The Fender Precision Bass (often shortened to "P-Bass") is a model of electric bass guitar manufactured by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. In its standard, post-1957 configuration, the Precision Bass is a solid body, four-stringed instrument usually equipped with a single split-coil humbucking pickup and a one-piece, 20-fret maple neck with rosewood or maple fingerboard. Its prototype, designed by Leo Fender in 1950, was brought to market in 1951. It was the first electric bass guitar to earn widespread attention and use, remaining among the best-selling and most-imitated electric bass guitars with considerable effect on the sound of popular music. Background The double bass is among the largest and most physically cumbersome instruments which are regularly still transported by the player themselves on their own. It is also hard to hear in large bands or those that use amplified instruments, and it requires specialized skills to play that are distinct from those required to play the guitar. The Precision Bass was designed to overcome these drawbacks. In particular, the name "Precision" came from the use of frets to play in tune more easily than on the fretless fingerboard of the double bass. As the electric bass guitar provides different tonal qualities than the double bass, players and bandleaders naturally needed some time to incorporate the new instrument into their musical visions. Subsequently, the more solid, harder-edged sound with more sustain of the electric bass guitar became increasingly dominant and an important factor in the transformation of the beat and rhythm of pop music from jump blues and swing to rhythm and blues, rock music, soul and funk. Upright bassists initially looked at the new instrument with similar contempt as guitar players did with its solid-body sibling, the Telecaster. It was vibraphonist/drummer Lionel Hampton's band that was among the first to incorporate the new instrument. Also, Elvis Presley's bass-player Bill Black, was beginning to use a Precision Bass during the filming of Jailhouse Rock. It was reputed that Black became so frustrated over his initial inability to get used to playing it, he angrily threw it on the floor. Fender also delivered an early Precision to Los Angeles session bassist and arranger Shifty Henry. Monk Montgomery became the second jazz player to popularize what would be widely referred to as the "Fender Bass" at the time: first playing with Lionel Hampton, and then with his brother, guitarist Wes Montgomery. By 1954 Henry