Who Started the "PJ"???

I'm gonna go out on a branch here and make a guess at Fender Japan as they're the first ones I noticed back in the 80's.

 

Don't know who was the first, but the first I actually remember was, I think, Kramer. I had a Westone Thunder III about the same time with PJ. This would be early 80s.

 

I believe the first PJ's were custom jobs back in the early '70's. Someone with a P bass simply routed the bridge position and added a J pickup.
RD

 

Now dangit I should have realized it was a trick question! I thought he meant factory shipped basses with P/J's in them.

You hit it right on the nailhead, there were no factory P/J's until after it had already been done both in custom shops and peoples basements! Maybe the Spector was made in a bassment!

 

I had an Ibanez bolt on copy ash body, maple board P-J (factory). As I think back to where I was playing it, it had to be at the latest a 77! It was a better bass then any Fender I owned!

 

I started it!!!!!

 

Fender or BC Rich?

 

The 1st one I can remeber was in 1977, Graham Maby. He was the bassist on all of Joe Jackson's early albums. Listen to "I'm the man", "is she really going out with him", On the Radio" etc.

 

Any idea what kind of bass it was?

 

Like rd1003 noted the earliest P/Js were modifications, it was common to do along with a "hippie refin" (stripped finish).

Ibanez had the Roadster (not RoadSTAR) bass around 1978/9 which was P/J, Kramer's DMZ5000 followed soon afterwards. B.C. Rich basses of that vintage were dual P, not P/J.

Fender was very late to the party...not until 1985/6 (?) with the Jazz Special (MIJ).

 

first one i remember was a Kramer, too - it had the cream DiMarzio pj's, and a turtle tail, and the aluminum neck- i bought it.. had to be late 70's, but i can't remember past that cloud of smoke

 

Looked like a plain old 70's P, white w/ maple I believe. It was customized by someone. 1st time I remember seeing him was on American Bandstand.

 

I have a '79 RoadSTER. It had the cream DiMarzio P/J's in it. In my early 90's phase, I put EMG's in it. I think the DiMarzio's sounded better. I still have them somewhere. I should find those.

 

Ibenez was making P/J's in 1976? Here's a picture. According to their history page, Thier Jazz copies including frettless went back to 1971. Fender wasn't even offering a frettless Jazz in the 70's! I had one of the PJ's in 77, it was an excellent bass.

 

The first PJ's were modded Fender P's with a J pickup added. Late 60's IIRC.

 

Chuck Rainey had the first mod I saw for a well known player.

This was a relatively common mod. I did one. The thing that surprises me is the lack of this kind of mod turning up on eBay. What happened to all of them?

 

I read somewhere that Wilbur Bascomb (Jeff Beck) used a 66 P with P/J setup.

 

Oh, they come up on ebay from time to time. The ads sometimes get posted here or at the Fender Forum, with some traditionalists saying what a terrible thing it was to do to a bass, especially if the bass is pre-CBS. But that's hardly fair. Few if any people in any particular year had any clue that "new" Fenders would eventually be worth a lot of money down the road. And even so: it's a useful mod, so why the heck not?

I modded the crap out of my '78 P-bass. It was fun and educational. I sold it 20 years ago, but I wouldn't regret the mods even if I still owned it. Sure, the resale value was damaged, but the mods made it a better bass!

 

Yeah, I'd go along with that as well.

As far as Fender the actual company doing this, they were very late to come to the idea. In fact, they tried a P/P out first, with the Elite Series from around '83. I think the first Fender P/J was probably the Jazz Special from Japan, from around 1987.