TYPE
Electric Solid Body Double cutaway bass guitar
FEATURES
Ash or alder body, screwed maple neck
Maple or rosewood fretboard
One P split pickup with humbucker winding
INFORMATION
In the years since the model was launched, the Fender Precision became the standard in a small but growing market. However, instruments from competing labels were also produced in the late 1950s: the Gibson Electric Bass (1953), the Danelectro UB-2 (1956) and the Rickenbacker 4000 (1957). Leo Fender gave his bass a radical makeover in 1957.
A few years earlier, the body had already undergone a change, and the Telecaster-style square body had given way to the soft curves of Fender’s popular Stratocaster. The design of the head also changed: the initially slender line widened.
The pickguard was also styled to that of the Stratocaster and was made of gold anodized aluminum. From 1960, the pickguard consisted of celluloid.
The original neck was carved from a single piece of mapl. From 1959, however, a rosewood fretboard was glued to the maple neck. This remained the standard procedure until the mid-1960s, when the model was also offered with a maple fretboard. The original basal singlecoil pickup was replaced with a new P” split pickup that could be used as a humbucker.
The Fender Precision is one of the most important instruments of the 20th century and is still in production today.
Used by artist(s): John Deacon (Queen)
