Super Fitness Health BlogLeo Fender and the 60 Year Legacy of the Precision Bass
When people think of Fender guitars, the conversation usually revolves around the 6 string classics such as the Stratocaster and the Telecaster. That is quite natural, given that they are the companys best known guitar, but its also unfortunate. That is because Fenders greatest contribution is arguably as the inventor of the electric bass guitar. Yes, although guitars like the Strat revolutionised the market, the sounds and the players for the next 50 years and more, there were at least recognisable forebears to them in the shape of electro acoustic and semi acoustic guitars. When it comes to the electric bass, the immediate precedent was the very acoustic, very bulky, very expensive upright double bass. For Leo Fender to have envisioned that transition is quite something.
What is really remarkable is that Leo Fender and his team managed to create, in less that 12 months, two designs, one for electric guitar and one for electric bass guitar, that form the bedrock of most instruments of their type some 60 years later. It was in 1950 that the Fender company launched the Broadcaster, an early version of the Stratocaster, only to follow up in 1951 with the Precision Bass, a bass guitar that still sells in large numbers today and whose shape and componentry can be seen mirrored in many other bass guitars.
What makes the Fender Precision Bass so special is not just that it was the very first instrument of its type, but that it was conceived, designed and launched by Fender in 1951 and has been the instrument against which all newer bass guitars are measured for over 60 years. There can be no doubt that Leo Fender managed to get pretty much everything right at the first attempt, otherwise bass design would have moved on substantially by now and the Precision Bass would be regarded as a vintage instrument.As it is, the only major innovations to have emerged and become successful during that time are headless basses and active electronics that boost, rather than cut, tone.
Of course, like any good product coming from a commercially savvy manufacturer, the Precision Bass has undergone many changes in the past 60 years, but none of them has been of sufficient magnitude to change the inherent appearance, playability or tone of this superlative guitar.
Fenders Precision Bass has been subject to many minor version introductions and special editions. Indeed, there are currently more than 10 Precision models available under the Fender and Fender Squier brands and each of these has varying colour options. Probably the most significant changes occurred in 1957 and 1990. In 1957, the Precision Bass became the archetypal bass guitar of the next 30 years as it gained a wider headstock, 4 bridge saddles instead of 2, a two piece pickup and the controls were moved from body mounted to scratchplate mounted. Then, in 1990, despite the classic model still being available, Fender introduced the Precision Plus as a means of countering developments by other bass guitar manufacturers. The Plus sported deeper cutaways, an increase from 20 frets to 22 frets, a fine tuning bridge and, most importantly, the addition of a Jazz Bass pickup at the bridge position.
Today, that process of gentle innovation and change continues as the current Fender Precision Bass lineup includes guitars at several price points from professional to beginner and, alongside the usual plethora of Artist and special editions, the brand new 2012 version of the Fender American Standard Precision Bass that, for the first time, features proper Fender Custom Shop 60s split coil pickups. This guitar is hardly standard anyway, as it also features a graphite reinforced neck and graphite truss rods. I guess that is why the Precision remains the default choice of bass guitar for many players.
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