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What is a "true" P-Bass?

#41
The lakland basses above are excellent copies of a genuine PBass. That is not meant to offend anyone. It just means that fender invented, designed, patented and built the original PBass so similar non Fender basses of similar design are copies of the original. That is a great tribute to Leo Fender.
 
#43
Fender, as many have pointed out, does own the name "Precision." That said, there are many "Precision-style" basses, and it is legitimate to talk about those basses as being in the style of the P-bass. Some brands do pass into generic use, it's part of language to talk about Jeeps or Rollerblades or Aspirin.
 
#46
Oh C'Mon - this is ridiculous. Precision Bass and P Bass terms were created and trademarked by Fender. Otherwise it can only be a P-type or P-style bass.

A Lakland Bob Glaub while excellent, is no more a P bass than Generic bathroom tissue is Kleenex.
 
#48
Bassamatic said:
Oh C'Mon - this is ridiculous. Precision Bass and P Bass terms were created and trademarked by Fender. Otherwise it can only be a P-type or P-style bass.

A Lakland Bob Glaub while excellent, is no more a P bass than Generic bathroom tissue is Kleenex.
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P bass

P-type bass

Are we now simply arguing over semantics?
 
#51
wild4oldcars said:
For me, a P bass is not the same thing as a Precision Bass. I have a p-style Ibanez, and it serves all the purposes a Fender Precision Bass would do for me. Even though it says Ibanez on the headstock, its still my P. I consider the new carvin things people were going on about p basses, even though leo didn't make them. If it does what a fender precision does, in the owner's opinion, I would say its a p.
IMO of course
Click to expand...

This.

My Ibanez P style bass sounds better than any of the fenders I tried out that cost three times as much or more.

Who wudda thunk it...

Cheers!

MJW
 
#52
Febs said:
P-Bass is a registered trademark of FMIC, so it's more like saying that only Old Fashioned Hamburgers® made at Wendy's are true Old Fashioned Hamburgers®.
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No it's like saying that this or that commercial factory hamburger chain makes the "best" hamburgers. And of course that is nonsense, since in this town there is nothing that can compare to say a Thurman burger at the Thurman Bar and Grill. (It violates the rule: never eat anything bigger than your head)

So lets face it, any Fender P-bass ceased to be a "real" P-bass as soon as Leo sold the company. Sure they own the name, but that's not what makes the bass. So we can talk "real" factory production basses, but there certainly are many boutique p-bass brands out there just as there are boutique burgers.

So the real question is who is carrying on Leo's P-bass tradition the best? FMIC or the boutique builders? Hard to say. There are arguments for both ways.
 
#53
This is my Fender Precision LYTE Deluxe bass; 34" scale, 4 string, mahogany body:

lyte_sideways.jpg


It's a Fender and says "precision" on the headstock. I just don't think of it as a Precision bass. This is not what Leo had in mind. I like it, because it's light, small, plays easily, and has a different sound than my other Fenders. But I don't think of it as a Fender Precision Bass, I think of it as my Fender LYTE bass.
 
#55
Gbass75 said:
There are those who would say that only a Fender manufactured "Precision Bass" is an honest-to-God, legit, "P-Bass."

Others suggest that any bass with the split-coil pick up can be defined as a "P-Bass."

But then, just to muddy the waters, there are the various Fender-made "Precision" basses that have other sorts of pickups in them...

So what are your thoughts? Are the original single and split-coil, Leo Fender designed basses the only TRUE Precision Basses?!?
Click to expand...

Any unaltered Fender P bass built in 1964 or earlier, and no others.
 
#56
In MY opinion, P-Bass has become generic lexicon (much like Google..."hey just google it"). When I hear P-Bass, I DO think of the Fender body design (but my opinion is not limited to that), with a (must be) Passive (must be) split coil in the (must be) sweet spot. And like a few others have said, NOT a PJ.

Frankly, though I really want one (and we all know what that means)...the Fender Black Top JAZZ with the double Split P's is sort of a confusing sacrilege thing to me.
 
#57
oleskool said:
I think Fender answered this. If I recall correctly it was determined by the body style. That's what they market. If it has the body not the pick up, it is a p bass with say jazz pick ups, it would still be a pbass.
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The Fender Blacktop Precision (p-style body with dual humbuckers) and Fender Blacktop Jazz (jazz-style body with dual split-coil pickups) certainly support this conclusion.

Personally, I wish I could say I don't really care what the bass "truly" is, as long as it sounds, plays, and looks good, but as it happens, all 3 of my electric basses say "fender". I guess I'm just that vain.
 
#59
Maybe it depends on the context of the conversation. If you have a Ric 4003 and a copy of a P bass on a gig and you're asked to play the bass that doesn't resemble the one that Paul McCartney plays, you may refer to it as a P bass, even though you know it isn't one by the strictest legal definition of the term.
 

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