Fender '51 P-Bass Reissue

Features? Are you kidding?

OK, it has a nice two-piece swamp ash body in two-tone sunburst finish. The neck and board are maple with a vintage aged finish. It has a 34 inch scale with 20 frets. Electronics include volume and tone pots, with a single coil Precision pup. The bridge is rudimentary, and is a string through design. Tuners are vintage reverse-gear Klusons.

There's not a lot going on here, but what's here is nice.

This sounds nothing like a split-coil P-bass, and there's nothing wrong with that. It has a bright, aggressive tone that sounds almost like a Ric bridge pup soloed. You can change the tone by changing your right hand technique or rolling off some treble with the tone pot, but there isn't a huge amount of variety here.

I play classic and roots rock, so this bass is tailor made for the style I play. I'm running it through a Traynor YBA 200 tube head and Avatar 2x10 and 1x15 Neo cabs, and it sounds just fine.

The fit and finish on this bass are incredible. Fender Japan really has their act together in the QA/QC department. The tech at the shop I ordered it from pulled the neck for a truss rod adjustment, and he was dumbfounded at the the neck pocket fit. It's like Tupperware.

The finish on the body and neck is first-rate. All hardware is mounted snugly, with no rattles or loose bits.

Well, the basic design has survived since 1951, so I think that's a testament to the durability of a fundamentally sound design. It's built like a tank, so I have no doubt it will hold up just fine.

I replaced the stock strap buttons with Schaller strap locks, as I do will all my basses.

The bass is solid enough to gig on its own, but I always bring a back-up bass.

I haven't had any issues yet, so no worries.

Kudos to Tigard Music in Tigard, OR and Russ their tech. They ordered the bass for me (two-tone sunburst is an uncommon finish---most are butterscotch)and Russ did a great set-up job.

I've been playing since 1977. The '51 P is sharing the stable with a '90s Gibson T-bird, '62 Jazz reissue, '79 Franken-P/J, an MIJ acoustic/electric fretless Precision, an Epiphone Jack Casady, and a '74 Ric 4001.

The '51 P is basic in the extreme. I didn't expect a lot of features, but I did get a well-made bass that sounds pretty damn good. I've been wanting an old-school P-bass since I started playing, but vintage prices kept one out of my reach. I've been looking at the reissue for a long time. I should have gotten this bass years ago.

I love the tone and the vintage vibe this thing puts out. There's nothing to dislike about it.

90's--Japan. Two Tone burst finish. Simple and thats all you need.

The best sounding bass Ive played. Midrangy PU with tons of bass to spare as well. Huge flat wounds help to the boomy tone ala upright bass.

One of the nicest finishes Ive ever seen. Japan made models RULE.

The best.

Never needed it

The best bass for the money. Used MIJapan models rock for this and many other Fender guitars as well.

Made in Japan, just tone and volume knobs, 2-saddle bridge, butterscotch with a black pickguard, maple neck. Vintage everything, plus a trussrod. The original precision design, with what is now the Tele headstock (but was originally the headstock for a p bass). Came with gigbag. Features are exactly what you would expect for a 51 reissue. One single coil pickup.

There are certaint things I really love about this bass, and a couple things I don't enjoy all that much, probably due to the fact that I am not a bass player by training, but a guitarist who bought a bass for recording purposes and for fun in general. As such, I am running it through a SWR workingman's 12. For a single coil bass, there is surprisingly little hum. The original pickup is wound around the outer pole pieces, which means that the poles below the A and D strings are not making as much contact with the wound. I realize this makes it no longer a reissue of a vintage bass, but I made two rather common modifications to this bass: I replaced the pickup with a Seymour Duncan SCPB-3 (aka Quarter Pound), and I replaced the bridge with a Leo Quan Badass III, which drastically increased the sustain. The sound did not change to an ultra modern tone or anything, but it definitely sounds deeper, fuller, and more evenly distributed across the strings. I also put flatwounds on it, and now I love how it sounds.
One problem, however, which is not necessarily the basses fault, is that it has extremely small frets, probably vintage correct. This increases probability of buzzing, and makes it so I have to press down much harder than on other basses to get a clear note, even after a professional set up and truss rod adjustment. Having said that, it is not such a problem to prohibit me from enjoying playing it or enjoying its quality tone.

Previous to my modifications I would give it a 7, and after, a 9.

I bought it used, so I didn't get to experience the factory settings. However, I am going to take this opportunity (since it is the "finish" are for commentary) to note that the finish is much, much deeper and beautiful than it appears in pictures. The butterscotch is pretty yellow, but the woodgrain is visible from underneath, giving it a depth that really grew on me. If I had to buy this bass again, I might get the sunburst instead of the butterscotch, and then put a black pickguard on it. The neck comes with a vintage tint, which makes the maple truly beautiful.

So far so good. I have not played it live, as I am using it for recording and just general jamming, but like most p-basses, it is extremely solidly built. Also, it has the reverse tuners - which is a vintage correct feature - and it stays in tune very well, reliably.

Like I said, I am a guitarist who purchased this bass for recording and jamming. It suits these needs perfectly, providing clean tonal variety. The perks: it is a vintage reissue. The drawbacks: it is a vintage reissue. But, in my case I made a couple modifications, and I have exactly the bass I want, aside from slightly too small of frets.

made in Japan
I replaced the pickup with a Duncan 1/4 pounder (the original pickup did't have a very even output); replaced jack and socket with an "electrosocket" and switchcraft jack. sunburst finish is great;
nice piece of ash for the body; narrow frets; medium weight; this model is not true to a '51, but has features that sorta combine 51, 54, and even the early telecaster bass-they should probably just call it an early 50's model bass

pickup is way too spikey. not sure if they were trying to recreate the 50's pickup that had those characteristics, or if it's just crappy. in my experience, all of the Japanese basses (jazz, p-bass, etc.) that don't use aftermarket or american pickups, have crappy pickups. the basses themselves are fantastic, but I've always wound up replacing the pickups.
I play 60's psychedelic rock, and this fits perfectly in a kenny rogers/1st edition kinda way.
not much variety in the sounds it can make, but it's an articulate, yet warm tone with a hint of leather and woodland moss, with light amber aftertaste.

flawlessly constructed and finished; set up was perfect.

built like a tank; would work well as a defensive weapon, or baseball bat too.

I've been playing since the late 70's;
i own all kinds of stuff;
I'd buy another if lost;
i wish it had a reissue leather gig bag and also came with an early 50's bassman 15" amp at no extra charge.

Japanese made bass from 1990-1991, according to Fender's website. 20 tiny, vintage frets, maple neck, black dots, plugged truss rod hole on the bass' Telecaster-like headstock. One string tree, and tuners that go in reverse. The nut was replaced. One volume knob, one tone knob, and one single coil pickup nearer to the neck. Slab, flat two-tone sunburst body with a white pick guard (whose screws are spread out rather far). The bridge has two barrel-saddles with no grooves for the strings. Two strings on each saddle; adjusting the intonation affects both strings, and adjusting action is little more than changing the height of each side of the saddle. This thing weighs about 12 lbs on my bathroom scale.

As far as features go, this thing is dire. Features aren't what this bass is about though; in 1951, this was the first and only electric bass available. Our bass playing forefathers finally had an alternative to running around with a 6 and a half foot tall, bulky, difficult to play, and nearly silent upright acoustic. They now had a heavy, rather noisy, impossible to intonate electic bass with high action. Oh, and back then, this bass DIDN'T HAVE A TRUSS ROD. They would sit at the back, out of the view of anybody, quietly playing their new bass. Maybe, just maybe, someone in the audience will hear them play their root-5 basslines.

I play this bass proudly, paying homage to those trailblazers. Here we are in our advanced age of active electronics and solid state modelling amplifiers, forgetting our past. Sure, this bass might seem a little lacking in this day and age (I mean it doesn't even have body contours, for God's sake!), but that's why I love it so much; it's true to it's original spec (but with a truss rod this time), looks incredibly retro, and is just plain cool. Your nice hand-made boutique bass with 21 strings, 85 frets and a 6 band EQ with 4 cutaways might make you stand out a little, but playing a vintage number like this is what really gets you not only noticed, but respected.

Long story short; the features are dire, but the aura surrounding this bass is just incredible.

When I got this bass, I thought the pickup was going to be all bass, no treble, like the neck humbucker of a Gibson EB-0/1/2/3. I thought I was going to load it with flatwounds, crank down the tone, and just shake the walls with the muddiest and dubbiest bass tone known to man.

The bass came armed with nickel roundwounds, and I started playing it. As I played more and more, I realized how wrong my premonitions of this bass were. The tone of this bass is very bright, very clear, and very round. You get your hum of a single coil pickup, but the clarity of this bass blew me away. It also delivered a great passive low-end, with it's own cute happy version of the famous P-Bass bark. Some reviews stated that they've changed the pickups to a Seymour Duncan Antiquity (or even a Basslines! Talk about defeating the purpose!), but I couldn't imagine doing that. Sure, the A and D pole pieces are raised, making those strings wolfier than the other two, but that's what compression is for.

Harmonics rang out clear and true, even clearer than the split P-bass pickup (I find that humbuckers in general, especially at the neck, tend to dull out harmonics rather severely). The harmonics were almost comperable to the bridge pup of a J-bass! Well, one thing to note is that the harmonic on the 4th fret (or 9th fret, or 16th, they're all the same harmonic) is almost completely dead. All the other harmonics ring out clear and true (even stubborn ones like the 6th fret), but not that one! I find it amazing that the pickup was positioned and balanced just so that that harmonic got cancelled out.

When the day was done, instead of stringing it with flatwounds, I put on some Rotosound stainless steels. This bass is clear and deep, and I am as taken with the sound of the bass just like I'm taken with it's looks.

I bought this used. The nut had been replaced. The action required some lowering (which was difficult since one of the saddle's screws was stuck for a while), but keep in mind this isn't a slapper's or a shredder's bass. There were some knicks here and there, but this bass is 16 or 17 years old, so I can't blame it. I actually thought it was new with some nicks put on it via delivery. The bass was fitted with the buttons of Straplocks (luckily all my other basses are too, so I just use one of the straps with locks on them like normal). The bass' body is 2 piece ash, and it's two tone sunburst and white pick guard looks a million times better than the butterscotch finish nonsense. I love the neck; it has a 1.625" width at the nut (as opposed to a Jazz Bass' 1.5"), which I find strange, because '57 and '58 P-Basses have an even thicker 1.75" nut width. This nut width is as big as I'll go for on a 4 string. I love maple necks on bass and I love this bass' smooth thick shiny finish on the neck.

Oh come on... a P-bass? This thing weighs 12 pounds. The structural integrity of this bass is about as high as it gets. You don't get much tougher than this. However, the frets are vintage style, which means they are smaller and shorter. This also means that the frets will wear out quicker (and the strings might even dig into the fretboard a bit), but you're not going to ever wear out frets during a gig.

Nope, I always work through my dealer.

I love this bass very much, it's a valued part of my collection. I have another Japanese Fender (in the form of a Fretless Jazz) and a new US Deluxe 5-String Jazz. I run them through a Fulltone Bass Drive, a Digitech Bass Chorus, and a Digitech DigiDelay. My amp is a Fender Bassman 250 210. If this bass were stolen, I'd be heartbroken. I could replace it, but it wouldn't be the same.

All the things I 'hate' about the bass are actually some of the things I love about it. It's vintage vibe and rock-n-roll lineage tells a story of days long past, and it's sweet sound says it'll play loud and clear into the future. A lot of companies try to doll up their reissues, making them better than they were originally, but all Fender added here was a truss rod. This is a very honest reissue of a bass that I'm proud to own. I doubt this bass will every be your main axe, but I guarantee it'll never collect dust under your bed.

'51 reissue P-bass made in Japan in '06. Gloss finish Butterscotch blond ash body w/maple neck/fingerboard, black dot fret markers, matt black pickguard. Two chromed knurled control knobs on chrome base plate. Plug socket on lower side. The body is a non-contoured slab-cut shape in what later became the Telecaster Bass in the late sixties. One single-coil pickup placed mid body. 4 string long scale (87cm nut to bridge length)w/20 frets. String-thru body over simple two pole bridge. Reverse tuners (like an upright bass) in chromed long-stemmed style. Headstock cut in Telly style. Purchase price included nice Fender 60th Anniversary gig bag. Basic features, and excellent in it's simplicity.

Plain and simple (as it is in every way) its sound is unmistakably "Fender bass". It's a no-frills bass guitar and that's it's strength. Variety can be achieved at the amp. It's distinctive in it's sound and that's why I purchased it. It's one of a few basses I own, each for it's particular and unique sound. For what it is, it sounds great!

Bought it new from a local music store, and the setup was good. (I assume a factory set-up) Action seems alittle high but very playable and most likely correct for this type of bass. It has only one pickup, and it seems fine adjustment-wize. No flaws whatsoever. The overall quality was spot-on. Again, for what it is, it is "fabulous".

Overall, I continue to rate this instrument for what it is; a simple well made 4 string bass guitar that has that solid Fender stamp in sound and vision. It's beefy and rugged and ready to go the distance. I can't imagine anything going wrong w/it as it's so basic and "rock" solid. It's all about playing it, not fussing over it.

As far as Fender goes, I just bought it, so no issues or problems. It comes with a Fender lifetime warentee and I assume they are going to back it up. The music store I bought it from did well by me. Just having it in stock to play saved me time and having to deal with the hassel of shipping/possible returning etc. The deluxe gig bag was a bonus(no additional cost) and the price was right. I will be a return customer. (Support your local music store!)

I've been a bassist nearly my whole life (I'm 53 and bought my 1st Woolworths purchase "Japanese" made bass when I was in grade school-1966?) The 51 reissue is also a Japanese-made bass. A huge improvement (since then) and a fine instrument! I have owned a '64 Gibson T-bird since '78, and have an '86 Philip Kubicki X-Factor and a custom (frankenstein) fretless. (Kubicki fretless neck/tuners on a custom Koa T-bird (style) body w/EMG active J-bass pickups)
There was nothing 'wanted' to further ask when I bought the '51 P-bass. I sat and tried a few other basses, had free reigh to do so, and was not 'hounded' to buy it. I don't like to think in terms of 'stolen or lost', but would get another one if I could. I have fallen in love with this instument because I always wanted to own a Fender, as I love that Fender sound/tone. I love the way it looks and feels and sounds. If you are a cyclist, it's like a classic fixed-gear (single speed) bike. One gear, no brakes, pure bicycle. The '51 reissue Fender P-bass is all of that. Long live Fender!

2004 or 2005 made in Japan.

Same featured as mentioned here and on the Fender website. The reverse turning tuners is a little bit of a headtrip when tuning, kinda cool.

A passive pickup with a minimal bridge (limited intonation) and tone controls... these may seem like sparse features, but they are great features when somebody is looking for vintage vibe.

Everyone always thinks that little single coil pickup is going to sound as thin as it looks... it is very deceiving!

The pickup has a big fat sound, with lots of thump and thud. It also has the ability to have a little more Treble, as well as a very welcoming midrange that sort of barks and growls.

Not sure really how much the Ash body or Maple fretboard (as opposed to Rosewood) affect the tone, but this bass sounds great. Can hum a little bit when played through a loud amp.

Perhaps since everyone is used to hearing split coil P-Basses, single coil Jazz Basses, and the rest of the classic pickups, the sound on this can be unique and surprising. It certainly stands out as different in it's overal tonal character.

As a guitar player, I have a nice little collection of guitars going on already. I've got MIM Fenders, Korean made Fenders, and Indonesian Squiers... right alongside the American made heavyweights (3 Gibsons, a Jackson, more Fenders, etc, etc).

The fit and finish of the bass is excellent. My first Japanese made Fender, and it is nearly as good as an American made one!

Action needed a little bit of tweaking, as the bass hung instore for sometime being abused and drooled on by Green Day fans.

To be expected, so it would be unfair to mark against her for action/setup.

Nice fat neck, nice solid Ash slab body. The old style lacquere on neck feels like it will protect well too.

Looks and feels solid enough to me to compete with my 10lbs CShop Les Paul :)

Have had many guitars from Fender, never once had to deal with customer service... to me that is a powerfull sign of good quality. As far as service compares to the quality, I have no idea.

Started on bass, went to guitar, and now am playing both for well over a decade by now. I own a ton of guitars and I have built 7 or 8 tube amps mostly based on vintage circuits.

I was deadset on a Classic 50's P-Bass, but walked out of the store with this bass instead after trying it out. I still want a 50s Classic, but they didn't have my color :)

The neck is not a clumsy "baseball bat" at all, but is comfortable. The slab body has no contours and this is often a complaint as some folks say the square edges get uncomfortable. This has not been my experience at all, but I do sag my straps real low, so this may be why.

Another common complaint is the lack of fine tuning in the intonation aspect. I play a lot of Telecasters with similar "barrel" bridge saddles. Wilkinson makes compensated saddles to relieve this problem, but again, it's not really a problem for me. Intonation matches up very well across the fretboard.

The pickup's A and D string magnets are slightly rised to make for better string balance as it follows the fret radius, but alot of folks say this makes for A and D strings that are unbalanced and louder than the E and G. I fixed this by simply adjusting the string saddles to comform more to the natural radius of both the fretboard and the pickups magnet poles.

I have an early 50s circuit Fender Twin head I built that is similar in some ways to some really old Fender Bassman circuits. I ran the bass into that and then through a Jensen P15N AlNiCo magnet 15" reissue speaker - the same type of speaker as found on another very early Bassman amp... not loud enough to do rock gigs with, but it nails vintage bass tone EASILY. In fact it nails any bass tone I could imagine as "rocking" without any effort... and I like ACDC and The Cult, so it's MUCH more usefull than just a vintage reissue "blues" or "country" throwback bass.

If it were stolen, I may or may not buy it again... it'd be a toss up between this bass and the Classic 50s P, but those are the only two basses I'd probably EVER buy anyways!

I'll rate it at 10...It doesn't really have loads of features but it does exactly what a vintage P-Bass should do. Reverse tuners, Single coil pu, P type volume and tone, vintage 2-saddle bridge assembly, excellent maple neck with thin vintage style frets and lovely butterscotch body which shows the ash grain through to great effect. Its made by Fender Japan who I've long considered to be top dog...often better than American made instruments.

Straight out of the box the sound is vintage P...and surprisingly powerful for a single coil pu. The tone controls do what they should and seem to be sturdy enough. The output accross the stings is a little uneven in output though I understand that the original 51 Fenders suffered from the same problem. I've solved this by exchanging the pu for a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder - a direct replacement which still captures the Fender sound but is a little fuller and definitely more even accross the strings.

I bought this second hand very recently. It was virtually un-used and was probably set up exactly as it was from new. It was set up very well indeed with no major issues. As well as replacing the pu I've also replaced the 2-saddle bridge assembly with a direct replacement BadassIII which allows for proper adjustment of action and intonation which isn't possible with the original configuration. Its a departure from the vintage concept but in my opinion its an essential modification. The bass is now a joy to play. I'm a pick player, I play traditional rock and pop styles..no slapping or whatever..and it sounds great through my Ashdown amplification.

Only the cheapest of Squier P-Basses are likely to give problems with reliability/durability. These vintage re-issues are built like a proverbial tank...possibly better than the originals from which they are copied. These are perfectly suitable for live work and would easily withstand plenty of it. Neck/trussrod adjustment may have to be done ocassionally as with most Fender basses - particularly if it is subjected to big temperature variations. Its a bit of a pain on these as you have to remove the neck in order to avoid damage...the same as on my 57 re-issues. I accept this as part of the deal. Some guys may want to have the bass professionally set up from new though I don't think its necessary with Japanese Fenders. The frets should last a long time and be trouble-free. Totally trust-worthy on a gig..no back-up required.

I doubt that I'll ever have to use Fender's customer support...I never have done in the past with my other basses. I'm not an expert but I know enough about basic setting up and maintenance to get by.

I've been playing bass for over 30 years, professional for a while, though these days a couple of gigs a month as a paid hobby plus home studio song-writing and recording. I own 2 other Precisions, both '57 re-issues made by Fender Japan along with a Mexican Jazz. This is a great addition to my setup, an instrument which I'll probably use quite a lot. I havn't owned it for long but I'd definitely replace it if it were lost/stolen. I think my modifications have improved it and I'd do the same to another if I bought one. The 51 Precision is not a bass to suit every player but its wonderful for all things rock n roll.

This is a new, 2006, Fender, made in Japan with the "butterscotch" finish. As others have noted, there ain't many features: one passive single-coil pickup, two knobs for volume and tone (treble roll-off), four strings. 34" scale, 20 frets, one-piece maple neck, slab body. Strings load through the back of the body. Everything else is on top, including a large black "amoeba" pickguard, which has squared-off edges, rather the bevels we have become accustomed to. What shape is it? Precision, of course, this is the great-grand-daddy P bass.

The neck finish is gloss transparent over maple on the front and back. The body is "butterscotch" which a friend called "banana." It's more attractive in person than in pictures: photos make it appear opaque, but it is transparent, and the ash body grain shows through. Several friends have complimented its looks. It is postwar industrial, not postmodern froufrou. Plain, well finished, made with the same kind of care that you would expect to go into a well-made wooden rowboat. Since I added the LaBella black strings (see below) it looks like it ought to be called the "Black and Decker Bass." Personally I think it's beautiful.

The bridge has two adjustable saddles, which means that at least two strings cannot be properly intonated. Metal hardware is all chrome plated. It came strung with Fender round-wound strings.

The tuners are modern remakes of the vintage Klusons, and the appearance (and the backwards action) have been duplicated, but they have a modern high-ratio mechanism. The tuners are attached like the original,with a noticeable bow in the plate because Leo hadn't figured out a way to get them to mount flush to the headstock (it took until 1964 to figure out that a relief could be cut into the headstock to allow this). The neck is chunky, with a 7-1/4" radius, very different from modern basses, which typically have 9-12" radius on the fingerboard. Large black dots on the fingerboard are at the III, V, VII, IX, XII, XV, XVII and XIX frets, with corresponding, smaller, dots, along the edge.

It's just like Leo made it, with the exceptions that Phillips head screws are used everywhere instead of slot heads (the originals used Phillips screws only for neck attachment), there is neither a pickup nor a bridge cover, and the tug bar was left off.

It came in a cardboard box. No documents, just an inspection checklist hanging from a tuner.

I guess I can't rate a bass this simple as a "10" so I'll give it a "9".

I play roots bass: no Jaco, no Billy, just fundamental play-on-the-beat style bass. We do a wide variety of material, drawing from CS&Y, Neil Young, C&W, along with show tunes. I use a MusicMan HD-130 head with a Hartke 410XL cab for rehearsal, and an Ampeg B100R for gigs. Retro, in other words.

I haven't encountered any noise so far, but I haven't been in a lot of environments with it yet.

The sound is the definitive P Bass sound: round, deep, warm, good articulation. Not much variety, unless you count "round, deep, with no treble" at one end of the spectrum and "round, deep, very little treble" at the other extreme. This is the sound we all grew up with, the aboriginal electric bass.

It was a bit clangy with the roundwounds, but I already had a set of LaBella Deep Talkin' Bass (corporations ought not try to sound so hip) nylon-tape wound strings, and insatalling them cured the problem. I don't expect this one to record as well as brighter basses, but live, it's no problem.

Do I like it? Well, there's only one way to get this vintage P sound, and that's with a vintage P bass: I wanted it, I bought it, and now I've got it. It's not my only bass, but it just might be the last one I'd give up.

The difference between this and other basses is that, there is no tweaking here: you plug it in and play it, and if you don't like the sound, you unplug it and go get another bass. The upside of that is the sound is gorgeous and rich.

Very nice fit and finish: I looked it over pretty closely (it came from Japan in a cardboard box, after all!) and found no flaws. As I mentioned above, it's postwar industrial, so it doesn't have the glassy finish other basses have.

Action was very nice, neck was properly adjusted, the pickup seemed to be in the right place, no complaints about that. The strings were detuned by a quarter tone or so, and in correcting that I noticed what another reviewer had said: the tuning keys are more than just stiff: I thought at first they were locked into place! Hopefully use will loosen them up. The intonation was very good, given the limitations of the primitive bridge.

Nothing loose, chipped, marked, or other than very nicely finished.

This is the original canoe paddle bass. It would take a pretty big hit to make a dent in it. A lot of the ol' originals are still out there, and, not counting the ones in glass cases, are still doing the job. If something happens and you need to work on them, they come apart like a Stromberg 97 carburetor.

I haven't had to adjust anything yet. I could gig with it without a backup, but there are several songs for which it doesn't have the appropriate sound, so I'll probably end up with two basses at the gig.

No experience

I've been playing guitar for 35 years, and bass for 25. The P is one of 6 basses I currently own, but with this and one other I'll be covered. Basses for sale! A quick list of the basses: Carvin LB20 with DiMarzio Model J pickups, Global mutt with Select Bass Humbucker pickups, Ibanez 5-string acoustic bass guitar, Squier II Precision with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound pickup and a Tribute by G&L L2000. The amps I listed above. I also own 9 other guitars from a couple of acoustics to a pedal steel, and operate a digital project studio.

The other keeper is the L2000, which might reasonably be called the grandson of ol' P, here, since it was the third style of bass that Leo Fender designed. (Short history lesson: Leo devised the Fender bass -- the P under discussion -- then went on to modify it into the Jazz Bass and a few other variations, all of which had passive electronics and solid bodies. After he sold Fender Musical Instruments, he developed the active MusicMan basses, and when he left there, he came up with the G&L line of active basses. So the Precision '51 Reissue represents the first of the line, and the G&L L2000, the final heir.)

Between the '51 P and the L2000, I can get every sound I want. The importance of the P is that it goes where the G&L can't, which is into 1951 territory.

All my other basses are less competent, don't sound quite as good, or don't feel as good as these two.

You can't buy love or happiness, but you can buy a great, warm bass sound, and it's pretty inexpensive, especially considering that the real vintage thing goes for 5-figure prices, and probably smells like stale tobacco smoke into the bargain.

There is no question that I'd buy another one. This is the one bass I can't live without.

I bought a '02 '51 P bass reissue brand new. It has an ash body which is heavy but too heavy to gig with. The one piece maple neck is really fast and has a great feel. If you ask me the single volume and the tone knob are all you need and the sinle coil pickup has such a versitle sound it can be used for any gender of music. The only thing I wish it came with is a hard case or any kind of case for that matter.

The sound if fantastic! I play classic rock and it can make so many different kinds of sounds for any type of style. If the tone knob is down than its a warm smooth sound like you might hear from a John Entwistle (The Who) type sound. If you turn the tone up its a real bright and poppy sound like you might hear from Geddy Lee (Rush). It great for live gigs or in the studio.

The action from the factory was ok but with the adjustable trus rod it was easily fixed and really not a big deal. The only compllaint I have as far as hardware goes is that about a year after I bought it the output jack started to get loose but all that it took to fix that was two pairs of needle nose pliers. Again no big deal.

The bass itself is a tank but all fenders are. I have had one major problem with this bass. I was playing a gig and playing some slap bass and as I was slapping and popping the pickup cover and all the coiling inside came off and the magnet poles stuck to the strings. I took the bass and the rest of the pickup to my local fender repair shop and had it fixed though there was a hitch in that to. I'll get to that later.

The fender support for me sucked! When the pickup broke on my bass and I went to the fender repair center (3rd Coast) and told them what happened. They said that they could get it fixed and luckily it was still under warrenty. (1 year) It took fender three months to get the pickup to third coast and another two weeks for them to install it. I was not happy when I got my bass back and I let them know it.

Even though I had the problem with the pickup I would still buy this bass again in a heartbeat even if I had to go through all the repair work again. The playability and sound totaly make up for the problem I had.