You’ve heard of the legendary Fender Telecaster — but did you know there was a Fender Telecaster electric bass? It first came out in late 1967. It basically had the same design as the original Fender Precision bass from 1951 (which was in turn modeled after the first Fender Telecaster guitar).
The Telecaster bass had a small headstock shaped like its guitar counterpart, with a single pickup. A few had paddle-style tuners like those on the Fender Jazz bass. The first ones produced had the guitar Telecaster logo with the word “bass” added below, but later models had their own Telecaster Bass logo.
One famous player of the Fender Telecaster Bass was Chris Squire of Yes — he had a personally customized white model. It can be seen in a picture in the little booklet that originally came with the group’s Fragile album, ihanging on the wall behind Chris. This bass was sold on ebay last month for over $5,000 (I’m not clear on whether Squire was the one selling it, or if someone else owned it at that time).
Check out this guy’s ‘71 Fender Telecaster Bass:
