Texas is known for music, especially Austin, which in the mid ’70s became a hotbed thanks to clubs like Armadillo World Headquarters, Castle Creek, and Soap Creek Saloon, which mostly hosted “progressive country” acts that were creating a sound at once too radical and traditional for radio.

In the ’50s and ’60s, East Side clubs like Charlie’s Playhouse hosted blues stars B.B. King, Bobby “Blue” Bland, T-Bone Walker, Junior Parker, and others. But by the early ’70s, young black music fans were no longer enthralled with the blues, and the scene was essentially shuttered – until a diehard blues fan named Clifford Antone bought an old furniture warehouse downtown at Sixth and Brazos and converted it to a club that could host the only style of music he wanted to hear.

Antone grew up in Port Arthur and learned to love music thanks to his babysitter, a nun who played gospel records. Later, he joined other teens who’d cross the Sabine River to hit Louisiana juke joints, where they’d watch regional blues acts like Clifton Chenier, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Lazy Lester, and the Fabulous Boogie Kings.

Antone moved to Austin in ’69 to attend the University of Texas, but after getting dinged for selling pot, he dropped out and for several years managed his family’s delicatessen. There, he’d play blues on the radio and strum guitar on his breaks. In a 1998 interview with Vintage Guitar, he recalled the Austin music scene in ’75, which was thriving for certain genres, but…
“Blues was at its lowest point,” he said. “Guys were begging for a place to play.”

The doors to his club – Antone’s Home of the Blues– opened in July of ’75. In a neighborhood that college kids didn’t visit and playing music they didn’t want to hear far from other venues, most nights drew small audiences even as the club’s reputation began to grow among musicians. Eventually, though, it became the joint, spurring a renaissance of the district and making Austin a certifiable blues town. Then, city official tore down Antone’s building to expand a parking ramp.

Undeterred, Clifford briefly reopened on Anderson Lane before settling into the space for which Antone’s is best known – a former Shakey’s Pizza on Guadalupe, near the UT campus. Through the years, the club hosted a trove of legendary performers – Albert Collins, Albert King, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, and others who played every night Tuesday through Saturday, often backed by the club’s house band in the ’70s – the Fabulous Thunderbirds featuring Jimmie Vaughan and Kim Wilson, or local singers Angela Strehli and Lou Ann Barton. Things were seldom better than the night Albert King and a young Stevie Ray Vaughan jammed together.

“On that stage, they both played some of their absolute best stuff,” Antone said.

Just 56 when he died in May of 2006, Antone was also a musician and busy guitar collector in the ’70s and ’80s, visiting pawn shops and helping musicians liquidate when they stepped out of the business.

“The more you deal with and understand guitars, the more interested you become,” he said in ’98. “And I think every guitar player should have five or six.”

In the mid ’80s, his friendship with local dealer Danny Thorpe led him to many classics including early Teles and Strats, custom-color Fenders, thinline and hollow Gibsons from the ’50s, and this ’52 Precision Bass.

“I was at the club one day many years ago when Clifford told me Danny had bought the Precision and a ’52 Tele from a couple guys who had played in a country band,” said the bass’ current owner, John “Toad” Andrews, an accomplished guitarist who has been part of the scene since the late ’60s, was a member of Mother Earth (in San Francisco), and is a fan of blackguard Fenders.

Kept ready at the club, Clifford sometimes used the Precision to sit in with players he counted as close friends – King, Collins, Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins, Luther Tucker, and others along with local up-and-comers like SRV, Sue Foley, Doyle Bramhall, II, Jake Andrews (Toad’s son), and Gary Clark, Jr.

“Cliff had so many great instruments and loved for his musician friends to play them,” said Derek O’Brien, another close friend of Antone’s who for years led the club’s house band, usually playing guitar.

Preparing to serve a prison sentence after a second conviction for dealing marijuana, in ’94 and ’95, Antone sold several instruments including a ’64 Gibson Tal Farlow, ’59 ES-335, a ’69 ES-330, ’57 Byrdland, ’59 Epiphone Regent, and the ’52 Precision to Dr. Robert Mingea, a fellow collector in Austin. Circa 2005, Mingea sold the Precision to Andrews.

“The pots have a manufacturer’s date of the 30th week of ’52,” said Andrews, who has done some forensics on it. “Which makes sense because very few Precisions were made that year; the production date would likely have been August.”

Dave Hinson, an instrument dealer who runs Killer Vintage shops in St. Louis and Dallas, recently appraised Andrews’ collection, which includes several early blackguards (his ’51 Esquire once owned by “Gatemouth” Brown was profiled in the July ’18 issue of VG). Given its provenance and near-mint condition, Hinson is confident the Precision would bring $80,000. Andrews insures its original form-fitting “poodle” case for another $15,000, which sounds extreme until he recalls how Fred Stuart, Master Builder in the Fender Custom Shop, told him it may be the only one still in existence.

“When they were tooling-up to make 50th Anniversary 1951 Precision Bass, Fender scoured the country looking for a poodle case, but was unsuccessful, so they had to settle for creating

Built in the days before sturdier hard cases, the upgrade (from a gig bag) chipboard case had served admirably. Still, time took its toll, and Andrews did his best to restore it.
“It was basically being held together by its fabric liner,” he said. “But the fabric wore out just from the weight of the bass. I’m sure Clifford handled it carefully, but after a few decades, it just wasn’t holding up.”

Not wanting to replace material or otherwise detract from its originality, Andrews removed the duct tape that had been holding its seams together and applied new glue.

With Andrews, the bass has seen a quiet life but was featured in a 2022 episode of “Pawn Stars on the Road” when the show stopped in Austin.

“I was around for a good number of Cliff’s guitar and bass buys – I wish I’d kept a diary!” said O’Brien. “And I’m so glad John ended up with the Precision.”

This article originally appeared in VG’s December 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.