The story P-Bass Single Pole
The P-'51 also called the Fender Telecaster Bass with it's lovely appearance, initially had a Stratocaster pickup on it.
This is not a historic statement, I was not there at the time, so the design for thei spickup version calls for a short story
I think.
A Stratocaster pickup shows up in my shop with the request to change it from 6 to 4 strings, quite exceptional!
It appeared to be a vintage P-'51 Bass pickup, that happened to have this pickup on it, so the owner told me.
Maybe someone down the line replaced it, but I would not be surprised if Leo Fender really did this just for a try out.
I've seen even more weird designs and functional solutions to doubt this story.
Changing a 6 string pickup into a 4 strings is impossible to do with any aesthetic responsibility and will
definitely destroy the vintage value of both, the pickup and the instrument.
So I suggested to build him a new P-'51 with a spacing that coin-sized the string spacing and advised him to save the original
one with the bass for resale and value purposes.
This was a musician "pure sang", he owned this beautiful P-'51 and wanted to play it, just what it was designed for.
He did not even think about putting it in a vault only for the money.
Of course I understand and appreciate the value of vintage instruments and the desire to preserve and collect them, but
making music, is quite a different thing.
Paul HendriX