Righto....I've been around my local music shops (and cash converters etc) putting my greasy paws on a few instruments but I haven't managed to get my hands on a BBN4III yet (as recommended by geoffbyrne). There were a few Squier P bass Affinity's and I noticed the neck is quite slim (to me anyway...). The fender website specs for the Affinity and Vintage modified P basses listed the neck measurements as identical for these two basses, can anyone confirm if they are exactly the same? I noticed the Affinity seemed to have a questionable build quality, I could see that some of the screws weren't seated properly etc. I read a forum post where someone described the Affinity as a 'squier within a squier' and I could kind of see it. Unless of course this was just a poor example.
Next to the affinity was an Encore P bass (the headstock read 'Encore a john hornby sk ewes product). Now i know these are cheapos but to me it looked and felt solid, it had a much thicker neck and felt like a very sturdy piece of kit. The neck looked dead straight (to the naked eye) and it kind of just felt right. Of course you can see that the hardware/electronics aren't the best but I've seen some other threads of people using these as the start for a project bass, any views on that? The ticket price was £50, they go for less that on ebay but are these like other brands where the manufacturing gets moved around over the years and the quality varies? I wanted to start off again with something half decent but I really liked the feel of this thing....does anyone have the nut width and neck thickness for a BBN4III? I've spotted one of them also and am trying to decide whether to take a punt on the BBN4III and buy it sight unseen or go for the cheapie encore?