What precisely is good about Precisions?

[One Drop]

My two favorite P necks are the B width with a bit of meat to the neck (deeper C profile) or the C width shallow C profile like on my Fullerton RI.

The latter is crazy comfortable and lush feeling, the former is a great width and shape for moving around the neck a bit quicker.

I'm okay with most neck shapes except wide and thick at the same time. I had an old Tele bass like this I just hated playing.

 

[odarellmc]

I kind of agree with you, but a couple of comments:

1 7/8" is a good spacing for a 5. the string-to-string spacing is actually closer than a 4-string P-bass.

the 1 3/4" nut width for 5's is cool to play on, but 4 string P players will probably find the left hand spacing rather close.

IME, companies like Ibanez and Schecter have 5 string models that are even closer than 1 3/4" . they are indeed a lot like the old days, when 5 strings first started coming out. back then, companies simply jammed 5 strings onto a 4-string neck. now THAT'S close.

Squier has a bass out with a 2" nut width. that sucker is wide, but the spacing feels a lot like a 4-string P-bass with an extra string. and there are basses with even wider spacing than that. I think the Ibanez BTB's are wider.

I have regular 4-string P-basses (with a proper P-bass neck), 5's with 1 7/8" and 1 3/4" width. I even have one of those Squiers with the 2" spacing (but I had a new nut put on that narrows the string spacing). For my money, 1 7/8" is the sweet spot.

My lakland P is 1.81 and very comfortable with a killer B at 35 scale

 

[drummer5359]

Hmm.

As a drummer for forty years I've worked with bassists using just about every conceivable bass. I've heard Precisions, Jazz basses, Rickenbackers, Warwicks, PRSs, Alembic, Kramer and a lot of others that I can't even remember.

Does one sound "best"? No, absolutely not. P-basses do have their own sonic real estate that to my ears fits well in a band situation. It is that simple to me, they can easily get a sound that "plays well with others."

As a bassist I'm not trying to create some "new", high fidelity sound. To me, I just want a tone that is recognizable, that fits the type of music that I play. Most of the time for me that means using one of my P-basses, sometimes it requires one of my Rickenbackers, and on occasion my Stingray. I play blues, rock and Americana music.

Your taste, musical situation and needs are likely different than mine. No worries, we should all play something that makes us smile. For you that likely isn't a Precision, that's okay.

 

[Bassheart365]

It does the job...BUT - in this day and age it is the most over-rated instrument in history.

 

[slapagroov]

I had the opposite thing happen. I played modulus, pedulla, warrior, etc. ever since I started. I got a J years ago and it sounded so much fuller and recorded really well so it became my number 1. Last year I went to a P and it was the same. They're also different than modern basses in that they have strong characters that I love. When I record, they just sound right. The modern ones seem a little zingy and just not what I'm looking for. I was playing lots of jazz fusion and now I'm playing more blues and pop so that makes a huge difference in what tones I look for.

 

[One Drop]

It does the job...BUT - in this day and age it is the most over-rated instrument in history.

Hence its continued popularity and place in many genres of music.

Maybe someone should tell the people doing the rating.

 

[Boot Soul]

"Not overbearing or extremely "bassey", but a true bass sound that is rich in tonality and defines each bass tone."

This may have been posted in the previous 17 pages, but this ad from 72 answers the question posted rather precisely. And I agree. Bass designs seem to always reach for deeper, wider, punchier, bigger, thicker, etc. in trying to improve over that original P sound. But why? Most of it has been solutions in search of problems IMO.

 

[NoBlackTShirts]

What precisely is good about Precisions?

Well, they're perfect.

 

[Nobody]

... they're perfect.

Not for everyone.

 

[Mediocrity Man]

A P bass with a Jazz neck.

Delicious....

 

[bdplaid]

Partly because of this thread, I dragged mine out and played it all last night. while not perfect for all songs, it got raves from the band and was a lot of fun to play. It really does fit perfectly in a band. Description in one word: MEAT. It has the oomph to fill out a band like no other bass. I came away with the conclusion that every player worth a damn should have one, a standard 4-string, even if it's not your main axe. It's where it all started, is the least common denominator of bass, and is a "grounding" to play every once in awhile.

And if you can do technical playing on a P-bass with the standard neck, you are indeed a good player.

 

[One Drop]

Partly because of this thread, I dragged mine out and played it all last night. while not perfect for all songs, it got raves from the band and was a lot of fun to play. It really does fit perfectly in a band. Description in one word: MEAT. It has the oomph to fill out a band like no other bass. I came away with the conclusion that every player worth a damn should have one, a standard 4-string, even if it's not your main axe. It's where it all started, is the least common denominator of bass, and is a "grounding" to play every once in awhile.

And if you can do technical playing on a P-bass with the standard neck, you are indeed a good player.

Here here.

I've been practicing and fooling around all day, going from learning a new Jamerson song on my P with Labella flats, to learning Won't Get Fooled Again on another with Roto rounds.

The tones are so different but both pack so much power and rich tone, while punching hard and singing up high and grinding and thumping down low. It's just such an amazing instrument to me and so pleasing to play and hear, solo or in a mix (I live the voice of a Precision soloed, not pretty but gorgeous in its own ways.)

 

[fretno]

Chicks dig'em

 

[tzohn]

I like a P-bass because it makes very usable even extreme settings at lows, mids, highs, tone, EQ, etc.

 

[bdplaid]

Chicks dig'em

They love this one; matches their thong:

 

[Antisyzygy]

It does the job...BUT - in this day and age it is the most over-rated instrument in history.

There are certainly P fanboys that will disparage any other bass choice, but I don't think they're overrated in general. They just work well in a lot of situations without much fuss. Most people playing P basses outside of TB don't really think about it all that much. They just saw some bassist in a band they like playing a P and decided to buy one like that. Then they kept it because it works.

Ps are nice because they're very minimalist and at the same time produce a solid, wide bass tone with a bump in the mids that is easy to hear with human ears. To me, they seem to faithfully reproduce the sound of the bass strings you hear when you listen acoustically, unplugged. That doesn't mean you can't produce the same exact thing by using your amp, preamp, etc. with any other bass. Ps are just more minimalist than all that and some people like to keep things simple.

Ps in general aren't as versatile as many other modern varieties of basses, that's for sure. However you can do things to fix that to a certain extent. I personally like G&L SB-1s because they give you extra top-end that works for slap or certain styles of modern music. With the tone knob setup (which is non-standard, 0.022uf cap with 6.8k resistor in series) you can get a bright, aggressive tone on one extreme and a mid-heavy sound at the other that seems to work well with distortion or fuzz. Inbetween you get some nice round, warm, vintagey P sounds. So you get a bit more versatility but don't lose that minimalist nature.

Of course, the other thing you can do is get a PJ and get the best of both worlds. Turn the Jazz pickup off and you have a P bass. Add a preamp with a passive tone / bypass and you've got something you can use in a minimalist way (use the P in passive mode) but you can also go nuts tweaking your sound with all the other features.

 

[LowNotes1]

For years, I strung my P-bass with flats, volume and tone both dimed, bass at 3/4 on my amp, other amp tone knobs halfway. Never varied, loved the way it sounded on-stage. Lots of punch and I could hear every note I played (so could the audience, or so they told me). Nowadays, I use roundwounds, and crank the treble to ten. The bass didn't change, but somewhere along the way, my ears did.

In any case, the P has always had a distinctive sound to me. Even a Jazz with just the neck pickup sounds way different, and even other basses with a similar single pickup as the P sound different. I wouldn't argue with those that say it really only has one tone, but it's a really good one.

 

[Canarybass]

For me, the beauty of a Precision is its simplicity. The fundamental tone just sits well in pretty much any mix live.

 

[angst178]

I had a Dean Metal man V. It was an OK bass. Reliable, until it wasn't. When the pickup died I decided it needed mods. I wasn't going to put a $100+ pickup in a plain, black, used and a little abused bass. I was in need of a p in my arsenal. It needed a refinish and I had the time and need for a project.
I took inspiration from Fender and Gibson. I made a PV. A custom pickguard, a GFS Redactive and a lacquer finish.

 

[bdplaid]

Were I a philosopher, I would say this begs the question, "When is P-bass not a P-bass?" Such conundrums...