Fender Precision Bass, Sunburst 95393 (1963)

This "Shorty" '63 is one of the coolest vintage Precisions with some of the best owner provenance you'll find!

1963 Fender Precision Bass in original Sunburst finish just into the shop!

Get a load of this thing! We just recently acquired it from the second owner, who'd purchased it directly from the family of the original owner, "Shorty" Nayda. Shorty played bass in Ivan Sexton & The Chicken Coopers, a NJ band who had regional success back in the 1960s and was the house band at Willie's Chicken Coop in Bridgeton NJ. The Chicken Coopers opened up for legendary Country music acts like Conway Twitty and Wanda Jackson!

It's unclear where Shorty bought his bass, but based on some included scans of photographs from the 1960s, he'd had it likely since new.
Stepping into the nuts and bolts of this bass, we discovered that nothing was changed over the years except the pickup foam! The original pickguard, pickup, wiring harness, and hardware remains, and in nice shape at that. The original pickup measures a healthy 12.88k on our meter, which is slightly on the hotter side for pickups from this period. It sounds great, with plenty of punch and definition also responds very well to volume and tone adjustments.

The bass is very light, too. Coming in just under 8.5lbs on our scale, it's incredibly comfortable! It makes more sense now looking back at how a man of Shorty's stature would find a lifelong companion in this Precision.

The original brown hardshell case is in great overall condition, with a small amount of padding added to the bottom edge where the lower bout of the body sits. Some of the internal padding/lining had likely failed and was replaced with the DIY padding. Otherwise, the exterior is clean and all the latches work. The handle's in good shape too! We're including those scans of old photos of Shorty and his band performing, along with a scanned photo of Conway Twitty at the same venue! Such cool provenance!