anniv 63 wrote:Regarding the Bass V1, just noticed a picture of John Lennon playing
one around the time of the Let It Be sessions.
Its a later black finish model with the block type inlays on the fretboard.
Maybe someone thought that this would make the Squier version more
marketable than dot inlays, that were on earlier Fender issues?
Mike
I feel reasonably sure that the photo is at fault if the Bass VI appears to be black. Arbiter very famously supplied The Beatles with a load of Fender gear around 1968. This was not long after the death of Brian Epstein and the effective end of his gentleman's assurance to Jennings that The Beatles would always use Vox amplifiers whilst he was their manager.
The Fabs were given several amps, including Twin Reverbs (seen in use at the Baker Street "Let It Be" rooftop concert), a Fender Rhodes piano (ditto), a unique-at-the-time all-rosewood Telecaster for George (rooftop concert again) and that Bass VI, finished, without a single doubt, in sunburst, which by then, may well have been the only finish available. Both George Harrison and John Lennon were seen using the sunburst Fender on different occasions, most notably on the "in-the-studio" version of Hey Jude shown on David Frost's Sunday night TV show for LWT.
In some photos it does appear black. But it was sunburst.