History

• Guitar luthier Leo Fender saw the need (and market) in 1951 for a guitar-shaped bass that could provide an alternative to an upright bass's cumbersome size.
  
  

Features

• Revolutionary for its time, the P bass featured a heavy slab wood body and hefty maple neck, with a single pickup in the center of its body. Later designs incorporated two pickups. Little has changed since.
  
  

Benefits

• Travel friendly and versatile, the P's sound is sought for its warm tonal quality as well as its low notes and ease of use.
  
  

Effects

• Although not well received by purists at its inception, the P bass is the most copied design in bass history, second only to the P bass's little sister, the Jazz. Older models are highly sought collector's items.
  
  

Significance

• The birth of the P bass gave way to other immortal designs from Leo Fender, such as the Music Man Stingray and the G&L brand of stringed instruments.