Mysteries are the soul of vintage guitar collecting. The thrill of finding a long lost “one of a kind” or “lost model” or “proto” is unsurpassed.
This is one of my best “mystery” guitars.
And it is also one of my most beautiful guitars in terms of its pure essence and simplicity. That is a trademark of all of Leo Fender’s original designs.
Most obviously different about this “bass guitar” is that it is “Red” (including the finger rest). Fender mass production guitars were not offered in custom colors that year (1955). But the paint/finish on this guitar has been verified as being original. One claim is that it was built as a “one off for the 1955 NAMM show” to “test the reception for a new color scheme for Fender guitars” and there is a photo of it at the show “hidden somewhere in the Fender archives”. So far, I have not been able to find it.
I am convinced that this is a real “vintage” Fender guitar from 1955.
NOTE: Cash plus trades will be considered. Please contact me for more info.
zI
And now the investigation of this “mystery” guitar.
First, the objective evidence.
After being “examined” by several luthiers these seem to be “true facts” about this guitar:
1. The serial number dates the construction of both the neck and the body to the 1950’s time period.
2. The wood is certainly traceable to the 1950’s time period and is representative of the woods used by Fender during that time period.
3. The hardware and electronics are also traceable to those used by Fender during that time period.
4. The finish is original and traceable to those used by Fender during that time period according to Steve Soest and, as Steve and George Fullerton state, it was not unusual for Fender to paint guitars in colors based on a customer request even before Fender introduced “custom colors” to their product line.
Next, the anecdotal evidence:
1. The comments of the former owner of this guitar, Aspen Pittman. Aspen is a legend in the guitar music business. He is best known as the founder and owner of Groove Tubes which he sold to Fender Music. Today he continues to create and market some of the most advanced sound production equipment in world as the owner of ASPEN PITTMAN DESIGNS. Aspen’s latest creation is the revolutionary “Spacestation XL and Spacestation v.3” powered monitor center point speakers. Once again, Aspen has redefined how music is heard.
This is Aspen’s recollection of owning this historic bass guitar.
Recollections (and regrets) of a collector, by Aspen Pittman
My ‘Fullerton Red’ 1955 Fender Precision Bass
I bought my house in Sylmar back in 1973, when I returned to So Cal (from No Cal) just around the time I went to work for Acoustic Control Corporation (Acoustic Amps). It was about that time I bought a new refrigerator and so I had my old one sitting in my driveway. My neighbor Bill had an appliance repair business and I asked if he wanted to buy it. He took it away for $50 saying he’d ‘pay me later’. A few months later I had forgot all about the $50 when he popped his head over the fence and said he’d just cleaned out a garage for a customer and found 2 guitars in the attic…and offered to trade me those to settle the debt. Of course, I agreed sight unseen. So, a few minutes later, Bill handed me over the fence a 50’s Teisco solid body…with those sideways laminated necks…and this weird Fender copy bass…or so I thought at first glance (my evaluation changed later). Then 20 minutes later one of Bill’s five kids came running up my driveway with this old Brown gig bag in hand. He said that went with ‘the big one’. Now I had already been sales floor manager for the Vox Guitar Center Hollywood for years, from 1967 (the year they opened) to 1970 when I moved up to San Francisco to open the Sound Stage music store with an old friend from GC. So, with 7-8 years of retailing guitars behind me at this point I’d had bought or sold maybe 500 Fender basses by that time…but I had never seen one like this; wrong headstock, wrong color, wrong Maple neck, kind crude…etc. So, my first glance at this bass, which followed seeing that Japanese cheapo guitar come over the fence, was that this was some kind of weird ‘Filipino Fender’ knock-off. But when the old Fender Brown gig bad w/ the green felt lining (which I HAD seen before) came up my driveway…I took a hard second look and realized this could more likely be a real, and very early Fender bass. So, it went into my guitar locker with my other stuff…and I kinda forgot about it. After all, I was an acoustic guitar ‘folk singer’ type…never actually played any bass in the groups I was in, and anyway my retail store career had transitioned into a Manufacture Rep job by now as I started with Acoustic.
Years passed quickly and later I left Acoustic and started Groove Tubes, about 1978. One of my first export dealers in Germany, Erhard, ran a big shop near Stuttgart and he specialized in vintage guitars and wrote a regular column for the biggest musician’s magazine in Germany; Fachblatt. Erhard used to come to NAMM and he would stay out at my house. One night I pulled out the Red bass to ask his opinion…I had never shown it to ‘an expert’ before. 2 Erhard seemed disinterested and told me it was a probably a refinished parts guitar, but anyway he would like to buy it ‘for the parts’. I declined and really didn’t think too much about. But he began bugging me to buy it and offering considerably more, and more money (so I should have been more suspicious). When the offer got up to $1,000 and he was basically ‘begging’ me, I finally relented and sold it to him. After all he was one of my most important distributors and was selling lots of Groove Tubes in Germany(and $1,000 was a lot of money back then :>) Later, and after he wrote a feature article about the bass with all his ‘research’ and conclusions validating the authenticity…I realized he had taken advantage of me. Turns out, I was not alone, as he had run up a terrible reputation in Germany and later bankrupted his business and left his partner (and many creditors) holding the bag. Actually, I had to write off his last shipment of Groove Tubes… which was way more than $1,000! So, we parted ways after this, and I always regretted selling him that bass even more than writing off that debt!
Fast forward about 8-10 years later, and Erhard had made friends with a large local retailer Don Griffin who owned West LA Music. Erhard was trying to get Don to back his move from Germany (where all his bridges had been burned) to SoCal to open a vintage store inside West LA Music. I had known Don for years as I was his Acoustic rep back in the 70’s, and now he was one of my top local GT Dealers. We used to hang out at clubs together…what a great guy. Don later became president of NAMM, and was a real mover in the retail industry. So, Don called me to ask for a reference on Erhard, knowing he used to be my distributor. Well, I gave him the short story and cautioned him not to trust or ‘loan’ Erhard anything…but also told him he was a vintage guitar expert. Don knew little about the vintage biz but wanted to branch out into this area. Don decided to loan Erhard and his wife the money to move to LA and partner on a vintage room inside his store…and to bring his collection of vintage guitars as a starter stock. However, Don took the precaution to take the guitar collection as collateral against the loan…in case things didn’t work out. Of course, things didn’t ‘work out’. Erhard was soon up to his old tricks, not sharing sales or making any payments on his debt and also doing side deals. But Don was sharp and caught on quickly, evicting Erhard and repossessing the guitar collection. Erhard was on his way back to Germany within a few months of his arrival…sans guitar collection (which he had greatly over valued to get a big loan from Don). All this happened kinda quickly and Don called me to thank me for my advice and to update me on events. He told me he was still going sell the guitars to collect the debt but was frustrated as Erhard had so over valued the guitars he had little hope of collecting much…and he asked me to stop by and help him evaluate the inventory. Imagine my surprise when I walked into West LA’s vintage room a few days later and see my old 55 ‘Fullerton Red’ P Bass hanging there! I had stayed away from the shop after I heard Erhard was there…so I had not been in Don’s shop in at least 6 months…even though he was now one of my top GT audio dealers selling lots of ViPRE tube mic preamps and my early CPS (Center Point Stereo) amps. Long story short (or maybe somewhat shorter....) I told Don the story about how Erhard had swindled me over that Red P Bass he had hanging there, and what sweet revenge it would be if he could be the conduit to get it back to me. So, I gave Don got his full (over) price value on the Red bass in trade for GT gear, while I of coarse got more gear on his floor. So, it worked out well both ways!
Years later as my company grew, and I needed some capital for a new venture and decided to sell some of my vintage stuff…which was my usual MO. After all I had traded ‘Rita’ my ’41 Lincoln Continental to start Groove Tubes after I left Acoustic, then later traded Groove Tube opening orders for old amps dealers had lying around…usually these hummed or didn’t work at all. Nobody wanted old amps in the late 70’s, but after I wrote the Tube Amp Book and started the ‘restoration craze’ in vintage amps, tweed amps started to rise in value. Which was convenient because it was after that I traded my 250-vintage amp collection featured in my book to Guitar Center to raise the cash to buy the remains of the Sylvania Tube factory machines when it was up for auction, and moved them out to SoCal where I began to design and build my own tubes. So, it was sometime later that I wanted to buy a classic car, and I decided to sell some of my vintage instruments to make that happen. That’s when I brought the Red P Bass to a vintage guitar show and showed it around. It got quite a bit of attention…as nobody had ever seen a bass like this! I was asking around $20K, just kinda fishing and thought I was starting out high. But I quickly had a buyer who put $5k in my hand and promised the balance in an hour or so when his partner got there. Meanwhile he wanted his ‘expert’ to confirm it was what I said it was. There was an English guy there who used to deal in vintage books but had recently switched over to vintage guitars…and fancied himself a guitar expert. However, when he had never heard of me or Groove Tubes I became a bit suspicious. Then he put a black light on the guitar and instantly pronounced it as a refinished instrument! He also said there was no way a Red bass was made in 1955…it wasn’t until 2 years later Fender offered custom colors. I knew nobody was making fake vintage guitars in the early 70’s when I got the bass…and the gig bag was certainly ‘for real’ too. So I politely disagreed but also I didn’t want to get into a pissing contest with this fool. So I immediately gave my buyer his cash back and decided to wait and get it ‘verified’ before I offered it for sale again. Better to be safe than sorry.
One of my old pals at that vintage guitar show, a true vintage expert on Martin acoustic guitars was Bob Page from Buffalo Bros. Music. Bob thought the bass was real (as many of my vintage dealer pals there also thought) but he said while it was highly unusual to have a custom colored Fender instrument from this year. BUT if I could get it verified he thought it would be worth considerably MORE than what I was asking. Bob knew George Fullerton well, and offered to set up a meet to show him the bass. George ran Fender production back then, so maybe he could shed light on the question; did they made any Red basses back in 1955? Bob also told me I should go see the real technical expert on vintage Fender instruments, Steve Soest. Steve also consulted for Fender and Dan Electro when they reissued instruments. He could also give me a formal appraisal as well. Steve and George both lived in Orange County, so I set up a travel day to see George and Steve on the same day…and what a day that was.
The first stop at George’s home with my pal Bob Page as host went VERY well. George and I pulled that bass apart and we spent several hours there talking about the early days and he told me the story about ‘Fullerton Red’…and his idea to make custom colored Fender instruments…which, BTW, Leo was firmly against from the beginning! George was positive the bass was for real, and explained that they had made many colored instruments in the ‘pre-custom colored days’ but only if the player would bring them the paint! George didn’t want to ‘appraise’ the bass because he didn’t want the liability if it ever went to court. He had recently done the same for another and had to go to court to testify when they involved him in a law suit. He wanted no part in that again! So, I asked if I took notes about our visit and send him a synopsis for review, would he at least confirm it? To which he thought that would be OK. But later when I sent it to him, his lawyer advised against signing anything…so he just said I could take his word for it and we left it like that. Bob Page could always be a witness to the days’ events, and his comments…and for him that was all I would need. Naturally, I didn’t press him; he had already been so kind…so that’s where I left it. I am including that synopsis for your review …some great memories there only George could tell! BTW, I wrote that synopsis the night I got back from OC, so it would be fresh in my mind.
Next stop was Steve Soest, and Steve was a fountain of knowledge and confirmed many of the unique features the bass had…such as a painted thumb rest which was unlike any later P bass…and other confirming facts that convinced him the bass was 100% original and from the Fender factory. I also include that letter for your perusal.
Aspen Pittman
August. 2005
From the desk of George Fullerton, to whom this concerns:
Aspen Pittman asked me to inspect and comment on his Red 1955 P Bass. He had told me there were a few doubts expressed at a recent guitar show by some experts about its originality. Aspen wanted my honest opinion if the bass was real. Aspen (accompanied by Bob Page of Buffalo Bros. Guitars) brought the bass over to my house and we pulled the bass apart. I inspected many aspects of the instrument with particular attention to the parts and the Red paint job. I also saw the original Brown gig bag. In my opinion this bass is the real deal. In my opinion the parts and components appear to be original and its construction is consistent to how we made basses in 1955. The red paint job also appears, to me, to be original. I can find no evidence of any prior paint job on the body or neck. It is interesting that the serial number #1179 is engraved into both the back of the neck and the pickup cavity. In later years, we would stamp this number in those areas, so perhaps this was an early version of that production process. The worn spots clearly show both the wood and primer. The Ash is correct to what we used, and the primer is also consistent with the silver/gray primers we used at that time.
The primer is definitely NOT a factory color of that time. So, I am pretty sure it was not painted Red over another stock color as was suggested to Aspen by these experts at the guitar show. Clearly, the primer was applied on the wood before it got the red paint, and there is no evidence of sanding or parts removal for repainting the bass.
The light lacquer checking in the red paint is also consistent with the way this finished would have aged over time, and as I have seen before. Therefore, I believe this is the original finish on the bass, and very likely just as it left the factory in 1955. However, I cannot be 100% certain, as I have no specific recall of this (or any other) of the 1,000s of instruments I oversaw production of in these early years. However, I am not sure this is the same exact color, which became later known as "Fiesta Red", although it is very close. The reason I am pretty sure it is not "Fiesta Red" is that I had not yet invented this color by 1955!
It was about 2 years later, in 1957, under protests from the sales department, that I finally convinced Leo to try out some colors on the line. I suggested starting with the introduction of the new Jazzmaster in 1957, and I had the only prototype in my office (this was a secret I kept from Leo because he always put new prototypes through a band saw to keep them from being copied before our official release). This prototype had no final finish as of yet. Up until then, if a customer wanted a custom colored Fender instrument, they brought us the paint! Of course, we told him exactly what type of paint and where to buy it...but we didn't have any colored paints at this time so the only way we made a colored instrument is when the customer brought us the paint. In my opinion, this is most likely how this Red bass was made in 1955, but as I said, it is impossible to say for 100% certain.
Actually, the first name for Fiesta Red was Fullerton Red. The sales guys had joked about this silly idea of George's to offer colored instruments, so they made a joke about calling it Fullerton Red! I had tried to suggest introducing colored guitars for years (as customers asked often about them), but Don Randall (our sales manager) didn't like the idea. But I kept at it, and when I had finally convinced Leo to let me paint the new 1957 Jazzmaster Red, I went down to our paint store to get some Red paint. But I didn't like any of the standard colors the store had. So I worked with them to mix a formula until it suited me. I wanted a Red without any Blue in the mix...and that was how I came up with this color. Interestingly, after we showed the Red Jazzmaster, then the customers started asking for all kinds of colors. In fact, some of our distributors (for example the UK distributor) ONLY wanted colored Fenders! So, the custom color business really took off after that and the sales department didn't make jokes about Fullerton Red guitars anymore!
When I went back for more of my Red formula, the paint store had needed to be able to repeat the order for us in future...so they arbitrarily named it "Fiesta Red”. So, in turn that is what we called it for the customers’ special orders. Maybe I should have insisted they kept the original "Fullerton Red" name instead!
Note: Contents of this statement verified and certified by the witnesses Aspen Pittman and Bob Page who were present in the company of Mr. George Fullerton in August, 2005 when he inspected the subject “1955 Red Fender Bass” guitar in his home in California, USA.
