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

[Chienmortbb]

On 19/07/2021 at 17:03, 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

Of course being a total PED, Fender Japan was a ghost company for a number of Japanese factories. So buying a Japanese Fender is not really buying a Fender. In my opinion you could do worse than try a G&L.

[sblueplanet]

The best 2 Fenders I have owned have both been Japanese. A 1987 MIJ '62 Jazz bass which was super light and a 2010 CIJ '57 P bass which had a wonderful neck. 

[vincbt]

4 months later, I can close the loop and thank everyone who chipped in with advice! 
 

Mark just sent the infamous wooden floor shots and all being well I’ll get to play this beauty this week.

 

 

 

 

 

[Jason Karloff]

Easy question. Limelight. 

 

Ah you already did. 😝

[Ander87]

Welcome to the club @vincbt, that is a lovely looking bass! Here's my 3 Limelight P's with J necks:

 

 

The purple goes on a Nordy P blade for dirty stuff, the White on an NP4V for the vintage tones, and charcoal grey on an NP4A for bright and punchy.

 

Yours reminds me of one....

 

Edited November 23, 2021 by Ander87

[vincbt]

22 minutes ago, Ander87 said:

Welcome to the club @vincbt, that is a lovely looking bass! Here's my 3 Limelight P's with J necks:

 

 

The purple goes on a Nordy P blade for dirty stuff, the White on an NP4V for the vintage tones, and charcoal grey on an NP4A for bright and punchy.

 

Yours reminds me of one....

 

Wow I'm not quite there yet! This is definitely taking the vintage tone while the American Standard will wear the bright and punchy hat, just need to transfer the LaBella on the Limelight and put roundwounds on the Fender.

 

The charcoal grey one was on sale here just last week right?

 

[Ander87]

2 hours ago, vincbt said:

The charcoal grey one was on sale here just last week right?

 

Hey! Yes indeed - I tried to get it some months ago but it resurfaced and did not miss the chance!

[Guest]

11 hours ago, vincbt said:

 

 

 

That tort knows what it's about

[Bassbooksbikes]

On 20/07/2021 at 18:01, uk_lefty said:

The second hand prices of fender japan basses are soaring. I'd only relic and do irreversible mods to one of the common easy to get 62 reissues, not a PB70US or something like that, personally. 

Why? 

Pardon my ignorance, I'm a newby, so are 62 reissues not that good? 

[BlueMoon]

22 minutes ago, Bassbooksbikes said:

so are 62 reissues not that good? 

There’s nothing wrong with MIJ/CIJ Fender instruments. In general they are top notch for consistency. The 62 Jazz reissues are more common and therefore maybe more prone to modding than some models that are less common in Europe…..like the PB-70US. Remember that Japanese Fenders have various grades - typically denoted by a second double digit. Say, JB-62-75 where the first number refers to the model year of the reissue and the second set of numbers denotes the price (in 00’s Yen) when it first sold. The lower priced versions came with a smaller headstock and small footprint tuners, as well as locally specified PUP’s. The body wood may be Basswood (Linden), which is light but dings easily. Higher valued instruments have larger tuners (similar to US) on a typical Fender headstock. The body wood is typically alder or sen (ash). The PUP’s may be wound to US spec or imported US PUP’s. Hence the term US in PB-70US.

 

Basically you will have to look far and wide for a bad MIJ Fender.

[Bassbooksbikes]

3 hours ago, BlueMoon said:

There’s nothing wrong with MIJ/CIJ Fender instruments. In general they are top notch for consistency. The 62 Jazz reissues are more common and therefore maybe more prone to modding than some models that are less common in Europe…..like the PB-70US. Remember that Japanese Fenders have various grades - typically denoted by a second double digit. Say, JB-62-75 where the first number refers to the model year of the reissue and the second set of numbers denotes the price (in 00’s Yen) when it first sold. The lower priced versions came with a smaller headstock and small footprint tuners, as well as locally specified PUP’s. The body wood may be Basswood (Linden), which is light but dings easily. Higher valued instruments have larger tuners (similar to US) on a typical Fender headstock. The body wood is typically alder or sen (ash). The PUP’s may be wound to US spec or imported US PUP’s. Hence the term US in PB-70US.

 

Basically you will have to look far and wide for a bad MIJ Fender.

Thank you for your reply and for taking the time to go into such detail. I'm looking to buy a PB 62 1994 MIJ. Feel more confident now. 

[uk_lefty]

4 hours ago, Bassbooksbikes said:

Why? 

Pardon my ignorance, I'm a newby, so are 62 reissues not that good? 

@BlueMoon beat me to it. They are very good basses, they're just a lot easier to get hold of than some of the other models. 

[peteb]

Looking for a bit of advice please if anyone here can help me.

 

I am currently looking for a Precision with a rosewood board. Beyond that I'm not sure what to look for. I could spend £3k on a Custom Shop, as I nearly did a few months ago, or I could get a Japanese one for £850 or so. I might not even go for a Fender and get something like a Lakland, or a Lull or a Valenti, should something interesting come up. 

 

However, I may well go for an American Standard as a middle option and I'm wondering what is the best period to look for. I currently have an American Standard Jazz, which I originally played when I tried out some s/h cabs I had bought from Bass Direct and ended up buying as I liked it so much. For some reason, I thought it was a 2009 model, but when I checked the serial number recently, found that it was a 98. I did have a 2005 Am Std Jazz before, which was very heavy and nowhere near as good. So, I'm wondering what the consensus is on what was the best period(s) for Fender Am Std P basses? 

 

[peteb]

On 19/07/2021 at 16:41, 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. 

 

I've just noticed that I commented on the later American Standard Precision models from 2011 to about 2015 at the beginning of this thread a few years ago, so obviously I am aware of them. I supposed that I really want advice on the 90s models compared with those from the early and late'00s periods. 

 

[Steve Browning]

8 hours ago, peteb said:

Looking for a bit of advice please if anyone here can help me.

 

I am currently looking for a Precision with a rosewood board. Beyond that I'm not sure what to look for. I could spend £3k on a Custom Shop, as I nearly did a few months ago, or I could get a Japanese one for £850 or so. I might not even go for a Fender and get something like a Lakland, or a Lull or a Valenti, should something interesting come up. 

 

However, I may well go for an American Standard as a middle option and I'm wondering what is the best period to look for. I currently have an American Standard Jazz, which I originally played when I tried out some s/h cabs I had bought from Bass Direct and ended up buying as I liked it so much. For some reason, I thought it was a 2009 model, but when I checked the serial number recently, found that it was a 98. I did have a 2005 Am Std Jazz before, which was very heavy and nowhere near as good. So, I'm wondering what the consensus is on what was the best period(s) for Fender Am Std P basses? 

 

I would really go Japanese (without turning obviously!!!).

 

Every one I have ever owned, or encountered, has been an excellent instrument. 

 

IMHO the price difference you pay for a US instrument just isn't worth it. 

[Reggaebass]

9 hours ago, peteb said:

I am currently looking for a Precision with a rosewood board

Hi pete, I’d keep an eye out for an AVRI 62 or 63 P, they are exceptional basses, I’ve got a 62 and I believe the difference is the 63 has a fuller neck profile where mine is slimmer from front to back which I find comfortable, they also hold their value and are pretty sought after, I can’t comment on Japanese I’ve never had one 

[gjones]

On 19/07/2021 at 20:44, Linus27 said:

Fender Japan everytime.

 

I've owned a lot of Japanese Fenders (including a Japanese Silver Squier) and every one of them was excellent, including a Precision 57 reissue, which had a lovely shallow neck. I now own a US Elite Precision and I much preferred the neck on the 57 reissue.  By the way, American Fenders are no longer allowed to have Made In The USA stamped on them any longer, as many of the parts are manufactured overseas (maybe all of them, who knows?).

Edited 3 hours ago by gjones

[skej21]

9 hours ago, peteb said:

Looking for a bit of advice please if anyone here can help me.

 

I am currently looking for a Precision with a rosewood board. Beyond that I'm not sure what to look for. I could spend £3k on a Custom Shop, as I nearly did a few months ago, or I could get a Japanese one for £850 or so. I might not even go for a Fender and get something like a Lakland, or a Lull or a Valenti, should something interesting come up. 

 

However, I may well go for an American Standard as a middle option and I'm wondering what is the best period to look for. I currently have an American Standard Jazz, which I originally played when I tried out some s/h cabs I had bought from Bass Direct and ended up buying as I liked it so much. For some reason, I thought it was a 2009 model, but when I checked the serial number recently, found that it was a 98. I did have a 2005 Am Std Jazz before, which was very heavy and nowhere near as good. So, I'm wondering what the consensus is on what was the best period(s) for Fender Am Std P basses? 

 

Just be mindful that often a specific production year of Fender US standard for example, can be used to denote changes to specifications or to define “good” years when being referred to on forums etc. This can conflict with the actual model name/range of years produced stated by Fender.

 

A good example of this, is that whilst the Fender US Standard Precision bass was produced between the years of 2008-2016, they made changes to the specification in 2012 and started referring to this with dealers (to help differntiate) as the ‘2012 US Standard’, even though it was produced between 2012-2016 with that spec (main improvement included a move to a Custom Shop ‘60s split coil pickup).

 

As a result, a lot of people look for pre-2012 or post-2012 US Standards based on the spec they liked, and this often comes in the description of sales posts (despite the serial stating that a ‘2012 US Standard’ was produced in the years between 2012-2016, for example). 
 

This is also true of things like Custom Shop models, where specific production years may refer to a brand new, un-reliced model as ‘NOS (New Old Stock)’ or ‘Time Machine’ etc depending on what Fender categorized that level of relic at the time of production. 

Edited 3 hours ago by skej21