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They had a single plastic bobbin, wound with copper wire, and featured the four magnetic pole pieces. The first Precision Bass pickups were basically a 4-pole-piece version of Fender’s guitar pickups. The bass’s bolt-on, maple neck was bulky in hand, more similar to an orchestral bass than an electric guitar. The bodies were slabs of wood with a couple of cutaways. The earliest P Bass models were much like Fender’s T-style guitars. Now bassists – and guitarists sitting in on bass – could play in tune with perfect precision.
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Taking it one step further, he installed metal fret wire across the length of the fingerboard. These basses were bulky to travel with and too quiet for the era’s big bands and rock ‘n’ roll.Īfter seeing success with his solid-body electric guitars, Leo Fender knew he could build a more compact bass to amplify over a loud band. Up until its release in the 1950s, bassists exclusively relied on stand-up, acoustic basses. The Fender Precision Bass invented what we now call the electric bass guitar. That led to some very different features that we’ll talk about here.
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But we’ll dig into that in a minute.īut the Precision and Jazz Bass are born from very different philosophies and aimed at very different types of players. The P-Bass pickup is technically hum-canceling.
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Maybe that’s why they are both among the most used and important electric basses ever designed.Īnd both feature single-coil (ish) pickups. Jazz Bass debate, these two 4-string titans are more similar than you’d think. While players will always engage in the P Bass vs. From their tones to their tummy contours, we’ll discuss it all. Which one’s best?” Well, there is no “best.” But we will investigate the differences between Jazz and Precision bass guitars. A question we hear from many bassists who are just starting is “What’s the difference between the Jazz and Precision bass?” Then, as they get a little further in their musical journey, it becomes “P Bass vs.
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