The Ultimate Precision Bass.

This 13-inch-wide lightweight "dream" bass guitar weighs just 8.90 lbs. Solid alder body contoured on back and lower bass bout. One-piece maple neck with a wonderful medium profile, a full bass scale length of 34 inches and a nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches. Exceptionally rare maple-cap fretboard with 20 original medium-to-thick frets and black dot position markers. Single circular string tree. Fender cloverleaf tuners. Headstock with Fender transition logo, with "Fender" in silver with black trim, "Precision Bass" beneath, and beneath that "Pat. 2,968,204  2,976,755  2,573,254  3,143,028  Des. 187,001". Four-bolt neckplate with the serial number "L91146" stamped between the top two screws. One split black eight-polepiece pickup with a great, fat output of 10.57k. Four-layer tortoiseshell over white and black plastic pickguard with thirteen screws. Two controls (one volume and one tone). Knurled chrome knobs with flat tops. Combined four-saddle bridge/tailpiece and both original bridge and pickup covers. The neck is stamped on the end "5 JUL 65 C" and has "R + R" written in black marker on the underside. The potentiometers are both stamped 137 6534 (CTS, August 1965). An exceptional example of the rarest of all precision basses. There is one very small wear spot on the fretboard by the third fret and a couple of very small and insignificant marks/indentations on the back of the neck. That being said this super rrae bass is in near mint (9.25) condition. Housed in its original Fender three-latch rectangular black hardshell case with black leather ends and reddish orange plush lining (8.50).

The Precision Bass, with its revolutionary new shape, was launched in 1951, and originally had a slab body. It was not until 1954, with the introduction of the Stratocaster, that Fender contoured the body. All early Precision Basses had one-piece maple necks, but in 1959, a slab-board rosewood fretboard was introduced. Many players missed the comfort of the maple fretboard, so from around 1967 to 1969, a one-piece maple neck was offered as an option. Our guitar has an extremely rare maple-cap neck and fretboard, which was obviously specially ordered at the time. We know that maple-cap Telecasters were available to special order from around 1966, but we have never seen or heard of another 1965 maple-cap Precision Bass.

Until the Precision, the bass was an upright acoustic instrument that was difficult to hear and cumbersome to transport. Leo Fender's invention allowed musicians to hold their instrument like a guitar, opening the bass world to curious guitar players, and allowing bass players a level of freedom they had not yet encountered. Due to the bass's solid body construction, it could be amplified to any level, giving it new found aural presence. In its first fifteen years of development, the Precision Bass changed as much as the music it influenced and the musicians it inspired, having been played by everyone from The Shadows to Led Zeppelin.

The condition of this guitar is as good as one could ever wish for!