When is the Precision the wrong tool for the job?

[tpaul]

I needed to replace some rotting boards in my porch so I gathered some tools for the job. Naturally I reached for my P-bass. Here's how I would rate its performance:

Sawing: 3 out of 10. It's very difficult to put a good edge on a P-bass. The sharp fret ends did eventually cut through the rotting floor boards but not without a lot of work.

Hammering: 8 out of 10. As most people know, a P-bass makes a good hammer. Accuracy isn't always spot-on but force transfer is excellent.

Demolition: 10 out of 10. This category is self-explanatory.

Painting: 5 out of 10. If you are going for a Jackson Pollock finish, a P-bass works fine. Consistency, however, is not its forte.

So based on this experience, I would have to say a P-bass is not always the best tool for the job, and in some cases it is the wrong tool. Ironically, the bass warned me ahead of time that it would probably not excel at sawing and painting. So while a P-bass is sometimes the wrong tool for the job, the P-bass is not, itself, wrong.

 

[Liam Wald]

If Fender had only built the Jazz Bass and never introduced the P-Bass and then a bass manufacturer came out with it today, would anyone buy it?

 

[PiquetBass]

Hammering: 8 out of 10. As most people know, a P-bass makes a good hammer. Accuracy isn't always spot-on but force transfer is excellent.
.

Straight from the Simonon School of Carpentry....

 

[LetItGrowTone]

Some say that there is no wrong, and I see that, but those who say that a P is never wrong - and who also use arguments (like "tone is in the fingers") that could apply as well to, for example, an EB-0 - should proclaim, too, that an EB-0 is never wrong, but don't try starting a thread with that.

Oh, I love EB-0 too.

 

[Marc61]

Might have a tough time in a Cheap Trick tribute band with a P.

 

[socialleper]

If we are talking about bass with a split single coil in the neck position and no other pickups, it is wrong when you need speed. That pickup placement and style is very muddy and sounds clanky when played fast with your fingers. The lack of articulation, especially for lower tuning is why you rare see just that pickup configuration in extreme metal styles, unless mixed with a bridge pickup, or in stoner/doom where articulation isn't important.

If we are referring to the Fender style Precision bass design, it doesn't work when you want a bass with ergonomics or doesn't look retro.

 

[socialleper]

I don't care what anyone says... there isn't a gig or a style of music that the Precision Bass doesn't fit. Flatwound or roundwound strings, played fingerstyle or with a pick, detuned, overdriven or clean, slapped, tapped, smacked, banged or beaten, it will work.

They would never work for any kind of tech death metal, or anything with a low tuning that isn't doom or stoner metal.

 

[MingusBass]

95% of the time it works all the time.

 

[brianrost]

Can you think of an instance where the Precision is the wrong tool for the job?

Installing a new transmission in my car.

Framing an addition to my house.

Open heart surgery.

 

[ClusterFlux]

I didn't say unachievable.
A P doesn't sound like that naturally.

It's an electric instrument. What does "naturally" mean?

A P doesn't have a B.

5 string Precisions have been available from Fender since 1999. I'm sure other brands made split PU 5ers before them.

That Youtube was the sound of a bass with a 35" scale and strong rigid construction. That's not eq alone. The trick is can you get that sound with the amp flat?

So can almost any bass with a split neck PU.

Looks like Fiszman is using a Yamaha TRB-5P. 34" scale, maple and mahogany neck-thru. Aside from a piezo PU, it's a fairly standard PJ.

It sounds like he's using some combo of flats, tone rolled off, thumb down-strokes, perhaps palm muting. All stuff you can use on any bass.

That track was recorded by ECM. I cannot imagine that Eicher refused to use the top-shelf studio EQs, compressors, limiters, preamps, reverbs, etc available to him.

Here's a standard P, producing similar tones. It's more forward in the mix, otherwise it would fit well with the Miller track.

I'm saying that the excessive cult status is tiring.

I'm not telling anyone to worship an instrument. Quite the opposite. There's certainly no magic to a brand name.

I'm saying there aren't all that many timbres a P can't get. Even fewer if you add a bridge PU.

Meaning that perhaps the specifics of the instrument matter far, far less than what you choose to do with the instrument....

 

[Callused Finger]

Every time I show up with something else I end up playing the P. It just does all the right things no matter how or what it's plugged into.

 

[micguy]

Maybe, maybe not. Most orchestral musicians use only one instrument. Harpists don’t have twenty different harps, for example, and even jazz DB players usually only own a single DB. I sometimes think that we’re fooled by the fact that we can have many basses to think that we actually need to.

If your instrument is a huge one, sure, most of those folks have just one, but I think you underestimate the number of instruments that some orchestra folks have. A lot of folks have "traveling" instruments - if they're going on a plane, they don't bring the really good one. In High School, I had two violins - a really nice, 100 year old one, and the really good (but not stellar) one. I had a few High School friends that also had 2 or more instruments back then. If High schoolers have more than one....

 

[micguy]

Straight from the Simonon School of Carpentry....

View attachment 5319034

If the P bass is the right bass, why is he so frustrated with his?

 

[E2942]

When you wish it was a split-coil pickup in a soapbar (Nordstrand Big Splits) & it was much closer to the bridge.

 

[chris_b]

Give a P bass to the leading player in every genre and they will make it sound great. But, to argue against my point, that would probably be the case with every bass on the market.

The limiting factor is never the instrument.

 

[Savage_Dreams]

I dont believe any bass (for the most part) is the right or wrong bass for anything. is it easier to get a certain tone quicker with X bass for X style, sure. if youre a session player called in you probably want whatever bass is going to get it done quick. without much tweaking. but with eq ive never had a problem making any bass fit any situation. to me its more about tone choices, eq, and playing style that is right or wrong for whatever music style. are you going to eq a motown track to have a clicky clack metal sound, no. just like you wouldnt go for a muted thump for a metal band. but you can do both sounds with the same bass.

 

[poppunk]

There are people who play on whatever and the ergonomics don't impact them.

I play much better on a slimmer nut (but deeper profile) bass. It's easier, and I'm doing some stupid reaches sometimes with my comically short fingers. I can do it on a wider nut, but it really sucks, mostly because of that difference in string spacing. So that generally makes Precisions the wrong tool for the job for me. If that was the only thing that existed I'd make it through, but why make it harder?

I have the same thing going on with guitar; I have a couple guitars I use for specific bands. The way I need to chord/play solos in those bands work much better on one type of guitar for me because of the neck profile. But if I needed to go back to playing fast/technical heavy stuff I'd be using my SG again. I simply am better on that for that type of stuff because of ergonomics and years of familiarity.

I think the baseline sound of a bass matters more than guitar but a lot, but I also think too many people prioritize "tone" in the way they they think about things excessively. Playing the thing you have to/want to play comfortably is the most important thing; you can usually make the instrument sound good in a mix by turning some knobs somewhere.

 

[chadds]

About the ECM. I sound like that in real air live with no studio effects, no pedals.
I knew that was direct because rarely does an Ampeg sound like that. (That should start another fight)

To each his own.

This is TB.
They say we can't sound like flats with rounds.
They say we can't make an EB sound like an upright.
They scoff that technique accomplishes those tones.

I love a Pbass. As I stated I've played and owned some great ones.
I use what I like and want.
I'm never challenged about what I bring live or in session.
Except to be asked to bring an Ashbory.

I am sorry I answered here because it's just arguing on the internet.

It was a clandestine troll title. Oops.
There is someone out there that can make a cigar box sound better than any booteeque or P.
I like that everyone personally finds all the timbres they need in the basses they use.

 

[Slade N]

When it doesn't sound right

 

[ClusterFlux]

I can't imagine using one in Jazz Fusion settings.

No imagination required.









2 pickups are certainly more common. But required? Not so much. Maybe it's less about the gear, and more about the musicianship? Just a thought.