I used to not like P basses

[hintz]

Fair enough. I think what the young people have forgotten is not all bass lines are wank wank. And Mr. Sheehan knew there were times for bottom end thump and times for the fancy stuff.
Peace

Oh yeah, I couldn't agree more... It reminds me of music school with all this bassists who could play" classical thump"
but couldn't keep quarter or 8th notes steady, there is a time and place for everything, but the meat and potatoes is where its at, all the flash in the world doesn't mean anything without a groove

 

[Lee Moses]

Leo SX got it right the first time.

You can't have a decent P bass thread without the cat in the necktie.

 

[spaz21387]

P basses are for those who cant afford 2m's musicmans are superior in every way!

 

[brianrost]

I started playing in the 70s and wanted a Gibson EB3 because Jack Bruce played one. P basses of that time were heavy and had fat necks while the EB3 was light with a fast neck. I couldn't afford either one so ended up with a Madeira which was a Japanese bass imported by Guild, a copy of their JS-II bass which at least looked like an EB3.

I played that, Silvertone (Danelectro), Peavey and BC Rich basses in that order before someone let me try their pre-CBS P-bass. Light, fast neck, ***!

I eventually got two pre-CBS Ps of my own and never did get an EB3.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

 

[Larry McQueary]

So we have him to thank/blame for the new trend of young bassists in EVERY music store pounding on the bass with their thumbs while finger snapping the high notes, not knowing how to use the two fingered bass style? There is such a diversity of styles, there should always be room for the "root players."

No, not at all. You have Bootsy Collins, Stanley Clarke, Larry Graham, and more recently Mark King, Marcus Miller, Flea and Victor Wooten (among others) to thank for this "new"(?) 30 year old trend. Billy Sheehan is not typically associated with slap (though he is extremely competent in any style).

For bassists of a certain age (i.e. around my age) Billy popularized ideas like two-handed bass hammer-ons/tapping, chording and three-finger picking in the mid-to late 1980s, an era when guys like him, Jeff Berlin, Stu Hamm, Will Lee, and John Patitucci were (in my opinion) showing bass players combinations of techniques beyond just old-school two-finger roots and fifths and slapping.

More than anything, you have the popularization of modern jazz and prog-rock to thank for all that bass-as-solo-instrument stuff you see today, which I think is what you're ultimately getting at. I cringe a bit at it, too. Not the techniques, mind you, as how could any good technique be your enemy? I cringe at the amount of over-playing I hear from bassists who have mastered some of these techniques but don't understand how to be part of a rhythm section in a band, as they can't resist soloing on every song. In a jazz combo? Sure. In a cover band? LOL. No.

So to circle back to your point, there is ALWAYS room for "root players". More than enough. And every one of the guys I've mentioned above knows how to hold down the bottom end of a rhythm section, even if that's not what some of them are best-known (or imitated) for.

 

[odarellmc]

I have this running joke with my pals that every time we here some generic picked root note bass line we say "Oh, that's some good P bass playin'" . Not because that all P bass players have that sound of course but because a lot of bass players that pick up a P bass have this quarter note root and fifth mentality. Which is not owed to the bass itself and transfers to other basses as well, I'm not saying it's exclusive to the P bass. My point is that there is a line between uninteresting simplicity and shredding up and down the neck. Sterotypes can go both ways, with or against the P.

Interesting..I do that, lol. I think it depends on the roll the bass is playing, I think if you're a p bass player you're more concerned with cohesiveness and locking into the grove than standing out, yes?

 

[RRDieselbass]

The day I was born my daddy handed me his beat up old P bass and said "go forth son and bring a mighty bass sound to the world."
I did just that and sold millions of albums and played my p bass all over the world. As I sit here in my P bass shaped Olympic sized swimming pool, I reflect back on a life of riches and fame and none of this could have happened without my P bass.
So go buy a P bass and be rich, famous and happy like me.

 

[JimmyM]

Precision basses are so chunky to me and they always sound way too muffled.

You can fix that to a very large degree with different pickup choices.

 

[jay tay]

My first bass was a PBass, and I hated it, a good friend of mine and fellow bassist played a Jazz Bass, and he was better than me (still is) and I wanted to play like Martin, he had two pickups and everything!!!! then I saw some guy playing a fretless, and I needed a fretless, then five strings, then six strings, and the next 20 years were spent looking for some kind of magic tone. A few years back I was thumbing through a 50 years of Fender book, and stopped dead on a large photo of a 63' PBass in oly whitr with a tort guard... then I just realised the tone I was looking for was in a case under the bed this whole time...

Jamerson, Babbit, Rainey, Felder, pino palladino....

I now have two P's in my stable, a fretless with flats, and a fretted with rounds...

Now don't get me wrong I'm not hatin' on other bass' or players, The players I mentioned above have rock solid foundations, yet are hardly Quarter and Eighth note Root and fifth bangers (though there is a time and a place for that). Also there are many notable players that venture out of the Pzone, and still hold it down (not every six string player is a fret board wanker, Bob Babbit, Chuck Rainey, Welton Felder, and Pino Palladino are all known to play non fender, non PBass, Bass' also).

I often reach for a Jazz, or a six string to get the job done when It needs something extra. but there is something special about that big split coil in the middle of an alder body that, a neck single coil with palm muting, or a humbuckler with the tone rolled off, just can't capture. now if I could get a six string fretless PBass with flats... then I could get that tone of my dreams.... with all the notes that I need on top.

 

[I Need a six...]

Not to be contentious, but people who are decidedly non-P players, often have that "I'm too good to just play bass" style.

All twang, no thump. All twiddly-diddly, no actual fundamental. You very rarely end up asking, "So...where's the bass line?" when you see Precisions being played.

No, not really. Alotnof people just find the p uncomfortably heavy or dislike the specs. That's said, a p brings a bassline to life like very few basses do, on that I agree with you.

 

[I Need a six...]

"I used to dislike p basses until I bought ten of them"

 

[Chrisk-K]

I had collected a bunch of P basses.

3 Fenders - all MIM, 1 is a P/J
2 SX's - 1 P and one P/J
4 Squiers - 3 VM P Basses (Natural w/Maple, Cabronita and VM P 'Tele" bass with Mudbucker) and a Dirnt
1 Galveston P bass (american flag paint job and EMGs)

10 P basses! holy carp, it kinda sneaks up on you.

I need help

You need help. What is the point of collecting non-collectable basses? With all the money spent on those 10 P basses, you could have 2 or 3 MIA P basses.

 

[Justice]

You need help. What is the point of collecting non-collectable basses? With all the money spent on those 10 P basses, you could have 2 or 3 MIA P basses.

Except for the fact that Fender has not issued a MIA P bass that I have actually liked in the past 20+ years?

Edited to add: With these ten basses, I have the basses I want. For example. does Fender currently produce a MIA black on black P bass with gold hardware? No. So If I wanted one NEW, I would have to go Custom Shop. Instead I have a MIM that I got off craigslist for $75 and i'm turning it into the bass I want for under $200 total. Does Fender make a no pickguard P bass with an american flag paint job and active EMG pickups? No, again I would have to spend thousands in the Custom Shop to get the bass I want from Fender America.

I don't need help, apparently Fender does though. Any time they release a bass that catches my interest, it is either a MIM or a Squier.

 

[Antisyzygy]

You need help. What is the point of collecting non-collectable basses? With all the money spent on those 10 P basses, you could have 2 or 3 MIA P basses.

Each may get a different tone from the pickups or may use different strings. One of my P basses is my stock one for a P bass sound, then another has a Quarter Pounder in it for more aggressive stuff. Both of them aren't collectible, they just do their respective jobs well. For awhile I had both Ps with a similar pickup on them but one had flatwounds on it and the other had roundwounds--to achieve a different sound for when I felt it was needed without having to mess with swapping strings out.

I pursue something like "tonal coverage" with my collection, I don't collect for the sake of collecting. Before I knew it I had 9 basses, and each one of them sounds completely different or has a different profile of sounds I can get over the others if there is overlap. Im still missing a few sounds even, like an EB-3 for example.

 

[Justice]

Actually I just thought of ONE Fender MIA bass that I liked, and oddly enough it was the Custom Shop Dusty Hill bass..only 5 grand or so....

 

[JimmyM]

I don't care for the pickups in most of the ones since the S1 switch MIA's came out (haven't tried the post-2012 AmStd's, heard they're better), but other than that, I think they're killer basses. But no, you can't get one with no pickguard and the American flag on it

 

[Warhawk]

My first was a Fender Precision Plus. Both the P and J pickups at the same time with an old solid-state Peavey and a Ibanez Tube Screamer pedal really made that Fender growl like a tiger with something to kill. Nowadays I go between G&L L2Ks, Jazz basses and P-basses. Working on a special one though...it's based on a Fender JP90 with some interesting pickups.

 

[Justice]

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are plenty great MIA Fenders out there, it's just that what Fender chooses to release in the MIA line up never really appeals to me. But then the MIMs they release like the Roadworn P basses I like, or the paisley precisions that came out of Japan, would love to have one of those as well.

 

[Warhawk]

Hey everyone, collect what you want. If you like it that's it.

 

[Antisyzygy]

I don't care for the pickups in most of the ones since the S1 switch MIA's came out (haven't tried the post-2012 AmStd's, heard they're better), but other than that, I think they're killer basses. But no, you can't get one with no pickguard and the American flag on it

I really wish they'd release some sort of one pickup P-bass (as in not a PJ) with a 2 or 3 band preamp.