1955 Fender Tele Bass *The Real Deal*

[oipunkguy]

a good friend of mine brought in to me his 55 bass for me to do a little work on. Not a reissue.... this thing is freakin awesome, can't wait to show you all pictures.

[Sarah93003]

a good friend of mine brought in to me his 55 bass for me to do a little work on. Not a reissue.... this thing is freakin awesome, can't wait to show you all pictures.

Pictures!!

[oipunkguy]

ok ok , I'll send something, but after that going to bed! it's 4am and I'm fallin asleep, lol. the really nice thing is it's a solid one piece ash body.

[oipunkguy]

what I found really interesting is the coil was wrapped in a twine instead of coil tap. also the bobbin itself was lacquered.







(can we say reliced? lol)

[oipunkguy]

the finish on the neck is all original. as for the rest of the instrument, it appears to be original, all but the finish on the body and the volume pot was replace at some point. also at one time someone changed out the cup jack insert for a les paul style jack, but switched it back to the original jack. I'm not sure on the pickguard screws, I believe at this time fender was using straight slotted screws, they look way too new to me to be original.

[oipunkguy]

the serial number is marked 11150.

[oipunkguy]

[oipunkguy]

more to come...

[Veenture]

To me, this 1955 Tele Bass is quite charming in it's present state; REAL vintage, showing all the honest marks of time and wear!
May I ask what is it you've been asked to do to it Aaron? (BTW, an honour in itself to be asked, for sure). Thanks for sharing those wonderful pictures. Do you know if the owner still has the pickup- and bridge covers...and is the pickup working? I notice the thumb(finger) rest is missing too. I've Googled a few 1955's and found that none have slotted screws on the pickguard, however, the Phillips head screws on this one appear to be new.

[saf]

Wow that must be a real joy working on such a piece of history