NBD - After all these years of never wanting one... I bought a bloody P BASS! and no not the £5000 one!

[Lw.]

Congratulations on the new bass! 

 

I did a similar thing a few years ago trying everything that was out there - you're right in that it's so hit & miss, the vintage stuff is even more random too! 

 

I ended up with one of those CS '57 P's with the chunky necks - you're right on the size, they really make you work for it! 

I have been eying up these Squiers as 2nd P to have rounds on, so good to hear they're nice things to play.

[Rikki_Sixx]

That is not a colour / material combination I would ever have thought to go for, but man that thing looks awesome! Glad you found one you like and got to try a bunch out!

 

More importantly, well done on getting the staff at a guitar shop to lay out all their wares before you like a mighty prince 😂 Too often staff in this big outfits just aren't interested so it's good to see them putting the work in!

[Lozz196]

Agree, it might be “only” a £400 sale but word of mouth/good recommendations can be worth a lot more to an outlet.

[merello]

On 04/10/2021 at 16:57, spacecowboy said:

So while I have a couple of days off work, I really wanted to take a couple of hours to scratch a P Bass itch I have, I don't know where it came from as I have NEVER liked the look or the thought of a P Bass, but I've been bitten recently and the itch is too much, so got to scratch it. 

 

I popped into Guitar Guitar in Newcastle and asked them to unfurl their in stock P Basses, line them up and let me try them all in a shootout fashion to see if any of them were a suitable ointment.

 

With that said I was presented with lots of basses highlighting Fenders highly confusing catalogue of models, with a £5000 50's custom shop propping one end and a Squier Classic Vibe at the other, sandwiched in the middle were American Pro's, Vintera's, and Players series'.

 

What a bloody hit and miss selection of basses they are, some were good, some were awful, combinations of good / bad strings, setups and neck feel, the £800 Vintera having a much better setup than the twice the price American Pro for instance... I can quickly talk about that £5k P bass here, and this is for people who have played it... that neck... WTF... it's a tree, U profile? sheesh!...

 

...So for an hour I went back and forward between 5 or 6 basses until I was playing just one and didn't want to put it down... that bass was... drum roll please... a...

 

Squier FSR (Factory / Fender Special Run?) Late 50's Custom Vibe P Bass (awful mouthful) in a two tone sunburst (never liked this colour) with a anodised gold (never ever would have wanted this) pickguard... so it's a P Bass in a colour combination that I would never have looked twice at, it's got a maple fingerboard which I have forever told myself I don't like, and it's a squier... so why did I buy it? well put simply it's one of the best basses I have ever played, ever, I couldn't put it down, I went back to it after playing US Pros and Mex Vinteras and Players Series' and for me it was just better, the neck was better, the frets were better, the feel was better, it was just better so I left with it and then played it for 2.5 hours straight when I got it home, it's tremendous. £400, was the American Pro 4 times the bass? not a bloody chance. 

 

As for P Basses I thought they could only produce a stuffy wooly thumpy jumper sound, but it knocks most basses out the park for bark and bite, volume up, tone down and it just nails everything I want to play. 

 

I'm converted! It's a wonderful instrument, and I'm definitely coming round to the two tone sunburst and gold pickguard, it's classy in a "late 50's" kind of way 🤔.

 

 

Genuinely thought they had etched an American Flag on the body....then I realised it was your blinds! Lovely bass!

[Bobo_08]

Lovely looking instrument, I love the anodised pickguard. 👌

[spacecowboy]

14 hours ago, Rikki_Sixx said:

That is not a colour / material combination I would ever have thought to go for, but man that thing looks awesome! Glad you found one you like and got to try a bunch out!

 

More importantly, well done on getting the staff at a guitar shop to lay out all their wares before you like a mighty prince 😂 Too often staff in this big outfits just aren't interested so it's good to see them putting the work in!

 

Well it was harder than it sounded , when he told me he had some in boxes in the store room that weren't opened or on display he took some persuading to get them out... huffing and puffing ensued but he did get them out for me, and I walked away with one of the "Store room" ones!

[Duarte]

Congratulations!

 

In the past month I've acquired 2 P basses, having never owned one before. It's true, they just work. Everything feels and sounds good on em! 

[ubit]

Budget guitars are so much better these days than they were 15 or 20 years ago. Some of the £100+ guitars are amazing. When I started and you paid £100 for  a guitar you got a plank!

 

Youtube has loads of reviews of budget guitars that are amazing to play and look at.

[jassbass]

No reviews of these on YouTube yet

Im dying to hear one 

[spacecowboy]

2 hours ago, jassbass said:

No reviews of these on YouTube yet

Im dying to hear one 

Anything in particular? I could put something together ☺️

[jassbass]

Hi anything, just general sound really, i know a pbass is a pbass lol but very interested in these,thanks

[spacecowboy]

Oh FFS really?... 

 

 

One with Flats... one with rounds... I'm hooked! 

[jd56hawk]

Last bass I bought, just four months ago, was a Squier CV Jazz bass...Crafted In China 2015.

$500!

Yes, more than a brand new one.

Sure, I could've bought an MIM for twice as much, the Vinteras aren't bad, but I wanted a great bass, not just a good one...and knowing what I know now, I would've gladly paid $600 for it!

Fantastic Jazz bass!

 

Other than that, I wasn't aware Squier was selling any factory-special-run basses.

It is new, right?

Edited January 14, 2022 by jd56hawk

[Guest]

It’s certainly good to know that you can see the light. I’ve probably had a go on over 100 precisions over the years, owned a few too, from 60s and 70s vintage models to Jap, Mexican, Chinese and US models. I’ve genuinely not liked any of them. Each one I’ve bought has lasted a month or two and then been shifted.

Strange as I do like the sound of a P bass on record, and from 10 feet away an old Fender looks great, but I just don’t get on with them. It doesn’t help that so many of them weren’t very good basses, acoustically or plugged in.

[BassAdder60]

This is interesting as I was at PMT Norwich before Christmas to try out a cab 

Their store stock of basses was woeful and they asked what I played to which I said Fender Player Series PBass. 
The nearest they had was a Squire PBass and it sounded horrible as if a blanket was over the speaker !

I thought it was the cab at first.

Told them and they gave me a Player Series Jazz to try and the clarity from the pickups was better like my own bass. 
Sadly I concluded I wouldn’t risk buying a squire if that’s how they can sound !! Sadly I didn’t take note of exact model so might of been an Affinity ? 

[Woodinblack]

5 minutes ago, BassAdder27 said:

Told them and they gave me a Player Series Jazz to try and the clarity from the pickups was better like my own bass. 

Sadly I concluded I wouldn’t risk buying a squire if that’s how they can sound !! Sadly I didn’t take note of exact model so might of been an Affinity ? 

 

Like all those things, you have to try them. I bought my Squier CV70 bass when I went into a (sadly since closed) localish store, and tried that, a MiM standard P and an American Standard. The Squier was clearly better than the MiM, and it sounded as nice as the american, although the neck on the american felt better (but no contest on the price). I came out with the CV and played it for a year in the current group, before realising that however I did it, I wasn't made for a P and it was too much of a pain being a 4 string!

 

However, I am aware that maybe other Mexican fenders could be better, and other squiers could be worse (I had a mexican geddy lee, that was a lot better than the shop MiM, and equal to the CV).

[BassAdder60]

I think also I get nervous buying ( online ) a bass circa £500 or less as I expect the quality to be iffy something you would notice if sat in a shop.

Many basses in the stores are marked or being hanging up for yonks and have dead strings.

When my new Player Series PBass arrived it appeared to be as new as you could hope for and it’s a lovely bass in every way. 
So far last year I had a Sterling Stingray bass new arrived with marked neck ( returned) and a  G & L Tribute L2000 with faulty preamp controls ( returned ) etc etc 

It saddens me new doesn’t arrive as new anymore and store stock is in many cases near to “ B” stock at best 

 

[shoulderpet]

On 04/10/2021 at 16:57, spacecowboy said:

So while I have a couple of days off work, I really wanted to take a couple of hours to scratch a P Bass itch I have, I don't know where it came from as I have NEVER liked the look or the thought of a P Bass, but I've been bitten recently and the itch is too much, so got to scratch it. 

 

I popped into Guitar Guitar in Newcastle and asked them to unfurl their in stock P Basses, line them up and let me try them all in a shootout fashion to see if any of them were a suitable ointment.

 

With that said I was presented with lots of basses highlighting Fenders highly confusing catalogue of models, with a £5000 50's custom shop propping one end and a Squier Classic Vibe at the other, sandwiched in the middle were American Pro's, Vintera's, and Players series'.

 

What a bloody hit and miss selection of basses they are, some were good, some were awful, combinations of good / bad strings, setups and neck feel, the £800 Vintera having a much better setup than the twice the price American Pro for instance... I can quickly talk about that £5k P bass here, and this is for people who have played it... that neck... WTF... it's a tree, U profile? sheesh!...

 

...So for an hour I went back and forward between 5 or 6 basses until I was playing just one and didn't want to put it down... that bass was... drum roll please... a...

 

Squier FSR (Factory / Fender Special Run?) Late 50's Custom Vibe P Bass (awful mouthful) in a two tone sunburst (never liked this colour) with a anodised gold (never ever would have wanted this) pickguard... so it's a P Bass in a colour combination that I would never have looked twice at, it's got a maple fingerboard which I have forever told myself I don't like, and it's a squier... so why did I buy it? well put simply it's one of the best basses I have ever played, ever, I couldn't put it down, I went back to it after playing US Pros and Mex Vinteras and Players Series' and for me it was just better, the neck was better, the frets were better, the feel was better, it was just better so I left with it and then played it for 2.5 hours straight when I got it home, it's tremendous. £400, was the American Pro 4 times the bass? not a bloody chance. 

 

As for P Basses I thought they could only produce a stuffy wooly thumpy jumper sound, but it knocks most basses out the park for bark and bite, volume up, tone down and it just nails everything I want to play. 

 

I'm converted! It's a wonderful instrument, and I'm definitely coming round to the two tone sunburst and gold pickguard, it's classy in a "late 50's" kind of way 🤔.

 

 

I recently tried a few of the MIM Player series P basses and a couple of the Player series Jazz basses, I love Fender basses but tbh I was shocked by the Player series, they all felt really cheap, cheap feeling necks, crappy tuners and most of them had action that was about 4mm high and tbh they didn't feel much different to basses costing a third of the price.

 

The more expensive MIM Fender basses seemed a LOT better, imo it's almost like the Player series is Fender in name only, I wouldn't be surprised if they were identical to the low end Squiers just with a Fender decal

[chris_b]

Good news.

 

Another one lured to the dark side.

[BassAdder60]

16 minutes ago, shoulderpet said:

I recently tried a few of the MIM Player series P basses and a couple of the Player series Jazz basses, I love Fender basses but tbh I was shocked by the Player series, they all felt really cheap, cheap feeling necks, crappy tuners and most of them had action that was about 4mm high and tbh they didn't feel much different to basses costing a third of the price.

 

The more expensive MIM Fender basses seemed a LOT better, imo it's almost like the Player series is Fender in name only, I wouldn't be surprised if they were identical to the low end Squiers just with a Fender decal

That’s not been my experience at all so I guess it’s pot luck if you get a good one or a duff one that shouldn’t of passed QA 

Tuners on mine (2021 model ) are superb and stable and the only upgrade I’ve made is adding a Fender HiMass Bridge 

Edited January 14, 2022 by BassAdder27

[shoulderpet]

2 hours ago, BassAdder27 said:

That’s not been my experience at all so I guess it’s pot luck if you get a good one or a duff one that shouldn’t of passed QA 

Tuners on mine (2021 model ) are superb and stable and the only upgrade I’ve made is adding a Fender HiMass Bridge 

I wouldn't normally be so quick to make a judgement but I tried 4 P's and 2 J's and they all seemed that way, there was 2 basses out of the lot that didn't have sky high action but even then the build quality, fit and finish etc on those was pretty much on par with my Ibanez mezzo that cost me £200, strangely when I owned a P/J Mustang which was price around the same as these the build quality, fit and finish etc was light years ahead of any of the Player basses I have tried. 

 

That being said the fact that you seem to have a decent one says to me that maybe there are a lot of "Monday morning specials" being cranked out and maybe you just have to do some hunting to find the good ones, also I am very fussy with new basses so I may expect more than most people.

 

 

Edited January 14, 2022 by shoulderpet

[BassAdder60]

I’ve even had high end Gibson and PRS guitars go back due to poor QC or knocked about in the store 

 

I half expect a bass to arrive damaged or marked or bad build quality, the price for mass production and lack of quality checks etc even at the shops as they don’t seem too concerned!

[shoulderpet]

58 minutes ago, BassAdder27 said:

I half expect a bass to arrive damaged or marked or bad build quality, the price for mass production and lack of quality checks etc even at the shops as they don’t seem too concerned!

I agree with this, I have brought a number of basses online and  returned more basses than I have kept, the funny thing is most of the ones I returned had quality control inspection tags saying they had passed QC so clearly the QC standards for a lot of companies are not particularly high 

[shoulderpet]

8 hours ago, spacecowboy said:

Oh FFS really?... 

 

 

One with Flats... one with rounds... I'm hooked! 

You need one more for Tapewounds

[Dazed]

And a fretless