P Bass what am I missing

[bachplay6]

All,
Look I know this is a very subjective topic, but that being said, I have a MIM Fender Jazz bass, and a Fender Rascal SS bass. I'm a guitarist for 25 years and now I'm on fire with bass. Since I love blues and classic rock, the P bass is played a lot in these genres. What does the P bass offer in contrast to the Jazz in terms of playability and tone?

 

[old spice]

A little more thump, which blends well with kick drums.

 

[el_Bajo_Verde]

If I had to explain it in one word: versatile.

 

[Showdown]

A P doesn't sound that great by itself - but it sits in a band mix perfectly for pretty much every type of music. I played Js for many years, but I've been playing mostly Ps for the last couple of years.

 

[OutToPlayJazz]

If I remember mine correctly, one of the middle pickup settings on your Rascal does a very good P impression, so not much. Having never really been a Precision player, I've never missed it. I've always preferred the wider tonal pallet of the Jazz if we're talking classic basses.

Depending on the neck profile, the Precision can often be more difficult to play than the Jazz. There are a lot of 'baseball bat' necks around on certain P's (particularly 1950's style models). Also, depending on your LH technique, the P fingerboards can be much wider too.

At the end of the day, there are certain producers and a lot of players who swear by the Precision and love how it blends in. As a player, I personally don't like being buried in the mix quite so much. I value being able to hear every frequency of my instrument, and strangely, singers & brass players thank me for it too, as they tend to pitch from the overtones of the bass.

Having a Precision isn't a necessity. It's a choice.

 

[Showdown]

At the end of the day, there are certain producers and a lot of players who swear by the Precision and love how it blends in. As a player, I personally don't like being buried in the mix quite so much. I value being able to hear every frequency of my instrument, and strangely, singers & brass players thank me for it too, as they tend to pitch from the overtones of the bass.

I have played a P in many different styles of music, from classic rock to metal to punk to soul to blues, and while it "blends in" it does NOT get buried at all. It sits in the right spot in the frequency spectrum to be heard easily while still sounding fat. Ever had trouble hearing the bass in Motown? I haven't. It is right up front, not buried.

 

[OutToPlayJazz]

I have played a P in many different styles of music, from classic rock to metal to punk to soul to blues, and while it "blends in" it does NOT get buried at all. It sits in the right spot in the frequency spectrum to be heard easily while still sounding fat. Ever had trouble hearing the bass in Motown? I haven't. It is right up front, not buried.

As I said, it's entirely subjective. And the listener/audience has a completely different take on the sound compared with those on the stage. It's also a matter of personal taste - I grew up as a player with hifi basses and clean zingy strings. Thump alone doesn't do it for me.

 

[elgecko]

A tone that everybody knows whether they realize it or not.

 

[Fuzzbass]

As I said, it's entirely subjective. And the listener/audience has a completely different take on the sound compared with those on the stage. It's also a matter of personal taste - I grew up as a player with hifi basses and clean zingy strings. Thump alone doesn't do it for me.

I have a number of P-style basses (all fivers these days), but my favorites are my actives because like you I enjoy zingy tones. The Sadowsky P5 in my avatar is especially good at this! It's a modern take on the classic P-bass tone: still thumps, but with a more hi-fi edge. It sounds even more modern through my Darkglass B7K pedal.

If I had to explain it in one word: versatile.

The abused and false cliché is that the P-bass (or any other single pickup bass) is a "one trick pony". Versatility is in the player more than it is the instrument. I love P-basses soloed or in the mix, I love them for any kind of music including slap funk. The only thing I wouldn't use a vanilla P-bass for would be Jaco-style music: burpy bridge pickup tone, lots of harmonics. For that I'd have to use a PJ.

Anyway, there are many kinds of P-basses, but even within the Fender niche there are many P-bass tones. To name just two: I remember an early 70's ash/maple P-bass with gold guard I played that had piano-like tone. The 1964 alder/rosewood P-bass I owned back in the early 80's had the classic warm thump whether strung with flats or rounds.

 

[Showdown]

As I said, it's entirely subjective. And the listener/audience has a completely different take on the sound compared with those on the stage. It's also a matter of personal taste - I grew up as a player with hifi basses and clean zingy strings. Thump alone doesn't do it for me.

I've gotten everything from a trebly punk tone to a fat soul tone out of a P bass. And I've done both changing nothing other than the tone knob and my amp EQ.

 

[jamro217]

The P bass was the first commercially successful electric bass and it has been on more recordings than any other model. It's the standard default setting of the bass world. Not as bright or as thin as a Jazz, the split humbucker version (not the '51 that would later be renamed the Telecaster bass) has a full sound. The controls are simple, yet yield a variety of tones. Neck sizes vary from 1 1/2" to 1 3/4" at the nut and can be on the chunky side. Hope this helps.

 

[Jrussblues]

A p bass is the tuba of a brass section, solid and low and completely less than interesting. Cheers p bassesers.

 

[sharkbait130]

You have a P Bass? I believe the question was "What am I missing?"........An SVT with an 8 10.

 

[Jloch86]

Jamerson used a P for Motown R&B and you KNOW how good that sounded. Very punchy and thick but not mid-rangy. Like a bell.

 

[chris_b]

What does the P bass offer in contrast to the Jazz in terms of playability and tone?

If you've survived this long without one you probably are getting by well enough without it.

Us saying, "It just works" doesn't convey what a P bass does. You're going to have to try one.

 

[OutToPlayJazz]

I have a number of P-style basses (all fivers these days), but my favorites are my actives because like you I enjoy zingy tones. The Sadowsky P5 in my avatar is especially good at this! It's a modern take on the classic P-bass tone: still thumps, but with a more hi-fi edge. It sounds even more modern through my Darkglass B7K pedal.

Oddly enough, I use my Enfield Lionheart(with switchable pickups) mainly as a P&J. It's the most balanced sound the switchable pickup coils make on the bass.

I agree with you that there are some high end 'P's' which do sound completely different - The Sadowsky P5, the Mike Lull P4 with the Lindy Fralin has an amazing dimension to the sound and I also liked the Dingwall Super P. These all have something very different about the sound. The traditional Precision sound is there, but it's been refined and made so much better.

 

[Yahboy]

P bass is simple, nothing special , boring tone compare to J bass when play alone.
But, when in Mix, the tone range( with .1uf cap) is wider to let you mix in any kind of music style.

 

[inflatablefilth]

the mids. P-bass mids are unique and have a pleasant, slightly nasal, slightly springy sounding musicality that you can do a lot with

how well it sits in a mix (compared to a jazz bass) depends on so many things - just because the production on Motown records carved a lot of room for Jamerson's P-bass doesn't mean one would work in the same amount of space and in the same frequencies the you'd get on a modern rock record...

I've found jazz basses with both pickups full on give me more ultra low end, and more poke in the high mids, and tend to sit better when you've got guitarists with that big humbucker thing going on, and a packed midrange. But on its own, the jazz bass doesn't delight me as much as the p-bass. The p-bass mids are beautiful, complex and gnarly, sit in a slightly lower frequency range, and the p-bass lows, although plentiful, are wider than, but not as deep and immediate as the jazz bass... it's like being hugged by grizzly bear holding a chainsaw

not all bass gear is voiced in such a way that a p-bass will shine. I had a sansamp RBI, and it didn't play well with a p-bass at all - the mid 'scoop' took away everything that was good about the bass. Sounded wonderful with a jazz bass though. Stick a p-bass through an SVT however...

if you have the right gear, room in the mix, and can be heard, it will all make sense

 

[BassIsBoss]

Hugs all around for every grizzly bear wielding a chainsaw......perfect!

 

[REV]

To me there is a kind of transparency in the tone of a Jazz bass and a fatness in the tone of a P bass. Both have their place.