Music critic Leonard Feather wrote about this new development in Down Beat magazine, expressing surprise at hearing bass sounds from a guitar.

"[3] The original Precision Bass of 1951 shared several of its design features with the Telecaster electric guitar, the main difference being its double cutaway body.

The 1957 model had its headstock and pickguard redesigned to resemble the Stratocaster, and a rounder neck heel replacing the original square shape.

Its two coils are typically connected in a hum-cancelling mode, a feature that was not emphasized by Fender at the time, as Seth Lover's patent on the humbucker pickup had not yet expired.

Rosewood fingerboards were then made of a veneered, round-laminated piece of wood and pearloid dot markers replaced the "clay"-style inlays introduced in 1959.

Some Precision Basses made in the 1970s were also available with an unlined fretless rosewood, ebony or (usually) maple fingerboard, popularized by Sting and Tony Franklin.

In the mid-1990s Fender briefly offered a fretless Precision Bass as a part of the first generation of the "American Standard" line.

The later 1980s and 1990s saw the introduction of the Precision Plus and Deluxe Plus basses in 1989 and 1991, featuring Lace Sensor pickups, fine-tuner bridges, 22-fret necks and passive or active electronics on certain models.

The limited-edition Custom Shop 40th Anniversary model of 1991 was a luxurious version of the Precision Plus Deluxe bass with gold hardware, a quilted maple top with no pickguard, highly figured neck, 3 stacked knobs and an ebony fretboard with side dot position markers.

Some P-Basses with J-style bridge pickups used the Jazz Bass control layout—2 volumes and tone—and a side-mount jack socket.

Others had the front pickup volume control moved forward to leave room for a top-mounted jack socket.

Other variants include dual stacked control knobs similar to that of an early 1960s Jazz Bass or a 3-way pickup selector switch (as used on the Tony Franklin Signature and Plus Series P-Basses).

The "Precision Bass" wordmark was changed to a boldface font similar to the early 1960s model but remained to the right of the Fender logo.

It had a basswood body with figured maple top and cream binding, Precision and Single-coil Jazz pickup combination and matching finish headstock.

Other features included a high-mass vintage bridge, Hipshot lightweight staggered tuning machine and a return to the knurled chrome flat-top control knobs.

As of March 23, 2010, all American Deluxe Precision Basses came with an N3 stacked-coil Jazz Bass pickup in the bridge position, a 21-fret tinted maple neck with compound rosewood or maple fingerboard with white or black pearloid dot markers, an active/passive toggle switch, a high-mass vintage bridge, Hipshot lightweight vintage tuners, a stealth retainer bar for the A string and a bold CBS-era headstock decal.

As of March 23, 2012 the American Standard Precision Bass (except the 5-string version) came with a Custom Shop 60's P-Bass split-coil humbucking pickup.

As of April 19, 2012 the American Standard Precision Basses are loaded with the Custom Shop '60s Precision Bass split single-coil pick-ups, a 20-fret graphite-reinforced maple neck with compound rosewood or maple fingerboard with white or black pearloid dot markers and a high-mass vintage bridge.

The Road Worn Series 50s P-Bass (introduced in 2009) features a distressed alder body with nitrocellulose lacquer finish, a 1-ply gold anodized pickguard, a synthetic bone nut, American Vintage hardware, a split-coil humbucking pickup and a one-piece maple neck/fingerboard with 20 vintage frets.

The Player Precision Bass received new Alnico V pickups, modern C-shaped neck with a contemporary 9.5" fingerboard radius, synthetic bone nut, new Fender standard open-gear tuners and a choice of Pau Ferro or Maple fretboards.

[14] Fender updated the Elite Series on November 5, 2019, when it announced the arrival of the American Ultra Precision Bass.

[17] In July 2024, Fender released the Player II Precision Bass, adding a vintage-style tint to the neck and headstock, reintroduction of a Rosewood fingerboard option, rolled fingerboard edges and new vintage inspired colour options, Hialeah Yellow, Coral Red, Birch Green and Aquatone blue, added to the remaining 3 Tone Sunburst, Black and Arctic White from the former Player series.

In more recent years, the Affinity Precision Bass PJ (named for its Precision-Jazz pickup configuration) was added to the lineup.

Similar to the previously introduced Mini Strat, the body remains faithful to the shape and contours of its full-size counterpart but is scaled down to correctly match with the neck.