Understanding the P Bass ...

[Marc DLarosa]

Now THIS... is a funny thread...

 

[rockscott]

To me, my birdsong is the ultimate p bass, yet its smaller. lighter & easier to play!

 

[rashrader]

I have had a Fender P-Bass sitting under my bed doing nothing for about 10 years.... I’ll play it again. Maybe? Who knows. It’s just a Bass.

 

[socialleper]

I see a TON of people make P Basses. Can it be assumed the American made Fender is the ultimate in sound and playability?
Are there any other P Basses for less, which equal a Fender? And are there P Basses even better than the Fender? Curiosity kills me. Thanks

Ultimate tone?
Definitely not. There isn't one "ultimate tonr."
Ultimate playability?
No. Some people find them hard to play, depending on the year of the bass.
Are there any less expensive ones?
Yes. A MIJ and MIM Fender among them. MIA basses are over rated, with their being little difference between an assembly line one made in the US and an assembly line one made over seas.
Better?
My US BC Rich ST III bass with Dimarzio pickups has earned more votes in a listening challenge I did than a Fender MIM P or US Peavey Forum.

 

[Stewie]

I don't play my Jazz Bass because it has too many knobs. So my only choice is to play a P Bass. Right now, my favorite is a Squier 54 style.

 

[lbbc]

I avoided playing Pbasses for 43 years because "everyone else did" and I wanted to be different. Then I got this and everything changed.

 

[Groove Doctor]

I have played about a zillion P basses....
My advice? Play some. One will speak to you. And it probably won't be the one you THOUGHT would speak to you.

QFT

Play as many as you can because as two fingers says, it may be the one you didn’t expect that says “Play ME”.

Yep.

Find one that YOU think Sounds good, feels good, & looks good.

Now THIS... is a funny thread...

Sure is. It’s like asking “who makes the best wheelbarrow?”

 

[Robert B]

My alder Lakland U.S. Glaub pbass is definitely better to play than any Fender I've ever played. The neck is to die for.
Does it sound better? Not to me. It sounds different - smooth and refined. And I like its sound. But I also like the raw, guttural, savage sound of my ash bodied Fender American Standard pbass. I'd be hard pressed to part with either of them!

 

[lfmn16]

I see a TON of people make P Basses. Can it be assumed the American made Fender is the ultimate in sound and playability?
Are there any other P Basses for less, which equal a Fender? And are there P Basses even better than the Fender? Curiosity kills me. Thanks

We have this thing called a "search" feature ...

It's a good place to start.

 

[Chrome Dome]

Remembered my first Fender Precision,back in 1975,bought new. I wanted to learn to play bass back then,and someone told me to get a Fender Precision. So I got the Mocha brown,with rosewood fret board. Then after about couple years,went with the Fender Jazz,new one,of course. After 43 years of playing decided to put this somewhat resemblance of my first Precison together. It has a solid one piece walnut body,with a 2012 MIM Precison neck,and I am really liking.

 

[Altitude]

The tone of a P-bass is mainly determined by the pickup placement, the pickup design, and the wood the instrument is made of. Probably in that order. It's not determined by the brand, other than that maybe a builder could favor a certain pickup that would lend a tone characteristic. But in my experience P pickups sound more similar than different no matter what.

The wood is alder or ash for the body, maple for the neck, maple or rosewood for the fretboard. There are many other woods available but using any of them will provide a maybe cool but different tone than a straightforward P-bass. Again, none of this is brand-specific.

Weight is a thing. You can get them down to the 7-pounds-and-change range and I've seen 'em as heavy as 12. You probably get a lighter one the more more you spend, because of more carefully chosen wood specimens and lighter hardware. Again though, this is more about price point and less about brand.

So, like everyone says, you can sort of play the field on brand names you like or don't like, and can get a great one from any number of sources.

Personally I think every player needs 2. One should be a dark, mellow-sounding thing with flatwounds (probably a sunburst with a rosewood board and a tort guard in my mind). The other should have roundwounds and should be bright, aggressive, and vaguely punk rock sounding (black, maple board, black guard in my mind).

____

I just got this one. It was somebody's build, sort of a frankenbass. It has an alder body which I think is a USA but not sure it matters, one of those interesting Babicz bridges that work different than all other bridges, Hipshot Ultralite tuners, and a Fender Custom Shop '62 pickup. That is a brand new American Professional Jazz neck I just put on it, a bit of an indulgence but it was totally plug-and-play and has the graphite rods to keep it stable here in the changing Colorado weather. About 8 pounds. Kind of a Roger Waters thing. Sounds killer.

I took it out on Friday night. I'm actually not a P-bass guy and this is the first "normal" P I've ever owned, since the mid 80s. It sure did sound good with my horn funk band though. It's in the rotation now fo sho.

 

[BassmanM]

Sure is. It’s like asking “who makes the best wheelbarrow?”

So who makes it?

 

[bassliner50]

I have a '78 Precision, MIM P's, Squire Classic Vibe (Matt Freeman), 2 Vintage Modified P's. I play them all. A lot. Once these basses are set up to perfection, Loaded with pickups of my choice, they all sound and play wonderfully. They are interchangeable. The world is littered with parts for these. They are easiest to buy or sell. Only my American P is all original. I see little or no correlation between cost and performance, once these puppies are tweaked.

 

[lostpoet2]

Like most of Leo's classic designs, it is the design of the P-bass that is great. Same way with the telecaster, the stratocaster, and the jazz bass. The ultimate one is the one that you like the best, as each of Fender's designs can have a thousand variations and customizations based on a simple recipe.

 

[easyj]

They say the Peavey Fury is better. I've never played one myself.

I have a Peavey Fury. No way is it better. It’s a good bass, but the construction is a little cheap.

 

[HardNHeavy]

google "bass body" and it mostly fenders, or copies, same with necks.......the stuff is just everywhere

 

[JRA]

Can it be assumed the American made Fender is the ultimate in sound and playability?

for a P bass? i doubt it. of all of the split coil, single pickup axes i've played: i would generally rate the fender P in the middle of the pack. but they're big...and expensive, so there's that.

 

[Quadzilla]

I've said this before, but I personally feel that Leo (Fender) got one aspect of the design wrong. While the pickup design may have worked well with older designs of amps, flatwound strings, etc, it doesn't work quite as well in modern environments. To my ears, on modern amps with rounds (strings), the E&A are a bit boomy and undefined and the D&G sounding a bit thin.

If you reverse the pickup configuration (E&A closer to the bridge and D&G closer to the neck), the E&A get tightened--up and cut better with less woof and boom (mud) on bottom. The D&G get a bit more girth behind them (sound fuller and sit in the mix better)

To my ears, it balances the strings quite nicely and nothing gets lost in the mix. So many times have I seen guys gigging P basses where the notes on the E&A were too muddy and the notes on the D&G get lost a bit in the mix.

Just MHO......YMMV!

 

[thebreakman]

I sold my Fender Am P and kept my Fender MIM P. Played better, sounded better and of course, was half the price

 

[Leonid Nidis]

Its just so happens lately I heard and played a 100$ silverhead P that sounded just as good as an american standart fender(tested side by side).
Also heard a greco p bass copy from the 70s that sounded better than any fender I heard all together!