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What is a "true" P-Bass?
- Thread starter Gbass75
- Start date
I wish I could find one of those Dano basses to try some time. They look like Picaso's redesign of a Fender P-Bass. Plus I dig the bowling ball finish.
Go get it- $175: Invalid Link Removed
Guys, take some deep breaths. The OP may be pulling our legs or it could be a real question.
On one philosophical level - Precision is a brand name owned by Fender. Precision has not, IMHO, come into parlance as the word to substitute for bass guitar in the way that Hoover has, even to this day, come to mean vacuum-cleaner. So on one level Precision does mean a Fender and is not a generic term.
But since Fender have got a high number of models of the Precision, including the oxy-moron of fretless Precision which hadn't occurred to me till it was mentioned above, one could then suppose that the brand name has been rather diluted. Further, one could be forgiven for thinking that the split coil version from 1957 onwards, as the start of the definitive Precision version. But even that doesn't sit well with the fact that the name Precision was first given to a single coil bass guitar with frets.
If we go back to the question posed by the OP: Are the original single and split-coil, Leo Fender designed basses the only TRUE Precision Basses?!?
The answer has to be no and yes in roughly equal measure.
Davo
On one philosophical level - Precision is a brand name owned by Fender. Precision has not, IMHO, come into parlance as the word to substitute for bass guitar in the way that Hoover has, even to this day, come to mean vacuum-cleaner. So on one level Precision does mean a Fender and is not a generic term.
But since Fender have got a high number of models of the Precision, including the oxy-moron of fretless Precision which hadn't occurred to me till it was mentioned above, one could then suppose that the brand name has been rather diluted. Further, one could be forgiven for thinking that the split coil version from 1957 onwards, as the start of the definitive Precision version. But even that doesn't sit well with the fact that the name Precision was first given to a single coil bass guitar with frets.
If we go back to the question posed by the OP: Are the original single and split-coil, Leo Fender designed basses the only TRUE Precision Basses?!?
The answer has to be no and yes in roughly equal measure.
Davo
I just reread the OP. The answer is relatively simple. There are many "P" basses, but only Fender makes "The Precision Bass".
The rest are tributes, or simply companies capitalizing on Leo Fenders design, and invention.
A Precision Bass is a Fender.
The rest are tributes, or simply companies capitalizing on Leo Fenders design, and invention.
A Precision Bass is a Fender.
Ummm, a P bass shaped body of swamp ash or alder, 4 in line tuners on a neck, one 250k volume pot, one 250k tone pot with a .047/.050 cap, a split coil P pickup of alnico 5 magnets/2 poles for each string running at about 10.5k to 11.5k ohm.
Drum roll............"da da, a P Bass"!
Drum roll............"da da, a P Bass"!
I kind of agree with this but Fender is no longer Fender as it's gone from pre-CBS to CBS to Schultz to the mega corporation that it is today and then add in MIJ, MIM, the Custom Shop and Fender is really only a name.
If the basic design and materials of the original P bass are used, it doesn't really matter who makes it all long as it is made right..............it's a P Bass.
IMHO
Yeah, I haven't spent even one second worrying about this question.
I love "Precision style" basses. All five of my basses are "P-style", but none are Fender. I'd like to add a Fender P at some point, but not because I feel any need to get a "true P-bass".
Then again, I now play 5 string exclusively, and I'm sure some will argue that the Fender American Standard Precision V is not a true P-bass just because of the additional string.
The single-coil has a cool tone, but I'll take the split-coil every time. Not that that has anything to do with the OP's question.
I consider a true P Bass to be the bass with one single-coil or split-coil pickup made by Fender/Squier. However, I have no problem with "P Bass" being a generic term to describe a bass with the same characteristics as the Fender. That being said, I wouldn't call my Carvin PB5 a P Bass and I'm a little disappointed that they couldn't come up with something better than "PB" 
If it's made or licensed by Fender, and Fender calls it a Precision, then it's a true P bass. Others may be P-style or P-like, but that isn't enough to make them actual P basses. Kind of like if another auto manufacturer sold copies of Ford Mustangs. They wouldn't really be Mustangs no matter how much better or worse they are than a Ford, even if they were otherwise exact copies. Sure, they'd be Mustangs in a general sense, but they wouldn't be "true" Mustangs.
What happens if you put a Fender-licenced neck onto a Squier body? Technically nothing here has been touched directly by FMIC, but they still get their ten pieces of silver from the purchase of both halves of the bass.
I want to build a bass with a Bartolini between a double coil and single coil. I will call it a PB&J.
