Fender Vintera III Late '60s Precision Bass 3-Tone Sunburst

A faithful late '60s Precision Bass - substantial "C" neck, lollipop tuners, and the foundational split-coil voice that anchored a decade of records.

By the late '60s, the Precision Bass had already done the work of inventing the modern electric bass. Leo Fender introduced the split-coil P in 1957 and a decade later it had become the default - the bass you heard on country sessions in Nashville, soul records out of Memphis and Muscle Shoals, rock and roll on both sides of the Atlantic. Donald "Duck" Dunn was anchoring the Stax rhythm section with one. McCartney was tracking Sgt. Pepper's and Abbey Road on his. The late '60s Precision wasn't trying to be anything other than itself, and that's exactly why it ended up on so many records that mattered.

Fender's Vintera III Late '60s Precision Bass is a faithful read on that instrument. Alder body, maple neck with the late '60s "C" carve, rosewood fingerboard with a 7.25" radius, vintage-tall frets, and the lollipop tuners that defined the era. The neck has the substantial, rounded feel of a late-'60s P - there's something to grab onto, and once you've spent a few minutes with it you understand why so many players never moved on to anything else. The split-coil pickup is where this bass earns its keep. It's the sound that defined what an electric bass is supposed to sound like - punchy, woody, full in the low end without getting muddy, articulate enough to cut through a mix without ever sounding thin. Pick or fingers, flatwounds or rounds, the P responds the way you ask it to and gets out of the way of the song. The vintage 4-saddle bridge holds intonation, the lollipop tuners stay where you put them, and the whole thing plays like a Fender should.

If you've been chasing that late '60s P-Bass voice - the foundational sound that just about every bass player eventually wants in their hands - this is the most direct route Fender currently offers.