The Fender Precision Bass (or P-Bass) is widely considered to be the first commercially successful bass guitar, and is still immensely popular to this day. Since Leo Fender's conception of the P-Bass in the early 1950s, thousands of other basses have been designed, including variations on the P-Bass. With all of these different basses, how has the Fender P-Bass retained its popularity through the years?
Part of the Fender P-Bass's popularity comes from the popularity of the P-Bass design itself. The design of a P-Bass makes it simple yet versatile.
P-Basses are known for having a single, split-coil pickup and only two knobs. One knob adjusts the volume and the other adjusts the tone.
With the tone rolled all the way down, the bass has a clean, dark sound reminiscent of a double bass that would be played in an orchestra. With the tone rolled all the way up, the bass as a brighter metallic sound as the pickup picks up more of the sound of the strings' vibrations. Because the P-Bass tone can be changed very easily in the P-Bass, it can be used in nearly any genre of music.
What makes the Fender P-Bass stand out above any other P-Basses is a combination of three things.
The first thing is the quality of the product. Much like many other guitar and bass companies, Fender has made their products in factories across the globe, from America to Japan to Mexico. While other American companies in particular have had shortfalls in their products made outside the U.S., Fender has always made good quality guitars and basses regardless of where they were made.
A key example of this are the Fender Player Series basses which are made in Mexico. The Player Series is regarded as one of the best quality series of Fender Basses out there, just below the American made Professional, Original, Ultra, and Performer series and the Custom Shop basses, which are also made in America.
The second thing that makes the Fender P-Bass stand out over others is name recognition. Fender has a reputation for many firsts in the music industry, including the first factory produced guitars along with the first commercially successful bass guitars as mentioned before. Because of the company's reputation and history, many guitarists and bassists buy Fender instruments just because they are made by Fender.
The final thing that makes Fender P-Basses special is their quality across other Fender owned brands, Squire in particular. Squire is a budget guitar brand owned by Fender. They make Fender products but with cheaper materials in order to sell them for cheaper than a regular Fender.
Squire P-Basses are, much like everything else Squire sells, cheaper than a standard Fender P-Bass. However, unlike the budget brands of other companies, Squire still makes their P-Basses to the same quality of their standard P-Basses. Because of this, Squire P-Basses have become very popular, not just for beginners who want to start with a budget bass, but also for die hard Fender P-Bass fans looking for something new.
Fender P-Basses hold up to a quality like no other bass. Because of their versatility and playability, it's no wonder why Fender's P-Bass will continue to be very popular with bassists all around the world.
