1955 Fender Tele Bass *The Real Deal*

[oigun]

Man that thing is FREAKIN' AWESOME. Your friend must be walking around with dipers and a towel under his chin when he plays that thing.

[Dennisthe Menace]

That is a wicked looking piece Aaron. Just for the record, that is actually a 1st GEN 'P' Bass. Leo came out with the 'Precision Bass' in 1951.
The 2nd GEN came out in '57 in which Fender is still using that body style. The 'Tele' Bass came out in 1968, which was nothing more than
the original 'P' bass design with some minor changes.

[jtr654]

The body has been refinished and not by a pro. These Basses came in Blonde and Sunburst the 1st year where they rounded the edges.

[Dennisthe Menace]

The first year for 'contour body' on the 'P' bass took place in 1953 .

[dubtrub]

Fantastic! Please don't tell us you're going to refinish it. As rough as that clear finish is, it really fits the character of that rest of the guitar.

[Sarah93003]

Very nice!

[oipunkguy]

my friend is a true vintage collector. I wish he would come on the forum and tell you the stories I've heard. there's a store he would go to on the west coat and find piles of old mosrite parts, and he's bought old mosrites still in their shipping cartons. he's the only guy that i've known own a marshall major, plus it had a custom ordered yellow tolex, his main guitar is a 59 les paul junior, and for you nirvana fans, if anyone remembers the bass chris novoselic used in the teen spirit video? kurt bought bought that bass from my buddy Richard. One of these days I got to get his giant picture book of vintage guitars he's own, you guys would freak.
he's owns i think 4 more of these basses, some in rough shape, some in 100% original condition. believe it or not he got this bass at a guitar show for only 2 grand! right now the plan is just clean it up a little. some of the frets are popping out of the neck so I'm going to press them back in and do a basic set up on the bass. he's asked me to polish the frets up, and also the skunk stripe is coming out a little. i may try to tap it back in, but not sure yet how to approach it. it could be just be wood shrinkage. my friend also said that these necks tend to have issue being the truss rods aren't the greatest.
right now no refinishing is planned.

[oipunkguy]

[oipunkguy]

[oipunkguy]

i love these old paper and oil caps, but an interesting to note is the resistor going from the input to the output lug on the tone control.