❌SOLD❌ Fender Precision 1956 Solidbody Electric Bass Sunburst

This is a rare treat – a wonderful Fender Precision 1956 Solidbody Electric Bass in very good, all original condition excepting strings, with some wear to the back finish from the player’s belt. The neck is quartersawn Maple and the body is Alder, with an overall weight around 8.5 pounds (3.9 kg). The finish on the neck is very clean and the headstock logo decal is in excellent condition.

The Fender Precision 1956’s original nitrocellulose lacquer sunburst body and natural neck finish shows a very small amount of honest play wear, aside from the wear spot on the back.   The soft V-profile neck date code is 11-56, indicating production during November of 1956 in Fullerton, California. The pots, pickups and other hardware are all original. As was the case from the introduction of the Precision Bass in 1951 until the 1957 revision, the strings run through the back of the body rather than through the back of the bridge.

The case is the original rectangular tweed model with all latches working and the original handle. The storage compartment in the case currently contains an original style strap, older cable, and package from the Fender flatwound strings on the bass. The case also helpfully includes a 1963 edition of a Mel Bay Electric Bass method by Roger Filiberto!

The Fender Precision 1956 model solidbody bass was a transition model and the last production version of this fantastically influential instrument before it took its final form in 1957. Introduced in 1951 with a ‘slab’ body and single coil pickup, the Precision Bass was rapidly popular and in 1954 gained ‘comfort contours’ to match the new Stratocaster model. In 1957, the P-Bass was revised with a larger headstock, new pickguard and the two-coil humbucking pickup that Fender, like most manufacturers, had been developing.

These early model Precisions are still in use by some prominent players – Sting has regularly used one, and Dusty Hill from Z Z Top has often seen playing these.