"When in doubt, get a Fender P-bass"

[Blazer]

At least that's what I heard the recording engineer who's working on my Band's debut album say when he was criticizing my Brother's basses: A Medium scale Ibanez which I souped up with EMG pickups and My eighties Vantage bass which he uses.

As far as he was concerned, the best bass for our brand of old school heavy metal should have a Fender P-bass on it, no fancy bullshit but just an honest-to-god Precision. I looked at my brother and said: "Don't worry, your basses are just fine for playing with us."

Still he does have a point, when broken down how much has been played on the Fender Precision after it first came out and even players like John Entwistle, who did a recording session with a Buzzard which malfunctioned, prompting him to smash it and then grabbing a Precision bass and finishing the session with that. Talk about legendary soul? James Jamerson, Duck Dunn and Carol Kaye all played P-basses. Want to talk metal?  Iron Maiden's Steve Harris has used a P-bass on everything Maiden released so far.

The Ibanez and Vantage basses that my Brother uses are fine workhorses but neither of them has that typical "Punch" of a P-bass, so I often wonder how our band would sound with my brother playing one.

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

My Hot Rod P is my bass of choice these days.

Yeah~ P for PUNCH! Right in the face 

[jmcgliss]

A Dark Star P-bass is my #1 axe that band mates called "Big Wood" within 30 seconds of my bringing it to rehearsal.  They don't ever want to see my other basses again.  And I still get fan mail and gig photos from a rocker in Dublin who bought one of my builds on a visit last year.  It's not my workmanship - the formula just works with either rounds or flats.

[Dave W]

Nothing wrong with a Precision, of course, but the recording engineer's attitude is all too common. He's too lazy and ignorant to work with what you have and want.

[TBird1958]

 No denying it's rightful place in music and recording, it's a landmark instrument by any measure.
But no P for me......No thanks, the neck is too big for my small hands and quite honestly I don't care for the look or the tone, it's not me. I've owned one (a '73) so it's not like I haven't tried..........   
 Your recording engineer is lazy, make him turn a couple of knobs on his precious mixer and try something new   
 

[GonzoBass]

Yeah,
unfortunately from 'Engineer Speak' this all too often translates as-
"Give me what I was taught to EQ for so I can use my pre-sets"
and as a result you'll sound just like everyone else in the end mix.

There is something to be said for originality in tone
and very few bass players can be recognized by theirs.

Maybe for exactly this reason?
 

[Freuds_Cat]

Yep, same sentiment here. Lazy and/or insular minded engineer. The P has been used to such an extent over the years that it is now THE generic bass sound.

I like to use that sound sometimes but I also prefer the option of having other sounds and voicings.

[uwe]

Anecdotal evidence has little forensic value. So P Basses are most common. As was the VW Beetle, but that didn't make it the best car in the world. P Basses have a sound of their own and it's relatively easy to have them well-heard in a mix without being too loud. For an old school metal sound I'd be worried a little though whether the P reaches down deep enough and whether its main strength - mids and low mids- won't collide with the frequencies of the guitars if brought out to their greatest effect. Iron Maiden's typical sound just proves that: Harris is much louder in the mix than any of the three guitars and he lacks ooomph/foundation (his busy playing style doesn't allow too much of that), but with three guitars beside you, you can stretch a bit. Then again, Geezer Butlers graveyard lows with nasty distortion on those early albums emanated forn a old P. But he had to fight for that sound with the then producer. Goes to show that a P Bass can deliver sounds not readily identified with it, but most engineers are too set in their ways to explore its possibilities.

My gripe with the P Bass has always been more about how it looks (plain, only half-designed, utalitaristic and unelegant) and how many there are of them  than how it plays or sounds. In fact, if you can't get a sound you like out of a decent P bass, then you should perhaps pick up playing tennis. And if you consider the 34" scale one of the determining factors in the P Bass sound (which to my mind it is), then the world if full of P Basses from all brands, Gibson included.

Uwe

[rahock]

I am pretty much a Fender P bigot, so my opinion is a bit slanted, but one of the things that I like most  about the P is the way they blend in the mix.
Even things that I think  I hear when I practice alone , like notes that are softer (not dead but soft), little things that make me question the intonation and other little things that I think may be just a little off. They all disappear when blended with other instruments. I was listening to some jam recordings that I did last winter that had a few other bass players on some tracks with a custom built pricey piece , an Alembic and an old Musicman. The P and the Musicman came across the best , the others would have benifitted if they used a compressor. In general the P and the Musicman just fit right in with  minimal tweaking (it was all live recording).
Rick

[Denis]

In the same way that my taste in motorcycles, cars and trucks is out of the norm, I've discovered my taste in basses is as well. Even my P-bass is a weird one.

[bobyoung]

In fact, if you can't get a sound you like out of a decent P bass, then you should perhaps pick up playing tennis.

Uwe

If you have your sound down cold on another brand of bass no engineer is going to complain in the first place anyway. P basses can sound good in the hands of someone who's been playing for three weeks, listen to some of the old early 60's records, mistakes galore but they sound good anyway. P basses like most good basses reflect the personality of the player, there have been many different sounds from the P bass, one thing they all have in common though is solidity and punch. You really have to work hard at making one sound bad.

[n!k]

It's a bass that is the epitome of boring. The sound is plunky and the look is blah, with the added detraction of every Tom, Dick, and Harry having one. Of all the things in the world to stick with the "safe bet," why something creative like music?

[uwe]

I agree about the look and the prevalence, not the sound though. I can plug in a P bass and feel at home on it within seconds, it sounds like me too. But the look is decidedly unenticing, the early ones with the singlecoil and the later telecasters with the Fender mudbucker excepted.

[Dave W]

I wouldn't say the sound is blah or boring, it's just ubiquitous. Yet that doesn't mean you can't get your own sound of it. Unless you think Entwistle on a P sounded like Duck Dunn. 

Problem as always is with incomptent jerk engineers who are looking to get out of work instead of working with you.

[Pilgrim]

I agree - not boring ot me.  The instrument simply is what it is.  I appreciate what it is, and don't find that boring.

Think if you were playing an upright bass - every one in the world looks and sounds essentially like every other (Stradivarii, etc. notwithstanding).