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Are P Basses Invincible?

D

de la mocha

Aug 20, 2005
1,488
16
NEW JERSEY
#1
After watching a few bands over the weekend, I noticed that a lot of the bass players got up on stage with active 5 string basses, a few had pedal boards and almost everyone took a little bit too long adjusting the EQ on the house bass rig, a hartke aluminum 4x10 with the extra speaker in the middle, I forget the model.

But then came this bass player with a lone P bass, no pedal board, and just adjusted the eq in a "frown face" and played his behind off!

He destroyed the other bass players with cool bass lines and smooth bass runs using his fingers. His tone was mid heavy, but the mids were fat, with a lot of bottom, not thin sounding.

Man, this man made me a P bass convert! Obviously, if you put any bass in this man's hands he would have no doubtedly killed it anyway but he CHOSE a Precision!

It's something special about the purity and straight foward simplicity of a Precision. It's just so "shut up and play" :D
 
#2
Sounds to me like most of the bass players spend too much time fiddling with electronics. I'm not sure the guy you liked knew exactly what he was doing (a "frown face" is as unlikely to be a good EQ setting as a "smiley face" is...) but since much of the sound is in the fingers, I agree that he evidently knew what he was doing. Results speak for themselves.
 
#3
P basses are freaking invincible. I've tried tons of different styles, brands, woods, and it just keeps coming back to Fender for me. The only other bass in its league style wise is the J. And it is pretty much a P ;)
 
#8
Pilgrim said:
Sounds to me like most of the bass players spend too much time fiddling with electronics. I'm not sure the guy you liked knew exactly what he was doing (a "frown face" is as unlikely to be a good EQ setting as a "smiley face" is...) but since much of the sound is in the fingers, I agree that he evidently knew what he was doing. Results speak for themselves.
Click to expand...

I never did the "frown face" EQ setting but I'm curious as to how it would sound. Maybe that's his sound. They were playing ska and it was bright sounding and energetic, but a bit heavy. There were 2 guitarists.

The singer/guitarist just muted his chords the whole time in a rhythm on each song, bearly recognizing the chords because they never rang out. The second guitarist just mirrored him but did all the solos. She was hot too. The bass player and drummer owned all the songs! They made the songs while the guitars just added some nice flavor.
 
#9
I used to like Ibanez and Musicman active basses, but after playing a Fender Jazz I fell in love (with Fender). I currently only use a P-bass, and own two. I love the simplicity of plugging in and adjust one tone knob a little bit. Overall I just love the sound of a P.
 
#14
Although I have a definite love for Boutiques, there's no denying the usefulness and familiarity of the venerable Precision. Even though it won't be my main bass, I will soon be picking up a brand new American Standard P5 in Olympic white/Tort/Rosewood. I just couldn't help myself :D

After all, there's nothing quite like a good, warm P.
 
#19
I read somewhere* that Chuck Norris has a restraining order against all Fender Precision basses. The man doesn't want them anywhere near him. :eyebrow:


*I try to always re-read my posts before submitting. ;)


On-topic/seriously, I've recently gone P-happy, using my fretless Ibanez lawsuit P(which happens to sound more *P* than some genuine Fenders I've played)most of the time, w/a MIM/Allparts Precision coming in a close second. They are indeed invincible in my little world. :)
 

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