Breaking Down the American Original '50s Precision Bass

It’s certainly true that the innovative electric guitars introduced by Fender throughout the 1950s — the Telecaster (1951) and the Stratocaster (1954), plus the Jazzmaster (1958) and some student models — changed the way music was created and experienced. So too with the great Fender amps of the decade.

That’s why the Precision Bass, first produced in October 1951, is such a special instrument. Because if Clarence Leo Fender were to be remembered for nothing else, surely it would be the P Bass, a whole new kind of instrument that simply didn’t exist before he invented it, that would forever ensure his place in history. For while all the other great Fender products of the decade certainly affected music, the Precision Bass profoundly affected music.

The 1950s were some of the most critical years when establishing the nascent P Bass. Once the Precision was introduced, Fender’s sales arm wasted no time in getting the unusual new instrument into as many influential hands as possible. Fender promotional literature of the early 1950s also featured bassists John “Shifty” Henry (“Shifte Henri”) and Bob Manners of the then-popular Liberace TV show. One early champion was bandleader Lionel Hampton, who was featured in 1952 promotional materials for the instrument; both his bass players in the 1950s, William “Monk” Montgomery and Roy Johnson, used the instrument extensively. In Fender: The Sound Heard ’Round the World, author Richard Smith describes Down Beat magazine music critic Leonard Feather’s first initially puzzling encounter with the new instrument at a Hampton performance in New York in spring 1952:

"When the music started at this gig, something seemed amiss: Feather heard a bass but saw no bass player. Almost inaudible in a loud band, a bass player at least was easy to see," Feather wrote. “On second glance we noticed something even odder. There were two guitars — but we only heard one.

Smith further relates how Johnson, Hampton’s bassist at the time, told Feather, “It’s no trouble at all. I learned to play it right away. In fact, I used it on the job the same day I got it. Tunes the same as a regular bass.”

Thus began the Precision Bass’s steady ascent toward indispensability. Upright basses were still often seen in many groups by the middle of the 1950s, when rock ‘n’ roll was starting to make its first raucous waves, but it was also clear by then that Fender’s Precision Bass guitar was well on the way to supplanting it in the small, loud groups that seemed to be popping up everywhere by mid-decade.

The middle of the 1950s also illustrated an interesting facet of the Precision Bass’s existence in the decade of its introduction — it remained Fender’s only bass guitar for the duration. Whereas the company introduced several innovative electric guitars throughout the 1950s, Fender elected to stick solely with the Precision Bass — modified three times, albeit — rather than introduce an entirely new bass guitar model.

The first of these revisions appeared with the 1954/55 model year, in which the Precision borrowed body and forearm contours from the Stratocaster that made it much more comfortable to play. Also new were a smaller single-ply white pickguard, steel bridge saddles in place of pressed fiber saddles, serial numbers on the bridge instead of the neck plate, and a handsome two-color sunburst finish (like the Stratocaster).

The second and most substantial revision was implemented in 1957 and resulted in the Precision Bass design that endures today basically unchanged. That year, the instrument was given its now-familiar split-coil pickup, headstock shape based on the Stratocaster® guitar, and one-piece pickguard assembly to which the electronics were fixed (the pickguard itself was gold anodized aluminum with a cutout for the new pickup). This revision also featured bridge-mounted rather than through-body strings, individual threaded bridge saddles for better intonation and height adjustment, a two-screw plastic thumb rest replacing the single-screw wooden one, knurled metal knobs with flat rather than rounded tops, and redesigned pickup and bridge covers.

To this day, the Precision Bass continues to be the bass of choice for artists and casual players around the world. What was a radical idea almost seven decades ago has become an essential part of making music.

To celebrate the legacy of the Precision Bass, Fender created American Original '50s Precision Bass, which was designed to recreate the look and feel of instruments of that era.

As such, here is a list of the features you need to know on the American Original ‘50s Precision Bass:

Vintage Pickups

The American Original ‘50s Precision Bass boasts a Pure Vintage '58 split-coil P Bass pickup that is as period-correct as possible. The pickup is specifically voiced to reproduce authentic Fender sound.

Vintage-Style Hardware

From the bridge to the string tree and tuning machines, every piece of hardware is just like the original. The four-saddle bridge provides excellent string tension and control.

Vintage Neck

The thick "C"-shaped neck profile will fit comfortably in your hand and suits any playing style. The 9.5”-radius fingerboard is slightly flatter than a vintage-style 7.25” radius, providing a comfortable fret-hand feel. In addition, vintage-tall frets make it easier to add vibrato to your basslines

Vintage Look

The nitrocellulose lacquer finish not only lets the bass’ body breathe with its true tonal character, it also ages and wears in a distinctively personal way.

Shop the American Original Series here.