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.