Fig. 1 One of the nicest Fender Precision Basses I’ve ever seen—a 1955 model—was in my shop recently for a trussrod repair. The neck was badly upbowed, with a broken adjusting nut that had been glued in place with “Gorilla Glue”! Next month I’ll detail the neck repairs necessary to get this beauty back onstage; this month, however, I thought you might appreciate a close-up view of this very rare axe (leaning against an equally rare ’52 Fender Deluxe). So, I’m cutting the gab and showing the slab.

Fig. 2 What a great piece of ash—a one-piece body with Strat-style contouring!

Fig. 3 I love the look and sound of Fender’s early bass bridge design. On the left is the ’55 bridge; on the right is the bridge from a ’53 P-Bass. The earlier bridge saddles are made from a type of black phenolic, similar to Bakelite. The ’55’s saddles are steel.

Fig. 4 The vintage “elephant ear” tuners work backward compared to modern tuners, and they are much better looking. Compare the modern Schaller E tuner to the A tuner next to it—which do you prefer?

Fig. 5 A glimpse at the pickup tells me this bass has been played a lot. That tiny wire is the start of the coil. If it breaks, it’s tough to fix—so if I owned this bass, I’d consider sealing the wire with clear superglue to protect it for the next 51 years.

Fig. 6a On page 35 of my book The Guitar Player Repair Guide, there are examples of Fender bass and guitar neck shapes. This neck is a fatter variant of the early-1950s “Soft V” shown here—sort of a combination of the No. 2 and No. 3 shapes.

Fig. 6b I was planning to make a neck that feels like this one, so I measured and recorded the neck’s width (across the fingerboard) at the 1st and 12th frets. Those measurements were 1.781" and 2.280". I also recorded the neck thickness (from the fingerboard to the back of the neck) at the 1st, 7th, and 12th frets. Those measurements were .936", , .977", and 1.015".

Fig. 7 A peek in the control cavity found original electronics that are clean as a whistle …

Fig. 8 … wired and dated by Nora Crawford on 11/14/55.