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Why is P-Bass still the best?

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#81
Gotta disagree. Just switched out pickups, bridge, and strings on my P. sounds very different. Luckily, I like the way it sounds better. But, it matters.

Took off a Badass II bridge and put on a Fender Vintage
Took out an 'Abby Wound' Abigail Ybarra pickup, and replaced it with a Fender 62' or 'Orginal' P bass pickup.

Snarf said:
Strings don't matter. Pickups don't matter too much, as long as it's the same split coil design with materials that don't deviate too much from the original.

The thing about engineers: No one wants to do work they don't have to do. Engineers don't have to do much with a Fender to make it fit in the correct sonic space. There are no obtrusive frequencies. It's not stepping on any other instrument's sound. It doesn't get lost. Why screw with that ideal dynamic?
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#83
The P is just a tool with a particular tonal signature.

For my traditional jazz gig, my acoustic upright has a hollow, woody tonal quality that just "fits" where my electric upright doesn't.

For my classic rock cover gig, I prefer a jazz bass, but when I play with a blues band the P bass is king and sits in the mix better than the jazz.

It's all just a different flavor..... The good news is that they are ALL good and tasty!
 
#86
I agree. Why is it the best (generally speaking)? Because it is an all purpose bass for pretty much any kind of music.

As to Leo Fender getting it right the first time................as one TBer already said actually he didn't get it right the first time. The very first P Bass had a single coil pickup and then in 1956 or '57, our beloved split coil P Bass as we know it was born.

We have to keep in mind that there are many bassist who don't like the P Bass and do not think it's the best.

In a room of 1,000 bassist, I'm sure the P Bass would be top choice.
 
#87
it starts with a very good basic sound...

The sound of the split single coil, positioned where it is along the strings - and with the player probably picking over or near the pickup - is a great sound, especially 'in the mix'. Punchy and defined. Bassy, and yet still connected to the rest of the band.

The output signal is good and strong and friendly to deal with. There are few amps or effects that don't get on with it.

...and doesn't do anything to ruin it.

for example, some horrible noisy onboard preamp with inflexible eq points, engineered for battery life rather than performance, that allows the bass player to try his hand at being mix engineer and probably end up doing a terrible job at it. Or a second pickup that in all likelihood sounds terrible on its own, and may sound phasey and weak blended.
 
#89
75% fingers 25% bass! Not to be conceited but that's why I love all my basses. They All come to life in your hands. If they don't then you should give up on playing music.
 
#91
Bongolation said:
It's not a matter of sustain -- or not merely a matter of sustain. If it was, you could just compress out of it, but you can't.


Instruments rarely impress me.


Work on gear for forty years and you'll become amazed any of it ever works at all, most of it's such a screwy kludge. :rollno:
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1) It IS a matter of sustain, but call it whatever you want. Of course compression doesn't fix it. Once it's gone, it's gone.

2] No surprise there.

3] You are so grumpy about it because you are overly-critical. It doesn't need to be as perfect as you'd like it to be. If it were, nobody could afford it.
 
#92
stratovani said:
A P-Bass is this - get up on stage, power up your amp, plug in your P-Bass, check volume and tone, and play. Simple, no BS. Meanwhile, the drummer is struggling to construct his drum kit, the guitarist is fiddling and diddling with all manner of pedals, and the keyboard player is connecting up a ton of cables. In the meantime, us bass players are patiently waiting, ready to play. That's a P-Bass. ;)
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That's me with all of my basses, none of which are Fenders.
 
#93
atomicdog said:
There are good and bad P Basses, and Fender's quality control is spotty, even among its most expensive models (Squiers often are better made). The P Bass and the J Bass are what they are, iconic and diverse in their own ways, but check out some of Ibanez basses--tonewise they rival the best Fenders and have a lot of great build qualities. Check out some of the Gibson basses, the Music Man, and even Reverends et al. There are a lot of great basses out there. Fender trumps many of them by virtue of corporate size and massive marketing (getting Fenders into the hands of young players and into the mass media).
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I agree. I used my P bass at practice the other night and thought it was great, but I picked up my SR500 after practice and this thing crushes the P. the P is great, but I think lacks versatility if you like playing different styles.
 
#97
Very subjective....but I'll tell you this. When I played two Thursdays ago I used my MIJ P bass. A good friend of mine who plays guitar was there and said it sounded incredable. "Big and fat" is how he described it. This past Thursday I thought I'd try a 5 string to get some lower notes happening so I brought my SR505. My friend was there again and said "maybe it was the combined EQ between all things but your P bass had a fatter, more direct sound."

Hey, it could very well have been that "the EQ between all things" was partly my fault and that it needed more work. This was no doubt the case. But it sure didn't take much on the prior Thursday to get my P bass happening!
 
#98
In my first 20 years of playing I did not own a fender either, except for that few month period I had a 50th anniversary P bass that had QC issues too big to deal with. But I had several P-J's and P' from other brands. I ran a Stingray 5 exclusively for a decade until last year I happened upon a nice P-Bass (I was getting back into Jamerson and the like again). Brought the Stingray and the P (a 2010 AVRI 57) to a cover band gig I was subbing in. I got there early and a jazz pianist I know well was doing his solo set before the cover band. We played his last 4-5 tunes duo. The Stingray was not right-sounding to my ears but the P was amazing. I ended up playing the P for most of the gig, and it sounded and felt better than I can remember ever sounding in a band situation.

I love the P, love the Stingray, sometimes like the jazz. I have all. Besides the upright gigs, the P works for the biggest portion of what I do the best.
 
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