision in the book, he mentions Frankenstein in the notes for that bass saying that the pickups and tone circuit gave the slab bass a raunchier tone.

[godofthunder]

 I know I have the book and a '75 guitar player interview with him. I thought I read somewhere that that during a refinish Frankenstien  acquired the contours............... I could certainly be wrong.

[dadagoboi]

Quote page25 BASS CULTURE..."I immediately fell in love with them-the maple neck-the telecaster blue vein white body and a square edge body with a split pickup was unheard of then...The only survivor of my three 'slab' basses is 'Frankenstein' featured elsewhere in this book"

The next 3 pages are Frankenstein' pictures and state that, "I had it refinished from from sunburst to its present pink colour."

If quote one is taken to mean all the 'Slabs' were Blonde (Mary Kay White) then according to quote two 'Frankenstein' is not a slab.  The actual picture of 'Frankenstein' is inconclusive to me.  It definitely does not have a "square edge body"...but neither does the other, also refinned slab on P 25.

Maybe no contours but definitely NOT Tele 'square edges'

Buy the book and draw your own conclusion...

[godofthunder]

 Maybe a better question is what is the definitive Entwistle Precision? Black and rose wood from the Isle of Wight? Black and Maple from Whos's Next? The Blond Slabs?

[godofthunder]

 This explains Frankenstien pretty clearly contoured body it is.http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/bass/bass6768.html#frankenstein

[dadagoboi]

Cool!  There are also some pix with a slab if you follow the "slab" link

[godofthunder]

Yeah they should build a three knob slab, that would be cool!

[Lightyear]

I think it's a great idea!  The "slab" P is a mythical thing and just think - 10 minutes for a designer to modify one of Fender's 50 or so existing CNC P body files and the everything else comes from existing stock.  It would probably cost more money to create a new serial number grouping and to enter the product into accounting programs.  A little gorilla marketing and it work sell itself.

[Dave W]

I think it's a great idea!  The "slab" P is a mythical thing and just think - 10 minutes for a designer to modify one of Fender's 50 or so existing CNC P body files and the everything else comes from existing stock.  It would probably cost more money to create a new serial number grouping and to enter the product into accounting programs.  A little gorilla marketing and it work sell itself.

Would they need to modify the body shape? Isn't it the same as the '51 style slab body but with '57 features?

[eb2]

Fender has made quite a game of mixing body styles and hardware to make short run instruments. 

As I recall the Frankenstein Entwistle bass was the guts and neck from a slab 66 bolted to a regular burst P-bass body.  Too bad that they had the reissue 66 bass both fairly expensive and discontinued after a short period. I have yet to hear of anyone who ever saw one in a shop.

[Iome]

Yeah they should build a three knob slab, that would be cool!

What's the third knob for?