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History is written by the victors.


ianrendall

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Ok so, we as bassists can all agree that the granddaddy of basses is the P Bass, like it or not. And I assume that we can all agree that the three most recognisable basses in terms of sound are the P, the J and the Stingray.

So what if another came first? If the J or Ray came in 1951 instead of the P would they be the benchmark? Is the P’s success down to it just being the first?

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The Fender P wasn't the first. Paul Tutmarc's Audiotex Model 736 pre-dates Fender's offerings by many years. However, Fender's success with their solid electric guitars paved the way for the Precision Bass. 

Personally I don't think that the P bass slots into the mix as seamlessly as others would have you believe. Listen to rockabilly records from the 50s and the mixes are different to allow for the change from traditional upright bass to Fender's solid-bodied electric bass guitar.

And for recognisable bass sounds what about the Rickenbacker 4001? It also had the advantage of being visually much more distinctive than Fender's rather anonymous offerings.

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3 hours ago, ianrendall said:

Ok so, we as bassists can all agree that the granddaddy of basses is the P Bass, like it or not. And I assume that we can all agree that the three most recognisable basses in terms of sound are the P, the J and the Stingray.

So what if another came first? If the J or Ray came in 1951 instead of the P would they be the benchmark? Is the P’s success down to it just being the first?

Apologies for being pedantic but ... the 1951 P bass with a single coil pickup was different to the 1957 and after P bass with a humbucking split coil pickup. Hence, the benchmark P bass you seem to refer to, if it is such , was 1957 not 1951, and that 1957 P bass was not the first.

And, I suspect, not everyone will agree about 'grand-daddy' or even 'most recognisable'.

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53 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

The Fender P wasn't the first. Paul Tutmarc's Audiotex Model 736 pre-dates Fender's offerings by many years. However, Fender's success with their solid electric guitars paved the way for the Precision Bass. 

Personally I don't think that the P bass slots into the mix as seamlessly as others would have you believe. Listen to rockabilly records from the 50s and the mixes are different to allow for the change from traditional upright bass to Fender's solid-bodied electric bass guitar.

And for recognisable bass sounds what about the Rickenbacker 4001? It also had the advantage of being visually much more distinctive than Fender's rather anonymous offerings.

Yep. Tutmarc 736 in 1935 was definitely the first. 

It wasn’t popular, and didn’t continue for long. I suspect that the reason the 51P bass did succeed was because it was more playable, sounded better and was easier for upright bass players to convert to. 

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6 minutes ago, Bridgehouse said:

Yep. Tutmarc 736 in 1935 was definitely the first. 

It wasn’t popular, and didn’t continue for long. I suspect that the reason the 51P bass did succeed was because it was more playable, sounded better and was easier for upright bass players to convert to. 

I think the question of whether the Fender bass sounded better than the competition of the time is entirely subjective.

These days we take the P-bass sound for granted as the "benchmark" electric bass sound, but as I said in  my previous post if you listen to rockabilly and rock n roll records of the time the mixes change to accommodate the different sounding electric bass guitar instead of the upright bass.

The Fender bass became established off the reputation of the Fender's other solid bodied instruments rather than because there was anything intrinsically superior about them at the time of their introduction.

Everything after that is about familiarity.

Edited by BigRedX
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