10. What is a P-bass

I love to listen to music, although I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t like listening to some genre of it. For a while I wondered if I wanted to learn how to play an instrument myself. I thought about learning drum, but storing a giant kit at home or in an apartment would have been too much for me to handle. It wasn’t until about a year ago that I realized what instrument I actually really wanted to play- bass guitar.

I have listened to bands like Cake with wild bass solos and Franz Ferdinand with tight and heavy riffs. Even classic songs from the Beatles and Queen had fantastic bass parts that always seemed to catch my interest. I liked the idea of being the backbone of the classic rock band, or just playing and singing along to some of my favorite songs. So one year for Christmas, that was my present. I got a Squier bass and amp and started some lessons.

But after a year, I’m way behind where I thought I would be. Unfortunately I have found that schoolwork, my other hobbies, and my internet addiction have taken up too much of my time for practice. As I look my instrument over ruefully, I realize I don’t even know much about it. Not how it’s constructed, what the knobs on the front are for, or how to tune it without relying on a digital tuner. I squint at the wooden neck where the logo is and see a few other words there. I don’t even know what a P-bass is supposed to mean.

Well that’s a good a place to start understanding my guitar as any. A quick search and I found it stood for “precision bass” as opposed to a “Jazz bass”. The easiest way to tell them apart is a j-base has a skinnier neck than a p-bass. I don’t seem to be having much trouble making my fingers stretch on the neck, but I wish I would have known about that before I made my purchase. From a few videos I have watched, the p-base has a rounder, “phat” sound. The jazz has more precision for the mid to higher range. It has a “growl” when playing the lower notes and has less of a base sound. I’m trying to explain the sounds in terms I’m not really familiar with. But when I heard the two played back to back, I could definitely hear the lighter overall tone of the J-bass. I am intrigued now that I know about these two types of basses. Once I know what I’m doing, I’ll have to try a j-bass out.

While not explicitly looking for it, I did find something else I didn’t know about. I have an electric bass, so I thought I had to plug it into an amp for it to play properly. Apparently this is a “passive” bass. There are “active” basses that have an amp built into them. I’m glad I bought the passive bass myself. I have to store a big amp, but apparently the sound quality is better without the built in amplifier. But I digress, back to J and P.

Perhaps the thing I liked reading the most about my instrument was a forum on talkbass.com. A fellow noob was kind enough to pose the question that I was learning about today. The responses were pretty informative. A lot of people suggested getting a p-bass to start with because it can play a wide variety of music. They did warn however that guitar turnover is high, and that once you have a little experience and play around you’ll find the bass that feels and sounds right. They also helped to clarify how to describe some of the sounds I had heard of previously.

But the best thing about this conversation was that it was friendly and encouraging. There was a lot of welcoming the new player and responding courteously to each others posts, with corny puns thrown in for good measure. There was a sense of camaraderie coming off of this one thread was amazing! I love being in communities where people know how to treat each other right. I have the feeling that once I start playing I’ll make at least a handful of new friends, and I’m excited about that. I’ll have to stop making excuses and start playing again.