The Precision Bass is a bass guitar manufactured by Fender Musical
Instruments Corporation. In its stock configuration the Precision Bass is a
solid body instrument equipped with a single split-coil humbucking pickup and
a one-piece, 20 fret maple neck with rosewood or maple fingerboard.
Its prototype, designed by Leo Fender in 1950, was brought to market in 1951, the
first electric bass to earn widespread attention and use, remaining among the
best-selling and most-imitated electric basses with considerable effect on the
sound of popular music ever since. The Standard P-Bass is sanded, painted
and assembled in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico along with the other
Standard Series guitars. Fender also produces Precision and Precision/Jazz
basses in its Squier line of products. Background
The double bass is physically cumbersome and difficult to transport. It was also
becoming hard to hear in large bands or those that used amplified instruments
and it requires skill to play such that it can not be readily picked up by any
guitarist. The Precision Bass overcame these
problems. The name "Precision" came from the use of frets to play in tune more
easily than upon the fretless fingerboard of the double bass). The
electric bass lacks the distinctive acoustic qualities of the double bass,
offering a more solid, harder-edged sound with more sustain. The bass became
more dominant and transformed the beat and rhythm of pop music from jump blues
and swing to rhythm and blues and rock music, soul music and funk.
Acceptance of the electric bass was helped by the endorsement of Elvis
Presley's bass-player Bill Black. Black was beginning to use a Precision Bass
during the filming of Jailhouse Rock. Fender also delivered an early Precision
to LA session bassist and arranger Shifty Henry.
Design alterations and variants The original Precision Bass of 1951
shared several of its design features with the six-string Telecaster guitar,
the main difference being its double cutaway body. In 1953 the Precision Bass
received contoured edges for comfort while otherwise retaining the existing
Telecaster-like styling. In 1957 the headstock and pickguard were
redesigned to resemble Fender's recently introduced Stratocaster guitar, a
rounder neck heel replacing the original square shape. A redesigned pick-guard
was made of a single layer of gold-anodized aluminum with 10
screwholes. At the same time the original single-coil pickup was replaced
by a split-coil design with staggered polepieces, connected in a humbucking
mode; however, Fender never emphasized this, as the Seth Lover patent on the
humbucking pickup had not yet expired. In 1959 a glued-on rosewood fingerboard
featuring "clay"-style dot position markers replaced the 1-piece maple neck
and remained standard until 1966/67, when the CBS-owned Fender companies
began to offer a separate, laminated maple fingerboard capped on a maple
neck. Rosewood fingerboards were then made of a veneered, round-laminated
piece of wood and pearloid dot markers replaced the "clay"-style inlays
introduced in 1959. In 1960 the aluminum pick-guard was
replaced with a 13-screw celluloid design having 3 or 4 layers of black,
white, mint green, aged white pearloid or brown tortoise-shell).
The original Telecaster-derived design, with a few updates, was reintroduced in
1968 as the Telecaster Bass. Within a few years, however, it had evolved into
a model distinctly different from the contemporary Precision Bass, alongside
which it was marketed until the early '80s. Two artist-designed models use the
Telecaster Bass body style; the Mike Dirnt Precision Bass, using today's
standard single split-coil pick-up, and the Sting Precision Bass, using a single
coil pick-up as did the earliest design. Since 1969 the 1-piece maple neck option
has been fitted to many Fender basses and the rosewood fretboard offered as
alternative. Some Precision Basses made in the 1970s were also available with an
unlined fretless rosewood, ebony or maple fingerboard, popularized by
endorsees Sting and Tony Franklin. Fender briefly offered a fretless P Bass
in the mid-1990s as a part of the first-generation American Standard line
but dropped this variant at the end of the 20th century.
From 1980 to 1984 the Precision Bass was given new active pickups and a high-mass
brass bridge. The Special featured a split-coil pickup with white covers,
gold hardware, a 2-band EQ and an active/passive toggle switch. The Elite
had one or two split-coil humbucking pickups, TBX tone circuit and a Schaller
fine-tune bridge later used on the Plus Series models of the early 1990s. Some
models were available with solid walnut body and stained ebony fretboard.
Japanese models appeared in late 1984, with a smaller body shape and a modern
C-shape maple neck with 22 medium-jumbo frets.
The 1990s saw the introduction of the Precision Plus and Deluxe Plus basses in
1989 and 1991, featuring Lace Sensor pickups, fine-tuner bridges, 22-fret
necks and passive or active electronics on certain models. The Custom Shop 40th
Anniversary model of 1991 was a luxurious version of the Precision Plus
Deluxe bass with gold hardware, a quilted maple top and an ebony fretboard
with side dot position markers. The American Series Precision Bass was
introduced in 2000 and discontinued in 2008. From 2003 the S-1 switching system
allowed the pickup coils to be switched from series to parallel,offering a wider
tonal range, but this was discontinued in 2008 with the second generation of
American Standard Series instruments. The American Standard, American Deluxe,
Highway One and American Vintage series models are manufactured in Corona,
California. As of December 5, 2008 the Standard
P-Bass has been updated with CBS era-style decals, a 3-ply parchment
pickguard and a tinted maple neck with rosewood or maple fingerboard. Other
features include a split-coil hum-cancelling pickup and a return to
the knurled chrome flat-top control knobs. Models produced before 2003 came
for a period with aged white Stratocaster control knobs.
As of March 23, 2010 all American Deluxe Precision Basses came with a N3
stacked-coil Jazz Bass pickup in the bridge position, a 21-fret tinted maple
neck with compound rosewood or maple fingerboard with white or black pearloid
dot markers, an active/passive toggle switch, a high-mass vintage bridge,
Hipshot lightweight vintage tuners, a stealth retainer bar for the A string
and a bold CBS-era headstock decal. As of March 23, 2012 the American Standard
Precision Bass comes with a Custom Shop 60's P-Bass split-coil humbucking
pickup. The 2012 color chart listed 3-Color Sunburst, Olympic White, Black,
Candy Cola, Jade Pearl Metallic, Charcoal Frost Metallic as available
finishes during that period. As of April 19, 2012 the American Standard Precision
Basses are loaded with the Custom Shop '60s Precision Bass split single-coil
pick-ups, a 20-fret graphite-reinforced maple neck with compound rosewood or
maple fingerboard with white or black pearloid dot markers and a high-mass
vintage bridge. It be bought as a 4 or 5 string bass. American Deluxe "Ash Body"
Precisions were offered from 1995 to 2006, and are currently available as of
2011; the 2004 color chart listed Aged Cherry Sunburst, Butterscotch Blonde and
Tobacco Sunburst as available finishes during that period.
The Road Worn Series 50s P-Bass features a distressed alder body with
nitrocellulose lacquer finish, a 1-ply gold anodized pickguard, a synthetic
bone nut, American Vintage hardware, a split-coil humbucking pickup and a
1-piece maple neck/fingerboard with 20 vintage frets.
Fender has also produced several 'Deluxe' or 'Special' models that
feature active electronics and/or a Jazz Bass pickup or humbucking soap-bar-type
pick-up at the bridge position as well as the normal split-coil pickup to
increase the tonal options available. Some P-Basses with J-style bridge
pickups used the Jazz Bass control layout - 2 volumes and tone - and a
side-mount jack socket. Others had the front pickup volume control moved
forward to leave room for a top-mounted jack socket.
Other variants include dual stacked control knobs similar to that of an
early 1960s Jazz Bass or a 3-way pickup selector switch.
Other variants and special-edition Precision Bass guitars have been offered
in recent years. Fender made an American Deluxe 5-string model with a split-coil
neck pickup, a humbucking J-style bridge pickup and a 3-band active EQ between
2001 and 2007 and currently produces a passive American Standard with a
high-mass vintage bridge and a gloss-coated maple neck with satin back
and vintage tint as of 2008, tuned BEADG, along with a Squier Standard
version sporting two J-Bass pickups with alnico magnets. The company has also
built a Korean-made Squier ProTone 5-string Precision with dual humbuckers
and gold hardware in the mid-1990s and a short-scale passive 5-string tuned EADGC
called the Bass V during the CBS period in the mid-1960s. The Bass V did not
sell well, and after it was discontinued, Fender did not offer
another 5-string bass guitar until the 1980s.
Artists who are well enough known for using the instrument to have a signature
Fender Precision bass model named for them include James Jamerson, Donald
"Duck" Dunn,Pino Palladino, Steve Harris, Mike Dirnt, Tony Franklin, Duff
McKagan, Matt Freeman, Nate Mendel, Mark Hoppus, Pete Wentz, Sting, John Lodge,,
Dee Dee Ramone, Roger Waters,, and Cone McCaslin.
See also Fender Telecaster Bass
Fender Jazz Bass Squier '51
Bass guitar Acoustic bass guitar
References Literature
Peter Bertges: The Fender Reference; Bomots, Saarbrücken 2007, ISBN
978-3-939316-38-1 Martin Kelly, Terry Foster, Paul Kelly:
Fender: The Golden Age 1946-1970; London & New York: Cassell 2010 ISBN
1-84403-666-9