Good Design: Fender Precision Bass Guitar
Figure 1: 2021 Fender Precision Bass. (Image, [1])
The Fender Precision bass (P-Bass) was designed in 1950 and first sold in 1951. 70 years later the Fender P-Bass still tops the 2021 best selling bass lists. In preparation for this article, I searched “best selling bass guitars in 2021” and reviewed all the lists on the first page of the Google search. The Fender P-Bass was on every top 10 list, and rated number 1 five times. Perhaps what’s most impressive is that the P-Bass has not conceptually changed since the 1957 version when the iconic split-coil humbucking pick-up was introduced (shown below).
Figure 2: Split-coil humbucking pick-up. The two pick-up spatially separated and reverse wound reduced buzz. (Image [2])
What makes the P-Bass a Good Design?
Like most good designs, the Fender P-Bass solved two significant problems facing early 20th century bass players; the large instrument size and low volume of the ubiquitous double basses of the era (6 ft stand up bass). As bands became bigger and/or louder, the acoustic stand up bass became less and less heard. This became an obvious problem with the introduction of the amplified electric guitar by Les Paul in 1941. Also, as bands began to tour, the stand up bass became the largest piece of equipment to transport. The P-Bass solved both of these problems and single handedly displaced double basses. This produced a permanent change for bands of all types starting in the 1950’s.
Leo Fender: The P-Bass inventor
The P-Bass was designed by Clarence Leo Fender in 1950, and patented in 1953 [3].
To set the stage for the P-Bass design, and to better understand how Leo Fender positioned himself to create this timeless instrument, a little history is in order:
In 1938, at age 29, Leo Fender started a radio repair business, where he specialized in building and repairing PA systems [4]. His radio business influenced his eventual design of the P-Bass in three critical ways:
The radio repair business gave Leo Fender practical and contemporary expertise in audio amplification. It specifically caused him to develop expertise in reducing amplifier feedback and buzz.
It connected Leo Fender to a significant network of musicians concerned with vocal and instrument amplification.
It gave Leo Fender a front row seat to contemporary amplification of musical instruments, thus giving him an opportunity to understand market trends, challenges, and consumer pain points.
By the early 1940’s Leo Fender had put his experience to work by designing and patenting an amplified lap steel guitar with his own pick-up design. By the mid 1940’s the Fender Electric Instrument company was formed to manufacture and sell the lap steel guitar, which it sold in a kit with a Fender amplifier [5] (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: 2021 Fender Precision Bass. (Image, [1])
After 10 years in the radio business, and with the design and patent experience of the lap steel guitar, Leo Fender designed his first solidbody electric guitar in 1948 [6] -- the Fender Esquire (Figure 4). The Fender Electric Instrument company began mass producing the Esquire in March 1950 -- the same year the Fender P-Bass was designed.
Figure 4: Fender Esquire, Leo Fender’s first solidbody electric guitar (1948 prototype, replica) [6].
Three Important P-Bass Innovations
While there were multiple innovations behind the success of the P-Bass, three innovations highlight how Leo Fender approached it’s product development. They are:
The P-Bass scale length. “One of the most important features of the Precision Bass was its scale length, which Leo Fender, after careful consideration and lengthy experimentation, set at 34” [7]. This was small, and playable, unlike anything else in its time (smallest basses were 48”, and stand up basses were 72” scale length). This is just one example of how novel the P-Bass was.
The P-Bass fretted fingerboard. The bass was named the Precision Bass because the fretted fingerboard allowed bassists to precisely play each note, which requires significantly less skill than playing fretless double basses. Although it was the first commercially successful bass with frets, it was not the first amplified bass to exist -- that distinction goes to Paul Tutmarc’s Audiovox Model 736 Bass Fiddle, which was designed in 1935 or 1936 [8]. “Though Tutmarc would revise the instrument and Audiovox would produce its model 736 Electric Bass Fiddle and 936 Amplifier, neither would sell very well. It seemed an instance of an invention arriving ahead of demand, and the saga of how Tutmarc made several pioneering contributions to electric-guitar design was destined to remain obscure to the extent that, in the wake of Leo Fender’s Precision Bass being released in November of ’51, the very existence of a previous electric fretted bass (played horizontally) was effectively forgotten – except within the Tutmarc family” [9]. Fender was aware of and inspired by existing technology, which he used in appropriate ways at the appropriate time.
The P-Bass influencers. “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” [7]. This was undoubtedly facilitated by the network of musicians and producers Leo Fender became acquainted with through his radio repair business.
Closing
It is difficult for me to imagine specific product models from any industry that top the sales charts for 70 years. The Volkswagen Beetle, the Rubik’s Cube, the Lego Brick, the BIC ballpoint pen; very few products have had such success, but the Fender Precision Bass is one of them.
”If Clarence Leo Fender were to be remembered for nothing else, surely it would be the Precision—an instrument — indeed 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” [7].
References
[1] Fender.com, Precision Bass Guitars, 2021. https://www.fender.com/en-US/electric-basses/precision-bass/, Accessed 29 Oct 2021.
[2] Fender, Owner’s Manual, Fender Bass Guitars, 2013. https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Original/10001/OM_leg_bass_2013_Fender_Bass_Guitars_Owners_Manual_English.pdf, Accessed 29 Oct 2021.
[3] C. L. Fender, “Guitar”, US Patent Number 169,062 (des), 1953. https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/e8/b8/bb/bd95f882e464b0/USD169062.pdf, Accessed 29 Oct 2021.
[4] Leo Fender, Wikipedia, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Fender, Accessed 29 Oct 2021.
[5] L. Henzig, “A History of the Electric Guitar 1927 - 1957 Illustrated with the Henzig Guitar Collection,” 2017. http://www.tuneyoursound.com/sites/default/files/exhibition_cactus_a_history_of_the_electric_guitar.compressed.pdf, Accessed 29 Oct 2021.
[6] Fender Esquire, Wikipedia, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Esquire, Accessed 29 Oct 2021.
[7] J. Owens, “Legendary Lows: The Precision Bass Story,” https://www.fender.com/articles/gear/legendary-lows-the-precision-bass-story, Accessed 29 Oct 2021.
[8] D. R. White, “Paul Tutmarc & The Mystery of Who Invented The Electric Guitar,” Jive Time Records, 2018. https://jivetimerecords.com/northwest/paula-tutmarc/, Accessed 29 Oct 2021.
[9] P. Blecha, “The Audiovox 736 Electric Bass and 936 Amp”, Vintage Guitar Magazine, February 2017. https://www.vintageguitar.com/31613/the-audiovox-736-electric-bass-and-936-amp/, Accessed 29 Oct 2021.
