Beedster

Sorry, Ive looked at both and wouldn’t buy either for the reasons you suggest

Well you did ask what you should buy yourself? Had you just left baby news hanging out there, I would have said "Congrats on the new arrival, buy him a Precision Bass" BTW I don't like to see the words P-Bass (sublime) and Trump (ridiculous) in the same space

Congrats BTW

A Precision

Yes and yes. Like so many other things in life - social media, virtual reality, food flavourings - we're replacing the organic with the synthetic, and when we get the organic - real face to face contact, real skydiving/sex, real food - it just does something to our emotions that's a little more, well, emotional. Now, before all you Class-D'ers descend on me like a ton of whatever the hell it is they make Mesa Boogie transformers out of, what I mean by this isn't that tubes are somehow better in objective and technical terms that transistors etc, but that all too often we're sold the idea that whatever the non-tube technology is, it can do what tubes do. In sonic/waveform terms perhaps it can, but IME in emotional terms, it can't. There is something visceral about a bass played through a big tube amp; even my Mesa Boogie Titan V12, a great amp with shot loads of h**t, couldn't touch my SVT.

The comforting glow of power tubes. Our singer got a telling of a few years back for trying to take my Mesa 400+ out to the car park on a freezing night about 5 minutes after I'd turned it off. It would either have heated up the entire car park for all the punters, or cracked all the tubes, I wasn't going to risk the latter

In comparison with most rounds, I’d say yes, certainly in relation to low mids

SVT-II is the king of Ampeg tube amps. Simples. Hard to say why in technical terms, but in acoustic terms it's just that little bit more visceral (IMO of course)

Yep, likewise, if I could find an amp heavier, less convenient and more expensive that the SVT-II, I'd be all over it I rarely play venues that require the bass through PA, at least not the SVT played through my Barefaced Super Twin, which does tend to fill the room nicely

SVT-II here, use it for all practice, rehearsals and gigs, even small ones. Tone to die for, will never need a gym membership, and my amp will never be stolen at a gig. What more do you need

Ha ha, lucky escape. But seriously, they don't do lefties, did they miss that module at luthier school You need to start a Lefties Basses Matter movement)! Best way to do a custom build of a Fender spec bass (IMO of course) is via Warmoth, Allparts or similar. They do lefties, the quality is extremely high, and you can spec pretty much anything you could spec into a custom build. You will however have to put it all together, including the electrics, which I know for some is a challenge

Part of the problem with customs builds is the anticipation/reality gulf. We're anticipating something extraordinary, but it can only ever be a bass guitar, the rate limiter being that in most cases even the most expensive example is made of the same materials (wood and metal), of the same dimensions, and built to the same functional criteria as nearly all other bass guitars. So, whilst we're expecting something amazing (after all, we designed it to suit our personal needs and a craftsman hand built it over months, even years), we tend to get what is to all intents just another bass guitar, and we tend be disappointed, at least a little. It's the opposite reasons to why people say how amazing Squiers and Harley Bentons are, largely because they exceed our expectations.

eBay can be a funny old place at times

Might have just blocked you in error so I wouldn’t take it personally. Just looked at the listing and he had very good feedback and is, I think, a member here

One of the great new wave bands that most people haven’t heard of

Previous thread re Collins’ voice was the point of reference

That's about the truth of it