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72-596: Released as a rebranding of the original version of the Fender Precision Bass , it was named as "Telecaster" after the Telecaster guitar model. The Telecaster Bass differs in shape from the original Telecaster guitar in that the latter is a single cutaway guitar and the bass is double cutaway. The Telecaster Bass was introduced in May 1968 being essentially a straight reissue of the original 1951 Precision Bass design (which

144-522: A single coil pickup similar to that of a Telecaster . By 1957 the Precision more closely resembled the Fender Stratocaster with the body edges beveled for comfort, and the pickup was changed to a split coil design. The Fender Bass was a revolutionary instrument for gigging musicians. In comparison with the large, heavy upright bass , which had been the main bass instrument in popular music from

216-552: A '63 P Bass profile neck. Fender ceased production of this model in 2020. On June 19, 2018, Fender announced that it would be upgrading the build quality of its Made in Mexico Standard Series by replacing it with the Player Series instruments. The Player Precision Bass received new Alnico V pickups, modern C-shaped neck with a contemporary 9.5" fingerboard radius, synthetic bone nut, new Fender standard open-gear tuners and

288-412: A 1950s Precision Bass model in the style of the original Fender 1951 Precision Bass as part of their 'Classic Vibe' series. It comes in three finishes: A Butterscotch Blonde with a black pickguard, a Lake Placid Blue metallic with a white pickguard, & a White Blonde with a white pickguard. All have maple fretboards as well as contoured edges & front & back comfort contours, making them similar to

360-415: A 30-inch (762 mm) scale-length instrument. The Fender VI , a 6-string bass, was tuned one octave lower than standard guitar tuning. It was released in 1961, and was briefly favored by Jack Bruce of Cream . Gibson introduced its short-scale 30.5-inch (775 mm) EB-3 in 1961, also used by Bruce. The EB-3 had a "mini-humbucker" at the bridge position. Gibson basses tended to be instruments with

432-550: A Duncan Designed JB-102B single-coil Jazz Bass bridge pickup and three-way blade switching. Other features include black "barrel" switch tip, knurled chrome control knobs, vintage style bridge with four chrome saddles, vintage-style tuners and strap buttons and a single-ply white or black pickguard. Available in Black and White Blonde finishes. Introduced in August 2012. Fender Precision Bass The Fender Precision Bass (or " P-Bass ")

504-461: A Duncan Designed PB-102 SCPB single-coil pickup and three-way switching among special tone circuits, which feature a modern bass sound (middle switch position, volume and tone controls), softer "double bass" sound (neck switch position, volume control only) and authentic tic-tac "baritone" sound (bridge switch position, volume control only). The Telecaster Bass Special has a large chrome-covered Fender-designed Wide Range humbucking neck pickup paired with

576-544: A Hi-Mass Bridge, Vintage Jazz Bass Style Knobs (Volume, Volume, Tone) and a C-shape neck with 9.5" Radius. In May 2016, Fender brought back the American Elite Precision Bass to replace the American Deluxe series. The new model featured a Precision neck pickup combined with a 4th-generation Jazz noiseless pickup, 18-volt active circuit with 3-band EQ, passive bypass switch, Posiflex graphite support rods in

648-502: A basswood body with figured maple top and cream binding, Precision and Single-coil Jazz pickup combination and matching finish headstock. On December 5, 2008, the American Standard Precision Bass was updated with CBS era-style decals, a 3-ply parchment pickguard and a tinted maple neck with rosewood or maple fingerboard. Other features included a high-mass vintage bridge, Hipshot lightweight staggered tuning machine and

720-478: A blend of new and vintage. The Fender logo remained underneath the string guide but was changed to silver with a black outline. The "Precision Bass" wordmark was changed to a boldface font similar to the early 1960s model but remained to the right of the Fender logo. From 1984 to 2000, this was referred to as the American Standard Precision Bass. The most notable visual change was the return to black pickup covers. The model

792-470: A brown "tortoise-shell" pattern). In the same year the newly designed Fender Jazz Bass was released. The original Telecaster-derived design, with a few updates, was reintroduced in 1968 as the Fender Telecaster Bass . Within a few years, this evolved into a model distinctly different from the contemporary Precision Bass, alongside which it was marketed through 1979. Two artist-designed models use

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864-712: A choice of Pau Ferro or Maple fretboards. Fender updated the Elite Series on November 5, 2019, when it announced the arrival of the American Ultra Precision Bass. The Ultra retained similar features to the Elite Series model but now had updated body contouring and sculpted neck heel, Modern "D" Neck Profile with a compound radius of 10"–14", new Ultra Noiseless pickups and a redesigned active/passive preamp. New finishes offered were Aged Natural, Mochaburst and Ultraburst with rosewood fretboard and Arctic Pearl with maple fretboard. In October 2020 Fender introduced

936-511: A contoured body with belly and arm cuts, and was based on the '71-'79 Tele Bass. A new version of the instrument was introduced as a part of the limited Parallel Universe series in 2018. This version was modeled after the '68-'71 Tele Bass, but featured a P/J pickup configuration. This model was only available in Blonde. As a part of the Vintera II series, released in late 2023, the '71-'79 version of

1008-569: 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 one-piece maple neck/fingerboard with 20 vintage frets. Fender offered the Made-in-Mexico Blacktop Series from 2013 to 2014. Like Most of the other instruments in this series, the Blacktop Precision Bass was given high-output humbuckers. It also had

1080-471: A guitar. Hampton soon replaced Johnson with bassist Monk Montgomery ( Wes Montgomery 's brother) who was depicted in a sketch next to the Precision bass models inside Fender's printed catalog in 1957–58. Montgomery helped to popularize the Precision during Hampton's European tour of 1953, despite some sour responses from veteran double bass players who were quoted in Melody Maker saying the new electric bass

1152-592: A high-mass brass bridge. The Special (1980) featured a split-coil pickup with white covers, gold hardware, a 2-band EQ and an active/passive toggle switch. The Elite (1983) had one (Elite I) or two (Elite II) 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. Precision Bass Lyte models were made in Japan and came to

1224-481: 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 (except the 5-string version) came 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

1296-434: A hybrid between the two. Coated strings have their surface coated with a synthetic layer while tapewound strings feature a metal core with a non-metallic winding. Taperwound strings have a tapered end where the exposed core sits on the bridge saddle without windings. The choice of winding has considerable impact on the sound of the instrument, with certain winding styles often being preferred for certain musical genres. In

1368-495: A longer neck and scale length . The bass guitar most commonly has four strings, though five- and six-stringed models are also relatively popular, and bass guitars with even more (or fewer) strings or courses have been built. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has largely come to replace the double bass in popular music due to its lighter weight, the inclusion of frets (for easier intonation ) in most models, and, most importantly, its design for electric amplification. This

1440-429: A nut side truss rod adjustment port. They were painted with thin nitro lacquer. In 2006, it was updated with a BadAss II bridge with grooved saddles and a Greasebucket tone circuit. The Highway One Precision Bass featured '70s styling and thin satin nitro lacquer finish. The series remained available until it was discontinued in 2011. The American Standard, American Deluxe (featuring a J -style humbucking pickup in

1512-422: 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 an 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,

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1584-967: A shorter 30.5" scale length than the Precision. Gibson did not produce a 34-inch (864 mm)-scale bass until 1963 with the release of the Thunderbird . The first commercial fretless bass guitar was the Ampeg AUB-1, introduced in 1966. In the late 1960s, eight-string basses, with four octave paired courses (similar to a 12 string guitar), were introduced, such as the Hagström H8. In 1972, Alembic established what became known as "boutique" or "high-end" electric bass guitars. These expensive, custom-tailored instruments, as used by Phil Lesh , Jack Casady , and Stanley Clarke , featured unique designs, premium hand-finished wood bodies, and innovative construction techniques such as multi-laminate neck-through-body construction and graphite necks. Alembic also pioneered

1656-515: A single pickup . Around 100 were made during this period. Audiovox also sold their "Model 236" bass amplifier. In the 1950s, Leo Fender and George Fullerton developed the first mass-produced electric bass guitar. The Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company began producing the Precision Bass , or P-Bass, in October 1951. The design featured a simple uncontoured "slab" body design and

1728-585: 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 (as used on the Tony Franklin Signature and Plus Series P-Basses). In 1983, Fender introduced the Standard Series with a new Bullet truss rod system, updated die-cast tuning machines, chrome hardware, white pickup covers and a single-ply white pick guard. The Headstock graphics were changed to reflect

1800-508: A wider tonal range, but this was discontinued in 2008 with the second generation of American Standard Series instruments. 2011 models bear a special "Fender 60" badge on the back of the body to celebrate the company's 60th Anniversary. In 2002, Fender added a new lower-cost American passive model series known as the Highway One. There were two iterations of this line - known as Highway 1 and Highway One. Highway 1 featured 60's spaghetti logo, and

1872-481: Is a model of electric bass guitar manufactured by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation . In its standard, post-1957 configuration, the Precision Bass is a solid body , four-stringed instrument usually 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. It

1944-399: Is also because the double bass is acoustically compromised for its range (like the viola ) in that it is scaled down from the optimal size that would be appropriate for those low notes. The four-string bass guitar is usually tuned the same as the double bass, which corresponds to pitches one octave lower than the four lowest-pitched strings of a guitar (typically E , A , D , and G ). It

2016-474: Is played primarily with the fingers or thumb, or with a pick . The electric bass guitar is acoustically a relatively quiet instrument, so to be heard at a practical performance volume, it requires external amplification . It can also be used in conjunction with direct input boxes , audio interfaces, mixing consoles, computers, or bass effects processors that offer headphone jacks. The majority of bass pickup systems are electromagnetic in nature. According to

2088-427: Is scaled down to correctly match with the neck. Fender made an American Deluxe 5-string model with a split-coil neck pickup, a humbucking bridge pickup and a 3-band active EQ between 1998 and 2007. In 2008, Fender first produced a passive American Standard Precision Bass V with a single passive split-coil Precision pickup (three poles toward the neck, two poles toward the bridge) and single volume/tone. It remained in

2160-410: Is termed a fretless bass . The scale of a bass is defined as the length of the freely oscillating strings between the nut and the bridge saddles. On a modern 4-string bass guitar, 30" (76 cm) or less is considered short scale, 32" (81 cm) medium scale, 34" (86 cm) standard or long scale and 35" (89 cm) extra-long scale. Bass pickups are generally attached to the body of the guitar and located beneath

2232-572: The Fender Jazz Bass , initially known as the "Deluxe Bass", used a body design known as an offset waist which was first seen on the Jazzmaster guitar in an effort to improve comfort while playing seated. The Jazz bass, or J-Bass, features two single-coil pickups. Providing a more "Gibson-scale" instrument, rather than the 34-inch (864 mm) Jazz and Precision, Fender produced the Mustang Bass ,

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2304-562: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , an "Electric bass guitar, usually with four heavy strings tuned E 1 '–A 1 '–D 2 –G 2 ." It also defines bass as "Bass (iv). A contraction of Double bass or Electric bass guitar." According to some authors the proper term is "electric bass". Common names for the instrument are "bass guitar", "electric bass guitar", and "electric bass" and some authors claim that they are historically accurate. A bass guitar whose neck lacks frets

2376-451: The StingRay , the first widely produced bass with active (powered) electronics built into the instrument. Basses with active electronics can include a preamplifier and knobs for boosting and cutting the low and high frequencies. In the mid-1970s, five-string basses, with a very low "B" string, were introduced. In 1975, bassist Anthony Jackson commissioned luthier Carl Thompson to build

2448-409: The "Beatle bass". In 1957, Rickenbacker introduced the model 4000, the first bass to feature a neck-through -body design in which the neck is part of the body wood. The Burns London Supersound was introduced in 1958. With the explosion in popularity of rock music in the 1960s, many more manufacturers began making electric basses, including Yamaha , Teisco and Guyatone . Introduced in 1960,

2520-459: The "split-coil" design with staggered pole pieces which is now known as the typical Precision pickup. Its two coils are typically connected in a hum-cancelling mode, a feature that was not emphasized by Fender at the time, as Seth Lover 's patent on the humbucker pickup had not yet expired. In 1959 a glued-on rosewood fingerboard featuring "clay"-style dot position markers replaced the one-piece maple neck and remained standard until 1966/67, when

2592-404: The 1930s, musician and inventor Paul Tutmarc of Seattle , Washington, developed the first electric bass guitar in its modern form, a fretted instrument designed to be played horizontally. The 1935 sales catalog for Tutmarc's company Audiovox featured his "Model 736 Bass Fiddle", a solid-bodied electric bass guitar with four strings, a 30 + 1 ⁄ 2 -inch (775-millimetre) scale length, and

2664-556: The 1950s. Kay Musical Instrument Company began production of the K162 in 1952, while Danelectro released the Longhorn in 1956. Also in 1956, at the German trade fair "Musikmesse Frankfurt" the distinctive Höfner 500/1 violin-shaped bass first appeared, constructed using violin techniques by Walter Höfner , a second-generation violin luthier. Due to its use by Paul McCartney , it became known as

2736-554: The 54-57 Precision Bass design. The pickup on these models is a single-coil similar to that at the bridge position on a Telecaster guitar. Modeled after the Telecaster guitar, the Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster and Telecaster Special basses feature a Telecaster guitar-shaped basswood body, Telecaster-style control plate and a 32"-scale maple neck/fretboard with 20 frets. The Vintage Modified Telecaster Bass sports

2808-688: The Affinity line. Squier introduced the Vintage-Modified Series in 2007 to slot between the Affinity Series and the Made-In-Mexico Fenders. The Squier Vintage-Modified Precision Bass Had a Duncan Designed™ PB101 Split Single-Coil Pickup and late-70's style headstock graphics. The Squier Vintage-Modified Precision Bass PJ was added in 2013 with Fender-designed Split Single-Coil Precision and Single-coil Jazz Pickups. Both models (along with

2880-532: The American Professional II Precision Bass. Updates included a V-Mod II pickup which had varying amounts of Alnico in each pickup pole for a more balanced sound, new sculpted neck heel (similar to those seen previously on the Elite models), Super-Natural neck finish, Posiflex graphite rods for added neck stability and tapered-shaft turning machines. Fender also added new finishes were also added to

2952-681: 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. and were again made available in 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 (introduced in 2009) features

Fender Telecaster Bass - Misplaced Pages Continue

3024-566: The Fender Precision Bass around 1957. The bass guitar was intended to appeal to guitarists as well as upright bass players, and many early pioneers of the instrument, such as Carol Kaye , Joe Osborn , and Paul McCartney were originally guitarists. Also in 1953, Gibson released the first short-scale violin -shaped electric bass, the EB-1, with an extendable end pin so a bassist could play it upright or horizontally. In 1958, Gibson released

3096-704: 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 one-piece maple neck option was offered on many Fender basses, with the rosewood fretboard as an alternative. Some Precision Basses made in the 1970s were also available with an unlined fretless rosewood, ebony or (usually) maple fingerboard, popularized by Sting and Tony Franklin . In 1968,

3168-630: The Vintage Modified Precision Bass V with the basic passive P bass single pickup and single volume/tone. There are many artists known for using the Precision Bass Guitar. A few of the more notable artists include: Bass guitar The bass guitar , electric bass or simply bass ( / b eɪ s / ) is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or acoustic guitar , but with

3240-498: The bass was given a straight reissue. The reissue was available in 2 colors, Surf Green or Vintage White (Cream). Squier is a subsidiary of Fender and features less expensive versions of Fender instruments. The Squier Vintage Modified Precision Bass TB was released in April 2007. It is based on the second version of the Telecaster Bass, featuring a similar Telecaster Bass headstock, pickguard and humbucking pickup. Squier has also issued

3312-612: The bridge position and an active 3-band EQ with an 18V power supply), Highway One and American Vintage series models were manufactured in Corona , California . Following the success of the Aerodyne Jazz Bass, Fender briefly produced the Japanese-made Aerodyne Classic Precision Bass from 2006 to 2008. This model retained the basic shape of the classic Precision but had dramatically thinner contours. It had

3384-449: The core. Bass guitar strings vary by the material and cross-sectional shape of the winding. Common variants include roundwound, flatwound, halfwound (groundwound), coated, tapewound and taperwound (not to be confused with tapewound) strings. Roundwound and flatwound strings feature windings with circular and rounded-square cross-sections, respectively, with halfround (also referred to as halfwound, ground wound, pressure wound) strings being

3456-475: The early 1990s version uses the larger, more historically accurate string ferrules that were used in the 1950s. In 1971, the Tele Bass was modified in some aspects. A new neck plate with Micro Tilt system for a more precise neck adjustment. The old-style pickguard was redesigned to eliminate the control plate, and the single-coil pickup was replaced with a larger, more powerful, humbucking unit . The Telecaster Bass

3528-424: The early 20th century to the 1940s, the bass guitar could be easily transported to shows. When amplified, the bass guitar was also less prone than acoustic basses to unwanted audio feedback . The addition of frets enabled bassists to play in tune more easily than on fretless acoustic or electric upright basses , and allowed guitarists to more easily transition to the instrument. In 1953, Monk Montgomery became

3600-545: The first bassist to tour with the Fender bass, in Lionel Hampton 's postwar big band . Montgomery was also possibly the first to record with the electric bass, on July 2, 1953, with the Art Farmer Septet . Roy Johnson (with Lionel Hampton), and Shifty Henry (with Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five ), were other early Fender bass pioneers. Bill Black , who played with Elvis Presley , switched from upright bass to

3672-434: The headstock graphic was changed to a new "waterslide" design. In 1977, the "Precision Bass" wordmark was changed to a smaller, sans-serif design. In the mid-1990s Fender briefly offered a fretless Precision Bass as a part of the first generation of the "American Standard" line. This variant was dropped at the end of the 20th century. From 1980 to 1984 various models of the Precision Bass were given new active pickups and

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3744-520: The introduction of a body shape and comfort carve similar to the Stratocaster. The 1957 model had its headstock and pickguard redesigned to resemble the Stratocaster , and a rounder neck heel replacing the original square shape. A redesigned pickguard was made of a single layer of gold-anodized aluminium with 10 screw holes. Most notably, in the 1957 model, the original single-coil pickup was replaced by

3816-518: The lineup: Dark Night, Mercury, Miami Blue and Mystic Surf Green. Finishes that remained in the lineup were 3-Color Sunburst, Black and Olympic White. In July 2024, Fender released the Player II Precision Bass, adding a vintage-style tint to the neck and headstock, reintroduction of a Rosewood fingerboard option, rolled fingerboard edges and new vintage inspired colour options, Hialeah Yellow, Coral Red, Birch Green and Aquatone blue, added to

3888-608: The maple arched-top EB-2 described in the Gibson catalog as a "hollow-body electric bass that features a Bass/Baritone pushbutton for two different tonal characteristics". In 1959, these were followed by the more conventional-looking EB-0 Bass . The EB-0 was very similar to a Gibson SG in appearance (although the earliest examples have a slab-sided body shape closer to that of the double-cutaway Les Paul Special). The Fender and Gibson versions used bolt-on and set necks. Several other companies also began manufacturing bass guitars during

3960-582: The market in late 1984. They had a smaller body shape and a modern C-shape maple neck with 22 medium-jumbo frets. They had an active P-J pickup configuration with a 2 band eq and pickup pan knob. They were produced until 1995. The later 1980s and 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 limited-edition Custom Shop 40th Anniversary model of 1991

4032-473: The model from 1991 to 2018. The American Deluxe Precision Bass was added to the revamped lineup in 1995. It had an Ash Body (offered until 2006), 18-volt preamp with 3-Band Active EQ and an added Humbucker in the bridge position. 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

4104-596: The neck which. The 21-fret neck profile was a modern “C” shape at the genuine bone nut, and changed along the length of the neck to a modern D-shaped profile at the updated neck heel, with a compound radius of 9.5–14". Fender produced this bass until 2019. In January 2017, Fender retired its American Standard line to be replaced by the American Professional Series. The Precision Bass was updated with new V-Mod pickups, upgraded tuners that featured increased sustain and better tuning stability, Narrow-Tall frets and

4176-420: The now-CBS-owned Fender company 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 pickguard was replaced with a 13-screw celluloid design having three or four layers of black, white, white pearloid or with

4248-422: The originals of the 1950s. There were also three different headstock decals in the early version. The earliest had a regular silver Telecaster guitar logo with the word "bass" added underneath. Only prototypes are known to have this decal. The earliest prototypes were partially constructed from leftover 1952 Precision Bass parts. The second decal was the larger Black (gold outlined) Telecaster Bass logo (bass being in

4320-687: The remaining 3 Tone Sunburst, Black and Arctic White from the former Player series. The text below the serial number now reads 'Made in Ensenada', as opposed to the prior Made in Mexico. Fender initially revived the Squier sub-brand to produce lower-cost guitars and basses in 1982. The first model the brand produced was the JV series which was made in Japan. This later became known as the Squier Traditional P-Bass and

4392-490: The rest of the line) were subsequently replaced with Fender-Designed pickups before the Vintage-Modified line was discontinued altogether by 2019. 2020 saw the introduction of a short scale Precision. The Squier Mini Precision Bass has a 28.6" (726mm) scale with 9.5" radius and 1.5" nut width. Similar to the previously introduced Mini Strat, the body remains faithful to the shape and contours of its full-size counterpart but

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4464-499: The same configuration when Fender transitioned to the American Professional Precision Bass V model in 2017 and the American Professional II Precision Bass V in 2020. Squier also produced a Standard version sporting two J-Bass pickups with alnico magnets. The company has also built a Korean-made Squier ProTone Precision V with dual humbuckers and gold hardware in the mid-1990s. In the mid-2010s, Squier produced

4536-424: The same style of script as Fender). The third and most commonly used decal had the silver Fender script with the words Telecaster Bass written in a sans-serif type font underneath. In the early 1990s, Fender Japan reissued the '51 Precision Bass, which is in essence, a reissue of the first-version Telecaster Bass. The earliest "Made in Japan" versions vary slightly from the later "Crafted in Japan" model. For example,

4608-408: The strings. They are responsible for converting the vibrations of the strings into analogous electrical signals, which are in turn passed as input to an instrument amplifier . Bass guitar strings are composed of a core and winding . The core is a wire which runs through the center of the string and is generally made of steel, nickel, or an alloy . The winding is an additional wire wrapped around

4680-615: The use of onboard electronics for pre-amplification and equalization. Active electronics increase the output of the instrument, and allow more options for controlling tonal flexibility, giving the player the ability to amplify as well as to attenuate certain frequency ranges while improving the overall frequency response (including more low-register and high-register sounds). 1976 saw the UK company Wal begin production of their own range of active basses. In 1974 Music Man Instruments, founded by Tom Walker, Forrest White and Leo Fender , introduced

4752-563: Was a luxurious version of the Precision Plus Deluxe bass with gold hardware, a quilted maple top with no pickguard, highly figured neck, 3 stacked knobs and an ebony fretboard with side dot position markers. Only 400 of this model were produced. 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

4824-458: Was in fact influenced by the Telecaster guitar), with a large pickguard, small Telecaster-shaped headstock, single pickup, and separate chrome control plate. Early versions had a two-piece maple-capped neck with no "skunk stripe" on the back of the neck and some also had the rare paddle-style tuners that were most commonly seen on the Jazz Bass. The pickguard on the 1960s Telecaster Bass was slightly more slender and employed more mounting screws than

4896-455: Was just "a weak note amplified" or "an amplified plink-plonk." The original Precision Bass of 1951 shared several of its design features with the Telecaster electric guitar, the main difference being its double cutaway body. The 1954 Stratocaster guitar with its contoured edges for comfort, was inspired by the Precision bass. In turn the Precision Bass then borrowed design elements from the Stratocaster guitar: The model season of 1954/55 saw

4968-783: Was produced alongside the contemporary Precision Bass through all the 1970s. The decal logo had changed from silver to gold, with black outlining. It was the final version of the Telecaster Bass, and was discontinued in September 1979. In 2011, Fender reintroduced the model as a part of their Modern Player series, featuring two Modern Player Wide Range Humbucking pickups, three-ply parchment (Sunburst model) or single-ply black (Butterscotch Blonde model) pickguard, three knurled "chrome-dome" control knobs (neck volume, bridge volume, master tone), vintage-style bridge with four brass saddles, open-gear tuners and nickel/chrome hardware. Available in 2-Color Sunburst and Butterscotch Blonde. This model also featured

5040-597: Was retired in 1996. The current basic model is the Affinity Precision Bass. This model was introduced in 1996 and was made in China. In more recent years, the Affinity Precision Bass PJ (named for its Precision-Jazz pickup configuration) was added to the lineup. The wordmark on the headstock graphic refers to this model as a Squier P-Bass. The PJ model is currently the only variation produced and released in

5112-506: Was revamped in 1995. In 1996, a special run of 500 instruments was sold as the Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Precision Bass to celebrate the company's anniversary. This model had gold hardware and a "Fender 50" stamp on the neck plate. In 1984, Fender introduced a lower cost Standard Precision Bass model made in Japan. The Standard model was made in Japan until 1990 when Fender shifted operations to its new Mexican factory which produced

5184-582: Was the first electric bass guitar to earn widespread attention and use, remaining among the best-selling and most-imitated electric bass guitars with considerable effect on the sound of popular music. Leo Fender designed the Precision bass for big band guitarists. Kansas City–based Roy Johnson of Lionel Hampton 's big band was the first bassist to use the Precision in a concert setting. Music critic Leonard Feather wrote about this new development in Down Beat magazine, expressing surprise at hearing bass sounds from

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