I was perusing some McVie pics and saw this.

Earlier pics of that bass don't show that anomaly. I never noticed it before. Good eye, Keith.    An unusual headstock repair seems like a plausible explanation.


Other things I have noticed: First fret inlay added. Master Volume added. Tailpiece is bird type in later pictures. Ol' #73-27 must have been back to the shop quite a bit back in the day.

You can see that peghead 'art' in this picture too. What could it be? There are a few YouTube videos with footage of John playing that bass out there... notably, this episode of Midnight Special from 1976.





Freeze it at 4:11, and there's a good look at the headstock. Not there as of then. Bass still the old tailpiece too.

I'm with you on the repair, and the newly added big-a## round first fret position maker might denote a severe break into that region?

I can't imagine what else it would be for, other than a mechanism to shore up an ugly (read; not clean) headstock break. But what I keep thinking is, that just doesn't look like anything Alembic would do, at least not to repair a broken off headstock. So was it an outsourced repair, post-1976? I'm making way too many assumptions though.


So mysterious! There are at least two folks who know what happened to #27 here... John, and the bloke who affixed that gizmo on his bass.

1977 Rumours Tour... at 5:04 - 5:07 in the song outro, there's a quick look at the back of the headstock.





[snicker] ...and Buck broke a string. 

In that shot, the back peghead veneer looks like it goes down farther into the neck than normal, so I say the head was snapped off and repaired. Well done on the investigative input, Greg.

So Keith and me have been on this fun little CSI project... and I may be way around the bend here, but bear me out.

John's a Mariner. When he isn't playing bass, or watching a Gunners soccer match, he's boating. Or really, the other way around. Penguins, Porpoises, seafaring things... that's him.

I still think what we're seeing is a reinforced headstock repair. But caught in the glare of stage lighting... I see Neptune's Trident on the headstock of #27.

Quote from: edwardofhuncote on July 27, 2022, 03:20:16 AMI see Neptune's Trident on the headstock of #27.

I can totally see that.

Quote from: edwardofhuncote on July 27, 2022, 03:20:16 AM
So Keith and me have been on this fun little CSI project... and I may be way around the bend here, but bear me out.

John's a Mariner. When he isn't playing bass, or watching a Gunners soccer match, he's boating. Or really, the other way around. Penguins, Porpoises, seafaring things... that's him.

I still think what we're seeing is a reinforced headstock repair. But caught in the glare of stage lighting... I see Neptune's Trident on the headstock of #27.

Greg, thanks for this.

Quote from: edwardofhuncote on July 27, 2022, 03:20:16 AM
So Keith and me have been on this fun little CSI project... and I may be way around the bend here, but bear me out.

John's a Mariner. When he isn't playing bass, or watching a Gunners soccer match, he's boating. Or really, the other way around. Penguins, Porpoises, seafaring things... that's him.

I still think what we're seeing is a reinforced headstock repair. But caught in the glare of stage lighting... I see Neptune's Trident on the headstock of #27.

I should add that this mod and the first position inlay addition happened post 1977.

Quote from: edwardofhuncote on July 27, 2022, 03:20:16 AM

I still think what we're seeing is a reinforced headstock repair. But caught in the glare of stage lighting... I see Neptune's Trident on the headstock of #27.

I saw that from the beginning and think maybe there is no repair, just a cool graphic added for personal appeal.