Beedster

Basswood strikes me as a pretty good choice for a bass?

The top string ran very close to the edge of the fingerboard on mine, and I understand on a few other 5-ers. I had to have a new nut cut to correct this, but it was still a problem. Not the best design, which I suspect is why you see so few of them. The TR-7 of basses

I’ve owned many very expensive basses and the two I’m left with cost me a total of around £800. Part of it is increasingly high levels of skintness, but also a recognition of what I need versus what I want. The latter tends to be where the expense creeps in

Given what you’ve said I’d go MIJ, price:quality ratio is generally good and made better still by the overall consistency of quality by comparison with MIA and MIM (although the latter are catching up by all accounts). The closest instruments to 60s Precisions I’ve played have been 80s/90s MIJ, often better instruments than US Custom Shop (probably some cognitive dissonance in the mix however)

Used to own this..... Fender 40th Anniversary Precision. Built like a tank, made my Wal feel flimsy. Without doubt the most rock solid bass I've ever played, beautifully engineered, the neck was extraordinary (there's nought better than an unmarked ebony neck after all). Seemed a nod to the future at the time, Fender don't seem to have got much further since.....?

And now you brought slap into it as well

Round Here - Counting Crows

So the O/P's question should be 'new, vintage or bitsa'

But yes, if you know what you want in a Precision, then a bitsa self-build is the way to go, and often cheaper than buying a whole bass. The below is my keeper instrument, OK I've come close to selling a couple of times due to COVID cash flow issues, but having survived it remains my go to bass. It's like a Fender Custom Shop Tony Franklin Relic, although slightly more resonant than was my original TF (courtesy largely of a VERY good Warmoth neck with perfect ebony board and shallow depth 44mm nut which has made every bass on which it has been installed resonate for longer), Lollar PJ set, Kiogon harness, vintage Gotoh lollipop tuners (the aesthetics of which for some reason I really like), all for around the cost of a used MIM Precision. As per some of the comments above, basses are a lottery, with bitsas you just keep playing the lottery, albeit with components as opposed to instruments, which is a lot cheaper. It's also far more diagnostic/scientific, because with each switch you're in effect conducting a controlled experiment along the lines "what difference does switching this for this actually make?'. You get there eventually, it's fun but you also, I believe, end up with a bass that you feel closer to as the result.

There'll be another along soon I'm sure folks

That would fail a primary school design project

How to get sued by three bass manufacturers?

Funny how we all go on about Mesa, Ampeg, and even Marshall, as well as so many others, yet WEM rarely get a mention on this forum, despite the tone being lovely and as you say Jack, their tube amps being rather good at being heard despite their conservative power ratings

Good shout mate