'51 P Bass & Telecaster Bass

[chechunka]

Doesn't seem like this has been discussed on here so I'll ask. What's your take on the '51 p bass? Have you messed around with those at all (be it CIJ reissues or otherwise), or the telecaster basses from the 60s-70s with the wide range pickup in the neck. Two different monsters tonally obviously but would love to hear your take on them.

Thanks!

 

[jmjbassplayer]

I had a CIJ reissue '51 for a time. It was alright, but the look and feel weren't for me. The pickup was uninteresting. Tele bass is cool...burly, dark. But sometimes the aesthetics of a body shape will just get in the way of me committing to an instrument. Case in point.

 

[jamro217]

I never tried a '51 P but it's on the G.A.S. list. I have a Modern Player Tele with twin humbuckers (similar to a '72 Tele, but with double the fun). Loud, boomy, Fender's answer to the EB-3L. The neck is fat and it has tiny frets. Seriously considering putting a fretless neck on it. Using the volume on 2 and the tone wide open it sounds like a DB. The original '72 Tele had the three bolt Micro Tilt neck. Combined with a square heel they didn't move like the rounded heel Jazz Basses and Stratocasters did. The strings fed through the body and over the two-saddle bridge which wasn't as accurate to intonate than a four saddle. I think they were cool, but the timing of their release was unfortunate. Disco and the advent of slapping was right around the corner and the tonal palette isn't wide enough to accommodate that. They would have been a smash if they debuted during the British invasion of the early '60's. Switch the timeline with the Jazz Bass and you'd be on to something.

 

[chechunka]

Great observations. Thanks y’all.

 

[Lo-E]

I have a CIJ ‘51 reissue that I like. The body on mine is enormously heavy, which isn’t all that typical of these, but the neck is nice; full but not huge.

The single coil pickups, because of the shape of the magnetic field, can be a little bit spiky. Because of this I find they get along with flats a little better than with rounds unless your playing is perfectly even. With rounds it can get a little hairy controlling dynamics. The tradeoff, though, is that these pickups also have great detail and a big, open sound. They’re not as thuddy as a split P pickup.

Lastly, I don’t mind the lack of body contouring but some people find it uncomfortable.

 

[jamro217]

I have a CIJ ‘51 reissue that I like. The body on mine is enormously heavy, which isn’t all that typical of these, but the neck is nice; full but not huge.

The single coil pickups, because of the shape of the magnetic field, can be a little bit spiky. Because of this I find they get along with flats a little better than with rounds unless your playing is perfectly even. With rounds it can get a little hairy controlling dynamics. The tradeoff, though, is that these pickups also have great detail and a big, open sound. They’re not as thuddy as a split P pickup.

Lastly, I don’t mind the lack of body contouring but some people find it uncomfortable.

The "spiky" quality you refer to may be because the polepieces are directly under the strings. The Jazz and split P pickups fixed the problem by using the double polepiece per string style we're used to. That system picked up the outer edge of the vibration and not the full force of it, thereby evening out the sound. Rics have polepieces directly under the strings and they can have a harsh attack, too. That may be what makes their sound unique. Lowering the pickup into the cavity can reduce the spike but you sacrifice volume and bass response by doing so. You have to decide if that is worth it or not. An example of the spike gone awry is the opening note of The Guess Who's hit No Time (the hit version from the American Woman album, not the previous one from Canned Wheat). Jim Kale used a SC P bass and the "Bleeaauughttt" sound on the first note is what happens if you crank it up too much. Shame on the engineer!