P Bass Conspiracy Theories

[Rib13Bass]

In the interests of both pseudoscientific opinionated curiosity and shameless self promotion, Im posting this video I made that addresses a lot of the common themes I've seen posted on social media (including during my brief tenure here on Basschat) about the P Bass...... enjoy, comment and discuss?

 

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by Rib13Bass

[itu]

You have put a lot of effort to the video. Have to say I like it. Your comments shoot down many "theories" that live without real research. Well done.

 

P is a simple and functional instrument, but there certainly are alternatives. Many of which fit other tastes and anatomics. And P was not the first bass, although it was the first to accomplish wider commercial success.

[Baloney Balderdash]

Really nice video. 

 

I enjoyed watching it a lot.

 

Also my qualified guess is that bass #2 is a P Bass, I might be wrong though, most of them did actually sound quite similar.

 

I'll also claim that the "Leo got it right the first time" sentiment used in context of the P Bass wouldn't be correct, for a couple of reasons, of which at least one is totally objective : First of all the bass we now know as a P Bass was not the first P Bass he made, as you said it used a single coil pickup, and has it's own unique qualities, second of all (though you could claim that this is a somewhat subjective truth) he totally counter intuitive and against all logic and common sense oriented the two halves of the split P Bass pickup the wrong way (perhaps for the same reason that he insisted on calling the otherwise semantically agreed on terms vibrato for tremolo and tremolo for vibrato, whatever odd reason that might then actually have been), for improved consistency of tone the pickup half for the 2 lower strings should have been furthest toward the bridge and for the 2 higher strings further towards the neck, instead Leo with the traditional orientation of the P pickup chose to emphasis the difference between the thicker lower strings and the thinner higher strings, making the 2 lower strings even fatter and boomier sounding than they already are and the 2 higher strings even more trebly and thin sounding than they already are, this was corrected by other manufactures on many future models that featured the classic split P pickup, commonly referred to as reverse P pickup, though it is really what makes most sense from a tonal perspective, as it somewhat actually helps counter the inherent tonal difference between the 2 thicker strings and the 2 thinner strings, but at the time someone corrected this the classic P Bass sound with the goofy pickup orientation had already become a classic standard, because there wasn't any alternative, and that alone made it a desired tone, even if it might not actually had been the optimal tone (if one can even claim such exists). 

 

In any case keep up the good work! 

Edited July 25, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[Rib13Bass]

40 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

 First of all the bass we now know as a P Bass, was not the first P Bass he made, as you said it used a single coil pickup, and has it's own unique qualities, second of all (though you could claim that this is a somewhat subjective truth) he oriented the two halves of the split P Bass pickup the wrong way, for consistency of tone the pickup half for the 2 lower strings should have been furthest toward the bridge and for the 2 higher strings further towards the neck, this was corrected by other manufactures on many future models that featured the classic split P pickup,

Thank you very much. The videos are time consuming but fun to do....much to my wife's chagrin  lol

 

and I totally agree about Reverse P: I even covered the Reverse P topic myself in a different video about a Harley Benton MP4

[Lozz196]

Reverse P makes sooooo much sense, and rather telling that in a blind P-bass shootout the runaway winner was equipped with one.

[Guest]

I loved how you tackled each point. I’m a huge P Bass fan but have always found much of the hyperbole around them suspect. I just like how they sound and feel. Well done. 

[Linus27]

Yep enjoyed that, thanks for sharing. My guesses for which basses were Precision's is 1 and 3 although 4 also sounded very close and to be fair, they all did lol

[police squad]

yep, not often I get to the end of these videos but I enjoyed it. They all sounded very P like to me. I think my favourite was #3.

Nice one

[StingRayBoy42]

Great Video, nice one.

I kinda want a P Bass now....

[Steve Browning]

Pedant alert!

 

I guess you mean 'exude mojo' rather than "extrude mojo". Interested in why you chose to slap the 5 basses. Not the 'regular job' of a Pbass.

 

Very minor gripes in the scheme of things, and neither diminishes an interesting video.

[Machines]

Great vid - good modern content that's bandwidth friendly too. Subscribed.

[miles'tone]

I liked your P bass = manual car driving skills analogy bit at the end. Definitely why I'm  a 'P bass guy'. It's limitations are where I find my freedom. Cool vid 👍

[BigRedX]

Just to let you know that wearing a tinfoil hat makes you more susceptible to government mind control. There's even a proper MIT study to prove it.

[fretmeister]

51 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

Pedant alert!

 

I guess you mean 'exude mojo' rather than "extrude mojo". Interested in why you chose to slap the 5 basses. Not the 'regular job' of a Pbass.

 

Very minor gripes in the scheme of things, and neither diminishes an interesting video.

 

 

There's loads of great P bass slap!

Including what might be a contender for the best known slap tune ever - Forget Me Nots (aka Men in Black) with Freddie Washington on the P bass with steel roundwounds.

[mcnach]

I could use any of the 5, to be honest, although #1 and #3 sounded more the way I like it, and #4 and #5 not as much (especially #5).

 

Nice example of the variation of 'Precision' style sounds while still sounded clearly Precisionesque.

[Doctor J]

The slab body lasted 3 years, the single coil with contoured body came out in 54.

 

Ask Sting. He won't lie. Leo got it right, for the time, third time around 😁

 

Edit -> in fact, given how much the pickup constitutes what comes out of the amp, I wouldn't consider the 51-56 basses the same as the split coil bass which followed other than using the same model name.

Edited July 25, 2022 by Doctor J

[Rib13Bass]

16 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

Pedant alert!

 

I guess you mean 'exude mojo' rather than "extrude mojo". Interested in why you chose to slap the 5 basses. Not the 'regular job' of a Pbass.

 

Very minor gripes in the scheme of things, and neither diminishes an interesting video.

 

15 hours ago, fretmeister said:

 

 

There's loads of great P bass slap!

Including what might be a contender for the best known slap tune ever - Forget Me Nots (aka Men in Black) with Freddie Washington on the P bass with steel roundwounds.

 

I'm glad you asked! I originally considered fingering examples but I honestly thought that wouldve been too difficult. With slap, theres all the resonant string harmonic structure to A/B the sounds. As @fretmeistersaid, "Forget Me Nots" is probably one of the most widely known P-Bass slap songs so I chose to do that as well for familiarity, plus i chose not to choke/ mute some of the notes and let them ring more....Keep in mind you are hearing the 5 basses back-to-back in quick snippets with the bass out front in a quick mix - Most of the time listening to music, you are hearing just one bass on a song with nothing to A/B it against. Try to think of it that way

Thank you everyone who subbed. My channel is very time consuming, but it is a labor of love and I enjoy doing it very much

Edited July 26, 2022 by Rib13Bass

[Tjhooker]

Just subscribed... Like this channel 👍🙂

[EJWW]

Number 3 for me!

[gafbass02]

1 sounds like a modern p pickup to me, three sounds like a p bass. The others just sound like neck pickups. Great video and some great points. 

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 24/07/2022 at 12:37, Baloney Balderdash said:

Really nice video. 

 

I enjoyed watching it a lot.

 

Also my qualified guess is that bass #2 is a P Bass, I might be wrong though, most of them did actually sound quite similar.

 

I'll also claim that the "Leo got it right the first time" sentiment used in context of the P Bass wouldn't be correct, for a couple of reasons, of which at least one is totally objective : First of all the bass we now know as a P Bass was not the first P Bass he made, as you said it used a single coil pickup, and has it's own unique qualities, second of all (though you could claim that this is a somewhat subjective truth) he totally counter intuitive and against all logic and common sense oriented the two halves of the split P Bass pickup the wrong way (perhaps for the same reason that he insisted on calling the otherwise semantically agreed on terms vibrato for tremolo and tremolo for vibrato, whatever odd reason that might then actually have been), for improved consistency of tone the pickup half for the 2 lower strings should have been furthest toward the bridge and for the 2 higher strings further towards the neck, instead Leo with the traditional orientation of the P pickup chose to emphasis the difference between the thicker lower strings and the thinner higher strings, making the 2 lower strings even fatter and boomier sounding than they already are and the 2 higher strings even more trebly and thin sounding than they already are, this was corrected by other manufactures on many future models that featured the classic split P pickup, commonly referred to as reverse P pickup, though it is really what makes most sense from a tonal perspective, as it somewhat actually helps counter the inherent tonal difference between the 2 thicker strings and the 2 thinner strings, but at the time someone corrected this the classic P Bass sound with the goofy pickup orientation had already become a classic standard, because there wasn't any alternative, and that alone made it a desired tone, even if it might not actually had been the optimal tone (if one can even claim such exists). 

 

In any case keep up the good work! 

 

Just heard the examples again, and I will have to change my guess of which is a P Bass, even pretty sure it is in fact #3 (and not #2 as I first guessed, not paying proper attention, and guessing after just one listen though of the 5 examples. I'd even go as far as to say definitely not #2.).

 

The tone of #3 has a complexity and certain mids focus that non of the other examples really got that tells me that's the one.

 

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[paul_5]

I reckon #1 is a vintage P and #3 is a modern P, #2 and #4 are solo'ed bridge pups from a J style, and I think #5 is a MM?

[Rib13Bass]

2 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

 

Just heard the examples again, and I will have to change my guess of which is a P Bass, even pretty sure it is in fact #3 (and not #2 as I first guessed, not paying proper attention, and guessing after just one listen though of the 5 examples. I'd even go as far as to say definitely not #2.).

 

The tone of #3 has a complexity and certain mids focus that non of the other examples really got that tells me that's the one.

 

 

Ok I changed in on the scoring for basschat.....I'm keeping track of the guesses on multiple sources and in person as best I can

[merello]

Loved the video - dont have a clue which is the P-bass so I'll wait till the answer is forthcoming ands I'll edit this!

[PaulThePlug]

All of them...