Am I the only one who has never played a P Bass.?

[bubinga5]

Never played a P Bass. Tell a lie, I played a JV P for 30 seconds and a Yamaha bass with a P pickup once. Strange really, after 17 years not one P bass. Its possibly going to be a revelation when I do. 

[wateroftyne]

3 minutes ago, bubinga5 said:

Never played a P Bass. Tell a lie, I played a JV P for 30 seconds... Strange really, after 17 years not one P bass.

Wait... have you or haven't you? Make your mind up!

[bubinga5]

Oh.. ok.. Not to any point that I had any experience with one.

[krzysztof]

Nope never owned one or played one either! IT is next on my list though for THAT sounds.

Currently : MIJ 62 RI Jazz

Overwater progress deluxe 6 string

A P would sit nicely in the middle and give me enough tones that I need 

(a fretless would be cool)

[BigRedX]

Until a couple of months ago I could be 99% sure I had never played one. They just never appealed to me.

I've owned a bass with a P-bass pick up - a Born To Rock F4B - and a couple with P-J configuration - a Pedulla Buzz and a Hartke XL-4.

Having now definitely played one - a MiJ with a maple fretboard, unplugged for a couple of minutes - I can't say I feel I've missed anything. Big clunky body and big clunky neck, no grace or refinement.

[tegs07]

Just now, BigRedX said:

Big clunky body and big clunky neck, no grace or refinement.

Everything I love about them. Like an early Toyota Landcruiser. Does what it was built to do, no pretensions or BS and won’t let you down.

[Geek99]

9 hours ago, bubinga5 said:

Never played a P Bass. Tell a lie, I played a JV P for 30 seconds and a Yamaha bass with a P pickup once. Strange really, after 17 years not one P bass. Its possibly going to be a revelation when I do. 

I didn’t expect a revelation but got epiphany with a squier VM P

do it 

[BigRedX]

5 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

Everything I love about them. Like an early Toyota Landcruiser. Does what it was built to do, no pretensions or BS and won’t let you down.

I'm sure if I'd started off with a P-bass as my first instrument I'd be used to them. But I didn't. Therefore to me it looks and feels like a step backwards from even the cheapest and least refined basses I've owned in the past.

[Munurmunuh]

10 hours ago, bubinga5 said:

a Yamaha bass with a P pickup once

My Yamaha has a split pickup. Neither the numbers on the page nor the look of the shape nor the sound in my ears makes me think I'm playing a P bass, so you might be in the clear on that count?

[M@23]

To echo a couple others, don’t be put off by their simplicity and lack of options. 
I grabbed a 5 string one for various gigs coming up where tradition dictates it’s the best fit for the genre. It’s since jumped to the front of the queue for EVERY gig/session. 
It is so responsive to how it’s played. Also, it’s a Fender, and it has one of the best sounding B strings I’ve played. 
 

[Reggaebass]

A , P bass with flats is heaven, I played one for years then switched to jazzes, but I like both, if you haven’t tried one @bubinga5, I’d recommend trying one with flats and one with rounds, they do sound different, you might not like either but it’s nice to try different basses 🙂

[JapanAxe]

I came to bass from guitar, and my assumption was that more pickups would equate to more versatility. I had also briefly owned an old Encore P copy, which I need hardly tell you was not a great instrument! My first few basses were therefore twin-pickup models, mainly mid-priced and active.

One day I was in Denmark St and tried a CIJ Jazz, which was lovely but not quite there. Then I picked up a CIJ Precision and it instantly clicked - everything I wanted from just two controls. Sold.

A well-sorted P is a thing of joy. It’s worth trying a few because they are not all created equal. If it’s not for you, cool, play the stuff that makes you happy.

EDIT: I played a gig on guitar last night and the bass player was using a Jazz. It sounded great.

Edited May 23, 2021 by JapanAxe

[ezbass]

P, tone wide open, played with a pick is a sound heard on many a popular ditty.  Not all Ps, or P types for that matter, sound the same though. My first bass was a BB300 (reversed P) and I had a full fat, new Fender P some years later. However, it wasn’t until I bought my old ‘63 P that the tone I heard Chuck Rainey employing on those Steely Dan albums or Bruce Foxton’s ‘Malice’ sound was heard and experienced up close and personal, proper wide grin moments. Interestingly enough, the ‘63 having been moved on some years ago, my JMJ Mustang achieves that very same tone.

[TheGreek]

I've never owned a "pure" P bass - lots of basses with a P pup but not that alone...

I'm sure I must have played one at some point in my life but can't recall when.

I had a Westone Thunder 1A which had P bass pups...does that count?

Edited May 26, 2021 by TheGreek

[Ed_S]

I started off on a Squier P/J which I owned for maybe a day or two before it became apparent even to a total beginner that there was a lot wrong with it. We took it back and the guys at the shop agreed, so by way of an apology gave me a great deal on a Yamaha BB which they said I'd have no problems with - and they were right. Rightly or wrongly, that experience negatively coloured my opinion of Squier and, by association, Fender and anything fenderesque for the next 10 years.

But then Fender seemingly upped its game massively and released the revamped MIM Standards so, having read a lot of good reviews, I went and tried one. It was a 4 string when I'd played 5s exclusively for years, it was white/white/maple when my main basses at the time were all black and pointy (a BTB, a Warlock and a Vampyre), and it was light and ergonomic at a point where I was suffering back/neck issues that worsened with every rehearsal and gig. It was smooth and tactile, singularly the most comfortable instrument I'd played in ages, completely honest in all its limitations and just sounded great with both controls on full, so I bought it there and then. I pretty much instantly connected with it and the more I played it, the more it felt like the way forward.. so I proceeded to ditch all the black, pointy, heavy, uncomfortable instruments that I'd amassed, re-imagined all my original bass parts for 4 string and started to really enjoy playing again without always being in pain.

So yes, a good P can be a revelation and even dig you out of a hole - probably literally if required!

[paul_c2]

I've never owned one but so what - I've only owned 4 basses over my entire lifetime, and I still have 3. 

Tried friend's P-bass (a long time ago) and tried them in music shops (when we could) but always preferred Jazz, so own 3x Jazz basses now - an Antoria copy (my first bass, had it 34 years), a Japanese Fender and a Squier fretless.

If I had limitless money and saw any purpose in "collecting" basses or buying more, sure, the next would probably be a Precision.

Edited May 23, 2021 by paul_c2

[Cato]

12 hours ago, bubinga5 said:

Never played a P Bass. Tell a lie, I played a JV P for 30 seconds and a Yamaha bass with a P pickup once. Strange really, after 17 years not one P bass. Its possibly going to be a revelation when I do. 

I had a similar thing with Stratocasters.

Apart from a couple of brief try outs in music shops as a teenager I didn't go near them for about 25 years because I thought they were boring, possibly because I associated them with middle of the road 80s dad rock.

Last year something changed and I started gassing for one, finally bought one at the start of this year and now it's my favourite skinny stringer.

I suppose the moral is 'you'll never know until you try it'.

Edited May 23, 2021 by Cato

[Lozz196]

When I started out all my fave bassists played Precisions, so it would seem obvious that I would get one, right?

Wrong, for some reason I had many basses, some with Precision pickups, but never an actual Precision itself and I was always chasing a sound that I just couldn’t get (a dur moment spread across many years I’d say).

Then one day I bought a Precision, got it home, plugged it in, and was sadly severely underwhelmed. But then I took it to band practice and it suddenly all made sense. Since then although I’ve had other basses I’m a Precision player, nothing else works for me like a Fender Precision.

[gareth]

13 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

But then I took it to band practice and it suddenly all made sense. Since then although I’ve had other basses I’m a Precision player, nothing else works for me like a Fender Precision.

That’s my experience 

Noodling away on a jazz is great and it has more tones but at a gig its difficult to hear those tones cutting through and it just sounds weak compared to a p bass and on a that’s when you want the more ballsy p bass 

[super al]

24 minutes ago, paul_c2 said:

I've never owned one but so what - I've only owned 4 basses over my entire lifetime, and I still have 3. 

Tried friend's P-bass (a long time ago) and tried them in music shops (when we could) but always preferred Jazz, so own 3x Jazz basses now - an Antoria copy (my first bass, had it 34 years), a Japanese Fender and a Squier fretless.

If I had limitless money and saw any purpose in "collecting" basses or buying more, sure, the next would probably be a Precision.

Hold on a minute! You've only ever owned 4 basses...4!?!?...one of the mods might have to hold an inquiry over this. Is that possible? 

My first bass was a Marlin Slammer P bass copy (a very bad copy) and I've never owned or played any other P bass. Put me off a bit I think, preferred jazz basses for years.

[Munurmunuh]

26 minutes ago, Cato said:

had a similar thing with Stratocasters.

Apart from a couple of brief try outs in music shops as a teenager I didn't go near them for about 25 years because I thought they were boring

I was similar when I was a teenager in my attitude to Telecasters: I was almost angry at how weak they sounded. Now I find them enchanting.

[paul_c2]

11 minutes ago, super al said:

Hold on a minute! You've only ever owned 4 basses...4!?!?...one of the mods might have to hold an inquiry over this. Is that possible? 

My first bass was a Marlin Slammer P bass copy (a very bad copy) and I've never owned or played any other P bass. Put me off a bit I think, preferred jazz basses for years.

1987: bought my first bass, an Antoria Jazz copy. It was secondhand and from the early 1970s. No idea of its worth now.
1993: bought (new) a rubbish fretless bass, I think it was an Encore?
2012: sold the Encore fretless
2017: bought a secondhand Jap Fender Jazz (the Antoria had developed a few issues and I fancied a change - I know, daft/outrageous reasons to go out and buy another bass)
2019: bought a secondhand Squier Jazz fretless - because the band I'm involved in - big band - could really benefit. It was that or an EUB

 

[BigRedX]

51 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

When I started out all my fave bassists played Precisions, so it would seem obvious that I would get one, right?

When I first got interested in music the bassists in all my favourite bands seemed to play Rickenbackers, Gibsons, or something custom probably made by John Birch. If I'd had the money for my dream bass back then it would most likely have been a 4001 shaped instrument with a JB logo on the headstock.

I'm sure that some of the bassists in bands I like played Precisions but I just didn't remember them doing so, unlike their more visually interesting competition.

[super al]

26 minutes ago, paul_c2 said:

1987: bought my first bass, an Antoria Jazz copy. It was secondhand and from the early 1970s. No idea of its worth now.
1993: bought (new) a rubbish fretless bass, I think it was an Encore?
2012: sold the Encore fretless
2017: bought a secondhand Jap Fender Jazz (the Antoria had developed a few issues and I fancied a change - I know, daft/outrageous reasons to go out and buy another bass)
2019: bought a secondhand Squier Jazz fretless - because the band I'm involved in - big band - could really benefit. It was that or an EUB

 

That is genuinely really impressive, either you play guitar and have 30 various makes of those or you are happy with what you got.

I've bought 8 basses since '87 (we started the same year!) including a EUB. After I joined BC about 6 years ago I also started playing in a function band. This required frequently different tuning (Eb, drop D as well as E). Ended up buying 2 five stringers in the last 3 years (25% of my basses since joining BC!). To find someone more restrained than myself to GAS is a novelty, I always feel like I haven't 'bassed' around like some of the chaps on here.

[paul_c2]

Guitar is better:

1986: bought an Encore Strat
1987: sold it (and switched to bass)
2015: bought an Epiphone Les Paul (ie to get back into 6 string guitar)
2016: bought a Fender Strat (Mexican, secondhand)
2019: sold the Epi Les Paul

So I only have 1 guitar now - a Stratocaster.

Amps.....I have had 10 catch fire or blow up, so I have had many amps over the years unfortunately. Currently have an Ashdown 120W bass; Fender Rumble 30w bass; Boss Katana Mk2 (guitar). I gig with the bass hence there's 2, in case one catches fire again. I have never gigged on guitar (yet) hence 1 main amp tho I still have a Vox which is unreliable.