pjmuck wrote:
I own one of these. Super rare lefty. I've only seen one other and that was Carmine's, until this one now. Only in black too. They also came in a walnut finish with gold hardware, but I've never seen one lefty.
Nearly every element of these basses is proprietary. I believe it's the first bass Fender made with an active preamp. The high mass bridge has 4 little thumbscrews for micro tuning (pointless, but unique), the tuners were ultra lite Schallers, the covered PUPs with the P/P layout, the treaded rubber ringed knobs, etc. The electronics are confusing. Something about being able to set your tones and then lock them in via the switches for later access, but I could never figure it out, LOL. The neck is a super wide C with a flat radius, and you either love it or hate it, as danomite said. Killer tones, very punchy, especially great for slapping.
$2400+ might seem high, but this is a very hard to find rare lefty.
The Elites were actually the second Fender basses to feature active circuity – the first was the Precision Bass Special (1980-83) which the Elites replaced in the lineup. For me the most outstanding feature of the Elite II is the active electronics: the 9v preamp and double stacked split coils are an excellent sounding combination- broad tonal range, balanced and articulate with great punch and clarity across a full spectrum of crisp highs to warm, rich lows- no dirt or growl here. I have flatwounds on mine with low action, and that really works well for this bass. On the other hand, the control configuration is indeed a bit odd: a volume control for each pickup; a standard 3-way pickup selector toggle; and one master tone control- with a second 3-way toggle (called a tone assignment switch). This toggle "assigns" the tone control to either one or both pickups. It would have been a lot simpler to just have 2 separate tone controls but...oh well. It takes some fiddling around getting used to and figuring out how to blend pickups, volume and tone to find your sweet spots. They're all in there, but when I haven't played it for awhile I have to to re-familiarize myself with this arrangement. Would be a really killer bass in the studio, but would be a bit of a pain to make adjustments on the fly in a live setting.
Other features include the high-mass bridge with fine-tuning knobs, which does what its supposed to do, but is unnecessarily busy (high-end bridge tech has definitely improved since the 80's!) and the die cast tuners which work fine. As PJ points out the neck is typical 80's P bass wide and a not overly thick c shape, it actually does have some decent radius to it, but it's so wide that you may not notice, lol- takes some getting used to but it is very stable and not too uncomfortable once you adjust to it. Mine weighs in at 9.5 lbs, so it's not excessively heavy.
In summary I think that the Elite II Precision achieved Fender's goal of being familiar while at the same time offering innovative high-end features and versatility that distinctly differentiated it from your standard 80's P bass. But given its short production run (1982- 84 IIRC) it tends to go somewhat overlooked in Fender's history.
A right hander in good to very good condition typically goes anywhere from $1100 to $1500. A $900 premium for a lefty seems pretty steep to me- but with so few lefties being made I suppose someone might pay it if this bass is on their "bucket list".
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