Pete Back Custom Special Bass (1977?)

Stephen has written in with details of his Pete Back guitar, which is the first four-string we have been lucky enough to feature on the Pete Back Guitars blog.

"I was really pleased to recently come across your website. I bought this Pete Back Custom Special bass second-hand from Pete in his Rotherham shop nearly 30 years ago. I still have it. My band's bass player decided to quit the band at short notice and as the second (and least able) guitarist in the band, I had to take over at short notice. 

I drove down to see Pete and he brought this guitar from out the back. It has a 3/4 length neck which I thought would be easier for me to adjust to. It's a nice guitar although the quality isn't quite up the standard of Pete's later work. We acquired another guitarist and both of them used Pete Back Flying Vs. One of them in black was specially built to our guitarist specification requirements. The other one, a sunbust, was bought second hand from Pete."

This is a great find, thanks to Stephen for writing in. The headstock detailing clearly indicates this as a very early example of Pete's work - I think this is Pete learning his craft as a luthier. The guitar looks hand-crafted and, as you suggest, lacks the refinement and polished finish of his mature work.

Because of this, I think we can date the guitar to the late '70s, the fact that the truss rod cover is printed rather than hand-etched would indicate 1977 - 1980 period. This is consistent with the fact that you bought it second-hand from Pete's Rotherham shop in the early '80s.

Interesting that you mention that your band all used Pete Back Flying V's - we have an example of that model elsewhere on the blog, and the V's were very popular in the Sheffield area among touring bands.


Because Pete made so few bass guitars they are impossible to value, however, with this being an interesting early example with such a nice history, its clear you have a guitar to keep and cherish, that is also easy to play because of its 3/4 neck scale.

Pete Back Custom Special Thru Neck (1981)

Back in May, I received an email from Alan Jones from Liverpool, asking me if it was possible to date his early Pete Back double cutaway:

I have what i believe is a very early pete doulble cutaway custom special. it,s a natural finish alder body with a 7 piece laminated thru neck comprising , maple and mahogany, headstock is also the same, and the shape of an early melody maker. it,s currently fitted with a 1981 gibson humbucker at the bridge and a 1988 hb-r at the neck, and fitted with nickel grover tuners. the fretboard is ebony with pearl dot markers, a very slim neck indeed!it truly is a wonderful guitar!

I wrote back to request some photos (crucial as always), and he kindly sent a load through. Now the first thing to get excited about is the fantastic condition of this guitar - from what we can see it is in excellent condition. Then the artistry of the manufacture catches the eye. A 7-piece through neck design is very time-consuming to create, but the way the different woods move up the headpiece is amazing.



Dating this guitar is actually relatively straightforward. You mention that the bridge humbucker is from 1981. This gives a clear date to the guitar once we assume that the neck pup is a later replacement. This date is backed up by the headstock markings - the early-period transfer (applied in black and white to give an unusual drop shadow effect!), the hand-etched truss rod special - these all point to an early-period guitar, which I would estimate to be circa 1982.


Valuation is practically impossible, because Pete Back guitars of this age and condition virtually never appear on the open market, their owners nearly always deciding to hang on to them for life. I don't think that the replacement humbucker - and what may be replacement knobs) would detract greatly from the valuation. I don't tend to offer public valuations on the site but I would estimate that such a hand-crafted guitar however is now worth considerably more than the £1000 that Pete's electrics were selling for new before he retired in 2009, perhaps up towards £2000. My personal advice however would be to hang on to it - you will never find a guitar like this again!

Pete Back Custom Special Explorer (198X?)

Since the last time I updated the blog back in May, I've had quite a few emails from Pete Back guitar owners (thanks as ever for writing in!). The first of which was from Gabriel, and his story is quite simply brilliant:

"I have a Pete Back Explorer which I found at the council rubbish tip several years ago. It had been spray painted all over in matt black, and when I say spray painted all over I mean all over, the neck, fretboard, head stock, pick ups the lot. It was in a very sorry state indeed. I took it home and over several weeks I took it apart completely. I then started the task of removing all the black paint. Unfortunately there was no way to rescue the original finish which appeared to be off white so I had to strip it down to bare wood. I have not repainted it electing instead to apply several coats of Danish Oil which is ok. I am not a luthier and in fact i'm not really experienced in guitar repair so there are a couple of jobs needed to finish it of. The third fret mother of pearl inlay is cracked and the 7th fret inlay is missing completely.
Despite the remaining neck damage this guitar plays beautifully and when I get round to getting it finished it will be perfect. I know nothing about the age of this guitar and the only info I have is the name Pete Back Custom Special on the head stock so any thing you can tell me about it would be great."

Well Gabriel, congratulations on your DIY restoration effort - given the state it was in you've done an astounding job. The guitar has clearly been played a lot over the years, although I'm not that surprised to hear it is still working perfectly in terms of sound. Pete's guitar's were always built to last - far superior to machine-made mass-produced efforts. Its difficult for a non-expert like me to tell that much about the guitar, clearly some of the parts may be non-original, although if I were to hazard a guess I would say the bridge, tailpiece and pickups were originals. The ebony fretboard - with huge mother of pearl inlays - is signature Pete Back work. You'll be pleased to know that re-laying inlay is a fairly straight-forward operation, which you could do yourself if you have a reasonable selection of woodworking tools.



In terms of dating the guitar, we're faced with a bit of a problem. The headstock transfer and truss rod cover are very unusual, and we haven't featured them before on this site. The transfer is of a simpler and later period to the classic late 70's transfer we have seen on other models. The truss rod cover is not hand-etched, again suggesting a guitar made in Pete's mid-period. Now as many of you know, Pete gave up guitar making several times over his life and even ran a hardware store in South Yorkshire I believe. This makes exact dating of this guitar very difficult (unless any readers out there can kindly help!). My estimate would be to place this guitar in the mid-eighties, when this model was incredibly popular among rock and metal guitarists.



What we can say for sure is that it is a rare example and with a bit of attention, it could easily be restored to look as good as it sounds. Having said all that, I'm sure a lot of people will agree with me when I say that as it stands now you have a guitar that reflects its experience and a used character that is rare to find indeed, so I wouldn't advise you make too many radical interventions any more than restoring missing pieces, giving it a general service and removing any left over black paint! I think this is one guitar that we are all very glad that you saved, and I'm sure its life will continue for much longer thanks to you.