I’m a fender fan so I’m gonna say get yourself a nice US precision , and if you can, try before you buy they do vary, also if you buy wisely and change your mind you shouldn’t lose too much money 🙂
That’s really poor, imo, you shouldn’t be doing anything to a new 1k bass except maybe adjusting the saddle height or tweaking the truss rod to suit your playing preference
My Yamaha was perfectly playable mick, it’s just that I play with a really low action, and it just wouldn’t go quite low enough for me, if the neck is straight it might be okay