Leo Fender - Evolution of the "Tele-bass"

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Fenders Early Bass Designs.

1951 -  Fender Precision Bass - Telecaster inspired design, slab construction. 20 fret, bolt on one piece maple neck and fret board with black fret markers. Single layer white or black plastic "tele-bass" pick guard. old school split coil pickup 1 volume 1 tone knob. The "skunk" stripe, was a piece of dark wood (usually walnut or rosewood) fitted into the back of the neck where they routed out for the truss rod assembly. They eventually stopped doing this when they started using a 2 piece necks, but they brought it back for the
 vintage look of the reissue models.

1953 -  Fender Precision Bass - First upgrade was made in 1953 when the Pbass got contoured edges                           making it more comfortable to hold and play.








1957 -  Fender Precision Bass - Rethought and reinvigorated the Pbass was redesigned to look more like the stratocaster guitar. New pickguards made of a single layer of gold anodized aluminum were added. and a new staggered single coil pickup design connected in a "humbucking" fashion.

1959 -  Fender Precision Bass - Unhappy with the look of the "worn out" maple fret boards and necks Leo Fender decided to start using rosewood for fret boards. Pearloid fret markers replaced the black dot fret markers, and the new Pbass also featured a new tortoiseshell pickguard.







1960 - Fender Jazz Bass - Leo Fender's second Bass design, like the Pbass was modeled after the Stratocaster, the Jazz Bass was modeled after the Fender Jazz Master electric guitar with its asymmetrical contoured body shape. When first introduced the Jazz Bass was marketed as the Deluxe Model compared to the Pbass. The neck being narrower and more rounded than that of the Pbass Leo Fender figured it would appeal more so to Jazz musicians. It has two single coil pickups, this gave the bass brighter treble and mid range sound to compete with Rickenbacker basses. The original Jazz Bass had two stacked knob pots with volume and tone control for each pickup, and came with options of White, Black, or Tortoiseshell 3-ply plastic pickguard.






1961 - Fender Jazz Bass - For it's first upgrade in '61 the Jazz Bass gets three control knobs: two controlling the volume of each pickup and one the overall tone. Leaving the original Stacked knob pots highly valued.

1962 - Fender Jazz Bass - "Spring Felt Mutes", which were present on basses from 1960 until 1962 when they got replaced by New foam mutes which were glued beneath the bridge cover in 1963.

1965 - Fender Jazz Bass - Since the introduction of the Jazz Bass no real major changes have been made to Fender's bass guitars, until Leo Fender sold his company to CBS in 1965.


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