Suggest a low cost decent P Bass

NickBotfield

fretmeister said:

But that's only a few minutes work for @Paul_C ;with a soldering iron and some good pots.

FTFY.

fretmeister

NickBotfield said:

fretmeister said:

But that's only a few minutes work for @Paul_C ;with a soldering iron and some good pots.

FTFY.

I've been learning! I've done a few guitar re-wiring jobs now... and only about 50% of them have to then be taken to Paul to fix!!!

ICBM

The best cheap P Bass I've played was a Stagg in a fetching shade of Johnson's Baby Lotion pink. It was just great-sounding. £75...

This does illustrate a problem though - the P Bass is a simple instrument, and hard to go really wrong with, but it's very much dependent on the individual neck and body as to whether a particular one sounds good, bad or indifferent. A friend bought a Mexican Standard one once - very luckily, he got it with an amp which proved to be faulty so he could return both of them, because the bass sounded completely dead and toneless. A few days later he found another one - same model, identical down to the colour - that sounded great.

So if you're buying without playing a few in a shop, it could be a bit of pot luck whether you get a good one or not. 

xOilCityPickups

I have a Harley Benton Jazz Bass that that I'd happily gig ... sure I did a pickup swap and a nicer scratchplate than the fridge door white one it came with ... but I bought it B stock (there was nothing I could actually find wrong with it apart from horrible strings)  for £65.00! Solid alder body, nice maple neck, great quality pots ... perfectly adequate hardware. 
The same model is £155 now with an ash body ... utterly insane for the price. 
 

DarnWeight

Thumbs up for SX basses from me.  I bought one of their vintage style J-basses with all the chrome extras (a la the bass player from Khruangbin) and apart from a pot swap, it's a very solid instrument that plays well.  A pickup swap would probably elevate it further, but for my needs, it's perfect.

Rocker

I sold the Fender Precision bass and bought an Aria Pro Jazz bass.  I fitted the flats that were on the Fender and this change narrowed the 'gap' between the Fender and the Aria.  I tried out a number of Precision basses in a Dublin music emporium and was unexpectedly slightly disappointed with them.  I only tried out the Aria Jazz bass on a whim and I liked it so I bought it.  I will not pretend that the Aria STB JB/B is as good as the Fender, it is not, but it is a damn site better than it ought to be considering the low price of the instrument.  The Fender Precision sound suited the music our band played but as that band has finished up, there wasn't any real reason why I should have kept it.   

Funkfingers

OilCityPickups said:

I have a Harley Benton Jazz Bass that that I'd happily gig ... sure I did a pickup swap and a nicer

Please say that at least one of the pickups was your Overkill RIC-style model.

•

Back on topic. 

Squier Standard or Vintage Modified Series P Bass or P Bass Special. (The latter has the superfluous J Bass pickup in the bridge position.) As funds allows, upgrade the split coils pickup.

If you acquire a PJ Bass, the above-mentioned Overkill pickup might contrast well with the P sound.

distressed

https://www.fender.com/products/affinity-series-precision-bass-pj-1

JD50

2nd hand Mexican Fender P Bass?