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Is a P bass necessary?

#61
cassanova said:
No, a P bass is not necessary.

I find the tone of the MIA standard P's to be highly overrated. Now the MIA P Deluxe is a different story. The addition of the stacked jazz humbuckers in the bridge make it sound like a totally different animal and give it much needed versatility that the standards do not have.
Click to expand...
It sure is for me. :)


I find "much needed versatility" by way of extra pickups, and pre amps to be highly overrated. :D


I've been playing straight up P's for well over 25 years, and I've yet to encounter a situation where I said to my self.. "Ya know, I could REALLY use a little nasal single coil bridge p/u type tone right here" ;) Nope! Never , not once. ;) I can certainly get as much treble as I can stand out of a striaght up P as it is, just by how I play the thing.


Guess our requirements in basses are a bit different . Imagine that ! ;) (although I've covered a LOT, of different styles with just a plain ol' Precision.)

Versatility is in the player not the electronics. (required IMO)
 
#65
Is a P bass necessary?

Let me reverse the logic ... Is a Jazz bass necessary?

If I add a j pickup to a p-bass I can get a jazz sound ... also I can get a jazz sound out of a Stingray.

A p-bass is necessary to those that want one.

I have 2 p-basses ... I like them both.

:bassist:
 
#66
cassanova said:
No, a P bass is not necessary.

I find the tone of the MIA standard P's to be highly overrated. Now the MIA P Deluxe is a different story. The addition of the stacked jazz humbuckers in the bridge make it sound like a totally different animal and give it much needed versatility that the standards do not have.
Click to expand...

I whole heartedly disagree. I find the tone coming out of my
71 to be, in a word, complete. Then again, what do I know....
 
#67
Every self-respecting bassist has one... in any form. I would like the ESP P/J bass, or a squire 50's classic vibe precision bass. So any form of a precision bass is OK.

Guess I'm not self-respecting, I don't have the money for one yet (saving for an amp) but they are on the top of my g.a.s. list LOL
 
#69
I owned a 66 P-Bass and sold it in the early 80's - play a 64 and 65 Jazz exclusively after that - after returning to playing last year after about a 15 year absence. I picked up another P-Bass and I think it is an essential tool in the Bass Arsenal - I love it and I crave it - and right now it is the only 4 I am playing when I am not playing my 6 String. Just bought and SX P/J - hoping I will like it as much. P-Basses are so necessary. Precision and a Jazz to me set the Bar and everything since owes some debt to these Classics!
 
#70
No, I really cannot say they are, or even if you really need one.:hmm:
However, I feel no arsenal of basses is complete without one. :hyper:
There are so many styles of music the P sounds really good with. For many years all I wanted were Jazz basses or 5 strings or whatever. Then, I bought a 96 fretless P and that changed everything.:cool:
I now own two, and I am contemplating another one, perhaps a PJ of some sort, although it won't have to be a Fender per se.

FG
 
#72
From what I've played that sounds P-ish, it's always sounded sort've clunky to me...don't know if that's just my experience, or the overall sound...but I like the clear defined sound you get out of J-style basses.
 
#74
savit260 said:
It sure is for me. :)


I find "much needed versatility" by way of extra pickups, and pre amps to be highly overrated. :D


I've been playing straight up P's for well over 25 years, and I've yet to encounter a situation where I said to my self.. "Ya know, I could REALLY use a little nasal single coil bridge p/u type tone right here" ;) Nope! Never , not once. ;) I can certainly get as much treble as I can stand out of a striaght up P as it is, just by how I play the thing.


Guess our requirements in basses are a bit different . Imagine that ! ;) (although I've covered a LOT, of different styles with just a plain ol' Precision.)

Versatility is in the player not the electronics. (required IMO)
Click to expand...

why are you singling out cassanova's opinion to attack? he didn't direct anything at you.
 
#76
Look if you want the sound of a true P bass you need a P bass or will have to get a tricked out bass to reproduce the P bass sound. IMO just get a P bass nothing sounds like one. I was a Jazz player untill i heard the P bass in so many classic recordings and i started chasing that sound. No jazz i had would get that classic P tone no matter how i tried. IMO a jazz is a jazz P is a P.
A recording engineer i did tracking with a few weeks ago was happy when he seen i was a P bass player. He said in 20 years of recording 100's of bassists nothing in his mind sat in the mix and recorded better than a P bass.
 
#77
In my early days I was anti-P-bass person :eek: Yes its true. Back in the day, I wouldnt have owned one unless it was given to me free of charge. Since no one ever gave me one, I never owned one.

Now, I STILL dont own a Fender P, but I do own an SX SPJ-62 that my wife got me for Christmas and, lo and behold, 30 years of playing later-I GET IT!!!!!
I definitely plan on adding another one to my arsenal (but I do have to address my amp situation 1st). I dont know if I'll be able to afford a Fender, but I am definitely considering a Squier.
 
#78
savit260 said:
It sure is for me. :)


I find "much needed versatility" by way of extra pickups, and pre amps to be highly overrated. :D


I've been playing straight up P's for well over 25 years, and I've yet to encounter a situation where I said to my self.. "Ya know, I could REALLY use a little nasal single coil bridge p/u type tone right here" ;) Nope! Never , not once. ;) I can certainly get as much treble as I can stand out of a striaght up P as it is, just by how I play the thing.


Guess our requirements in basses are a bit different . Imagine that ! ;) (although I've covered a LOT, of different styles with just a plain ol' Precision.)

Versatility is in the player not the electronics. (required IMO)
Click to expand...


I prefer more modern sounding basses than that of the standard MIA P. Hence, in today's world, I do think the P bass tone is over rated. That's not to say I think they sound bad, if I thought they sounded bad then I would not have bought an MIA P Deluxe V.

Versatility is in both the player and the pups/electronics. Like it or not, the active basses have more tonal versatility than one could ever get out of a traditional P or any passive bass from just your playing technique alone.

As for not having to say to yourself you could use a single coil in your 25 years of playing, well thats cool and I'm glad it works for you. But as I've read so often on here and from my own personal experiences in my 23 years of playing, any bass, even a P.O.S. Hondo can play any type of situation, but that doesn't mean we'd rush out to buy one. It's all about personal likes and dislikes. Me I dislike the tone of the passive P's. YMMV and that's cool too.
 
#79
YES it's necessary

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