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”. It borrowed several features from the Telecaster, including its headstock shape, neck plate, truss rod nut, potentiometers, two domed chrome control knobs, output jack ferrule and strap buttons. It had a “slab” (non-contoured) ash body with two “horns” (as opposed to the Telecaster’s one this provided greater balance and was subsequently adapted for the Stratocaster), a one-piece 20-fret maple neck fixed to the body by four screws (despite use of the technically incorrect term “bolt-on”), a single pickup, black pickguard, Kluson tuners, treble-side thumb rest, a string-through-body bridge with a cover (with a mute), and two pressed fiber bridge saddles. The first commercial unit of the Precision Bass was produced in October 1951. For while all the other great Fender products of the decade certainly affected music, the Precision Bass profoundly affected music.

Because 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.

That’s why the Precision Bass, first produced in October 1951, is such a special instrument. So too with the great Fender amps of the decade. It’s certainly true that the innovative electric guitars introduced by Fender throughout the 1950s-the Telecaster (1951) and the Stratocaster (1954), plus the Jazzmaster (1958) and some student models-changed the way music was created and experienced.

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