09/08/2026
Happy 75th anniversary - Fender Precision Bass
I fell in love with the bass sound when I first watched the movie “The Blues Brothers” featuring the venerable Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn on bass, in particlar his 1958 sunburst precision bass with the gold anodized pickguard.
His tone was rough yet full and blended seamlessly into the mix of the rhythm section of what essentially was Booker T. & the M.G.’s. Later I discovered he was part of the in house thythm secion of Stax Records and playing on many great tunes from Aretha Franklin to performing with Eric Clapton on the Live Aid concert on the 13th of July in 1985, which, by the way, has the best ending guitar solo of Layla ever recorded.
Getting hold of this magazine a few weeks ago reminded me of my old bass, a 1959 blonde precision, which has been sitting in its case for over a year now due to circumstances. It thought it was a good opportunity to take it out for a mini photo shoot along with the magazine in question and play it for a while before putting it back to rest.
Introduced in October 1951 by Leo Fender, the Fender Precision Bass was the world’s first commercially successful electric bass guitar. It freed bassists from the bulky upright acoustic bass, adding frets for precise intonation and plugging into an amplifier for modern stage volume.
My 1950 is a model produced after the 1957 Redesign - Strat Styling: The body edges were contoured for comfort, and the headstock shape was updated to match the Stratocaster. Split-Coil Pickup: The original single-coil was replaced with the iconic staggered split-coil humbucking pickup, eliminating hum and boosting low-end punch.
