1974 Bass VI, one off natural ash

ilan · March 27, 2020, 09:50:19 AM

https://www.ebay.com/itm/164139793411

$7,195 starting bid

Dave W · March 27, 2020, 12:32:30 PM

No matter how rare, it's still a 70s Fender. The very reason the vintage market sprang up. This one could be great, but at that price?

ilan · March 28, 2020, 11:27:24 AM

The asking price is nuts, agreed. But I posted it only because I have never seen another in Nat.

Personally I like 70s Fenders because I started playing bass in 1975 and that was what you saw the pro's play. I know too many of them were crap, still I love my '75 to death, it's one of the good ones.

patman · March 28, 2020, 12:16:45 PM

I always liked the natural ash

amptech · March 29, 2020, 05:09:41 AM

Quote from: ilan on March 28, 2020, 11:27:24 AM
The asking price is nuts, agreed. But I posted it only because I have never seen another in Nat.

Personally I like 70s Fenders because I started playing bass in 1975 and that was what you saw the pro's play. I know too many of them were crap, still I love my '75 to death, it's one of the good ones.

Lucky you, my 74 is one of the not quite so good. Heavy, and plenty of dead spots

Pilgrim · March 29, 2020, 12:08:26 PM

The 70's Fenders are highly variable in weight.

My '63 P is relatively light; 8.3 pounds with pickup and bridge covers.

Attached is a late 2016 version of a bass weight chart I worked up for Talkbass. It may be of interest; it has a bit more than 900 basses listed, all by the weights reported in the TB thread.

Dave W · March 29, 2020, 03:19:17 PM

I've played light and extra-heavy 70s Fenders. There are some gems but too many were way too heavy. The other problem that led to the vintage market was sloppy workmanship. There were too many bad examples.

ilan · March 29, 2020, 05:11:42 PM

In my experience, if it's <9lbs I can almost always make it sound and play great. Especially P's and 4-bolt J's. Fender necks are easy to adjust, and grey bottom are imho the best pickups Fender ever produced.

amptech · March 30, 2020, 01:35:28 AM

Quote from: ilan on March 29, 2020, 05:11:42 PM
In my experience, if it's <9lbs I can almost always make it sound and play great. Especially P's and 4-bolt J's. Fender necks are easy to adjust, and grey bottom are imho the best pickups Fender ever produced.

Mine is 9.5 lbs, and I don't think it sounds too good. I manage to set it up OK, and sound OK. I think it's the only bass I would not regret selling, and I've had it since I was a kid. $:-\$

My cousin invested in a '68 P a while back, all original. Very worn, but not beat up. Pickups measure and look the same, but the '68 is much louder. It was a super light specimen, very balanced across the board, no serious dead spots, just super playing and sounding.
I should never played that bass, it made mine feel even worse. I'm amazed these two came out of the same factory with only six years between them.