Fender P-Bass: Japan, US, CS or Limelight

[vincbt]

Right, I know there are several threads on the individual basses I’m looking at, but given the number of P-bass experts on this forum I wanted to get some views on a side by side comparison. I also know it's a very subjective choice but any advice is welcome.

 I am looking to get myself a vintage looking Fender P-bass. I already have a 2013 American standard in black / maple that gives me the P sound I need so I’m not in a rush and I’m really more doing this for the look / feel of a vintage instruments. The bass would probably replace a Road Worn Jazz bass that I’m not too convinced about. Some of the instruments I can only get online, so won’t have the chance to go to a shop and try them.

 The options I’m looking at are: 

• Fender Japan PB RI62 US in 3TS – I found a PB62-75 US from a seller in France but I could hold on for a PB62-95 or a PB62-115 even if they seem to be rare
• Limelight Precision Bass – read great things about Limelight here and elsewhere and this would allow me to get a relicing and refinishing you only get from vintage or CS instruments

 These two should set me back roughly the same amount of money I think. Alternatively I could step up a bit and probably sell my current P to finance something more expensive. In that case I would look at 

• Fender AVRI or Fender Original, similar concept to the Japanese one but American
• Fender CS, if something comes up at a decent price – there is one on sale here at the moment I believe

 My current thinking is that it’s not really worth paying twice as much money for a Fender CS given it wouldn’t be Custom from my perspective and I already have an American P, while the Japanese or the Limelight could be a good value for money to get the look I want and potentially a slightly different sound.

 Any advice from people who’ve played some / all of these?

 Thanks in advance!

[Steve Browning]

Fender Japan every time. Build quality is top notch. Personally I would change the pot etc for CTS and change the pickup but the instrument is a brilliant platform for such changes. Your cheapest option and the best value by far.

[peteb]

Personally, I would look at an American Standard Precision from 2011 to about 2015 (the ones with the CS pickups). 

They are really nice basses and you can pick them up quite reasonably secondhand. 

[Sibob]

Does it have to be Fender?

If so (which is fine of course), I'd go Japanese or Limelight.

Si

[Lozz196]

Looking for vintage looking & sounding, well I’d go for the Road Worn one that’s up for grabs on here. In terms of comfy vintage feel they’re great, the only comfier to play Precision I’ve played was a Custom Shop Pino Sig. 

[vincbt]

14 minutes ago, peteb said:

Personally, I would look at an American Standard Precision from 2011 to about 2015 (the ones with the CS pickups). 

They are really nice basses and you can pick them up quite reasonably secondhand. 

Thanks - I have one of these actually, American Standard from 2013, it's my go-to bass since I bought it. I was looking to add a second Precision, hence my idea of getting one that wouldn't require selling the one I have which sounds great

[vincbt]

13 minutes ago, Sibob said:

Does it have to be Fender?

If so (which is fine of course), I'd go Japanese or Limelight.

Si

Very valid question, I have thought about Lakland, G&L, Sandberg and a few others. I started out with Fender due to some sort of internal bias but I may end up taking a trip to the Gallery and trying all the Ps they have to get a better feel

[peteb]

16 minutes ago, vincbt said:

Thanks - I have one of these actually, American Standard from 2013, it's my go-to bass since I bought it. I was looking to add a second Precision, hence my idea of getting one that wouldn't require selling the one I have which sounds great

Yes, I sold an AVRI57 with the intention of looking for one of these until I got the opportunity to buy back my old 70s P bass! I don't think that you will get a better Fender P bass than the recent Am Stds unless you go vintage (and that is always hit & miss). 

10 minutes ago, vincbt said:

Very valid question, I have thought about Lakland, G&L, Sandberg and a few others. I started out with Fender due to some sort of internal bias but I may end up taking a trip to the Gallery and trying all the Ps they have to get a better feel

I wasn't bowled over by the only Limelight that I've evr played, but Lakland obviously make really good passive P & J basses (in fact one of the best jazz basses I've ever played was a US Lakland). 

[vincbt]

6 minutes ago, peteb said:

Yes, I sold an AVRI57 with the intention of looking for one of these until I got the opportunity to buy back my old 70s P bass! I don't think that you will get a better Fender P bass than the recent Am Stds unless you go vintage (and that is always hit & miss). 

Am Std from 2011 get a lot of credit, I went straight for one when I found it second hand. I wouldn't be against going vintage, but I'd have to do a lot more background work to make sure I can spot any issues and as you say, they're very hit & miss 

9 minutes ago, peteb said:

I wasn't bowled over by the only Limelight that I've evr played, but Lakland obviously make really good passive P & J basses (in fact one of the best jazz basses I've ever played was a US Lakland). 

and there is also a very interesting Mike Lull on sale here at the moment but it's literally a twin of mine in terms of looks

[4000]

A bit more money, but what about Bravewood? 
 

http://www.bravewoodguitars.co.uk/page4.html

[vincbt]

10 minutes ago, 4000 said:

A bit more money, but what about Bravewood? 
 

http://www.bravewoodguitars.co.uk/page4.html

It was on my list, but I think he doesn’t take order anymore unless I just couldn’t find the info

[Mrbigstuff]

If it was me, I’d get a limelight so I had the colour/ relicing to my taste and then swap  the pickups for some Lindy Fralin (I use these in my Fender P).

[MattM]

I’ve owned both a Limelight and a USA Standard P.   The Limelight feel (fingerboard rolling and relicing) were excellent, Mark winds his own pickups and uses CTS pots etc, and I found the sound had a much greater variation using the tone pot than the Fender did.  
 

With a Limelight you can also spec your own neck width, mine had a 40mm nut similar to the old B width 70s Fenders which was great for me.   The USA P did have a better ‘fundmental’ tone if you like, but with not as much variation possible as the Limelight.  The neck was also slightly wider and flatter on the USA P, I got used to it eventually, YMMV.   Finally, Limelight don’t tend to do sunbursts, which is my personal favourite beaten-up/reliced finish, this may or may not be a showstopper for you.

[vincbt]

44 minutes ago, MattM said:

I’ve owned both a Limelight and a USA Standard P.   The Limelight feel (fingerboard rolling and relicing) were excellent, Mark winds his own pickups and uses CTS pots etc, and I found the sound had a much greater variation using the tone pot than the Fender did.  
 

With a Limelight you can also spec your own neck width, mine had a 40mm nut similar to the old B width 70s Fenders which was great for me.   The USA P did have a better ‘fundmental’ tone if you like, but with not as much variation possible as the Limelight.  The neck was also slightly wider and flatter on the USA P, I got used to it eventually, YMMV.   Finally, Limelight don’t tend to do sunbursts, which is my personal favourite beaten-up/reliced finish, this may or may not be a showstopper for you.

I did wonder about the sunburst, but then if I were to go for a Limelight it would be my chance to get something like olympic white over sunburst or lake placid blue over candy apple red

[skej21]

If you want an alternative to the initial options off nitro/custom relicing spec like Limelight, but mixed with something familiar like Fender Japan quality, have a look here;

https://restauracja-gitar.pl/portfolio-posts/fender-precision-bass-mij-1962ri-20153550zl-922/

They do vintage-spec refinishing (and relicing) on Fender Japan instruments. I’ve played a few (and have owned countless Japanese Fenders, played hundreds of Fender CS models and own a Limelight) and can say the quality is right up there, like CS level quality at a third of the price! They do bursts and a few other things you can’t get with Limelight.

If I didn’t own the limelight before playing the few “Gitar” basses that I did, I wouldn’t have thought twice about specing a bass from Gitar Restauracja!

Edited July 19, 2021 by skej21

[peteb]

4 minutes ago, skej21 said:

If you want an alternative to the initial options off nitro/custom relicing spec like Limelight, but mixed with something familiar like Fender Japan quality, have a look here;

https://restauracja-gitar.pl/portfolio-posts/fender-precision-bass-mij-1962ri-20153550zl-922/

They do vintage-spec refinishing (and relicing) on Fender Japan instruments. I’ve played a few (and have owned countless Japanese Fenders, played hundreds of Fender CS models and own a Limelight) and can say the quality is right up there, like CS level quality at a third of the price! If I didn’t own the limelight before playing the few I did, I wouldn’t have thought twice about specing a bass from Gitar Restauracja!

Actually, that P bass you've linked to does look great and at about £670 or so (probably nearer to £850 by the time you go through the rigmarole you have to import from Europe these days), it still looks pretty reasonable! 

[Linus27]

Fender Japan everytime.

[vincbt]

6 minutes ago, peteb said:

Actually, that P bass you've linked to does look great and at about £670 or so (probably nearer to £850 by the time you go through the rigmarole you have to import from Europe these days), it still looks pretty reasonable! 

Interesting, I had never heard of it, I’ll take a look!

[skej21]

10 minutes ago, vincbt said:

Interesting, I had never heard of it, I’ll take a look!

Beware, the rabbit hole! 🤣 their social media pages (Facebook mainly) show off a huge range of what they’re capable of 👍

[Owen]

Pickup a Japanese P and get https://m.facebook.com/Retro169/ to refinish to reliced taste.

.

Edited July 19, 2021 by owen

[vincbt]

Thanks all for the advice! The Fender JV Squier series that just came up on here may be the answer I was looking for…

[Lozz196]

22 minutes ago, vincbt said:

Thanks all for the advice! The Fender JV Squier series that just came up on here may be the answer I was looking for…

Good choice 👍 

[such]

+1 for Restauracja Gitar. I will have my Buzz (their own brand) in a couple of weeks, and ordered confidently after playing a few of their instruments. They are becoming a bit of industry standard in Poland. I specified everything including upgraded/upcharged finish (Oly white with pearl mixed in), pickup (DiMarzio) and pickguard (Montreux celluloid) and still don't know what I'll pay for shipping, but even with it included, it will probably work out under a grand. If it has to be a Fender, they always have a selection of Japanese ones, some just cleaned, setup etc; some fully refinished, often in crazy colours - I remember a Paisley on a whole Bass, including headstock and back of the neck. He won't put a Fender logo on a guitar that wasn't a Fender before the refin. 

[vincbt]

4 minutes ago, such said:

+1 for Restauracja Gitar. I will have my Buzz (their own brand) in a couple of weeks, and ordered confidently after playing a few of their instruments. They are becoming a bit of industry standard in Poland. I specified everything including upgraded/upcharged finish (Oly white with pearl mixed in), pickup (DiMarzio) and pickguard (Montreux celluloid) and still don't know what I'll pay for shipping, but even with it included, it will probably work out under a grand. If it has to be a Fender, they always have a selection of Japanese ones, some just cleaned, setup etc; some fully refinished, often in crazy colours - I remember a Paisley on a whole Bass, including headstock and back of the neck. He won't put a Fender logo on a guitar that wasn't a Fender before the refin. 

Thanks! As it seems I missed out on the JV Precision, I'll look into this more closely. I really like the idea of working on a Fender Japan as platform and they do seem to have done great work

[Steve Browning]

Maybe one more thing. You are replacing a Jazz. Have a look at a Fender Japan PB75-US. They are the same build quality etc but have the B profile neck which is between a Jazz and a '62 Precision.