Joben Magooch
Well-known member
So some of you may recall I posted a while back about how I'd been looking for a new bass and was on the fence between a Squier Classic Vibe and Fender Player series.
I had a TON of Amazon gift cards so wanted to go that route as to avoid actually having to spend much cash of my own. Initially I decided I'd save a bit of cash and go with a Squier CV 60s. I've owned a handful of CV/VM Squiers (guitars, at least) in the past and been really impressed so figured it was worth a shot. (I'm still kicking myself for missing out on the $200 CV60s during the ProAudioStar sale - bought a couple guitars but should've just snagged one then)
Found a good deal on Amazon Warehouse, listed as "Used - Very Good" condition with "minor cosmetic imperfections" but otherwise that was it. Figured I could return it if it didn't work out....
So that was like January 25 I believe. Bass arrived on the 27th. Cosmetically, it was in pretty good shape. Some scrapes on the fingerboard but looked like they could probably buff out okay. The packaging was dinged up a bit (and just single-boxed) but overall in very good (aesthetic) condition. Unfortunately the rest was not so great. Plugged in - no output at all. Nothing major - the jack was lose and wire had broken - but not a great omen. And the action was CRAZY high, plus something like .035" of relief or something like that. Maxed out the truss rod and still could only get it down to .020" or thereabouts, which is still quite high IMO. I packed it up and dropped off for a return the next day.
And that's where the real debacle began. Typically in the past when I've had amazon returns they generally start the refund as soon as UPS has scanned in the item to their possession. Not so this time. Don't know if it was because it was a higher-value item or what but they informed me they wouldn't start to process the refund until they had actually received the item. No worries though, it didn't have very far to travel...Except that it made it to UPS depot about 1.5 hours from my house that evening and no further (in fact, that's where it still shows up as being). I had a few chats with Amazon CS and got conflicting information but ultimately the bottom line seemed to be that after 30 days they would manually process the refund whether they had received the item or not. So I went bass-less for a month and finally managed to get a refund to go through right at the end of February.
Because I apparently don't learn my lesson I decided to take another chance on Warehouse...this time for a Fender Player Precision. "Used, Like New" condition for a great price. Got here a few days ago, it's about as "used" as the ProAudioStar "used / open box" instruments were - meaning brand new as far as I can tell. Original packaging, all the goodies, etc. Action/relief was still a bit high but had plenty of play in the truss rod to get it down where I wanted it to be.
From there it was time for my usual treatment for new instruments.
New set of strings - LaBella flats.
Strap Locks - I use Dunlops (think I like Schaller slightly better, but I have more guitars with Dunlops and it's easier to stick with one to be able to interchange straps easier)
Some unnecessary bling - threw on the chrome pickup and bridge covers. Bridge one is purely aesthetic for me at the moment (I don't bother with a foam mute for anything yet), but I actually quite like the pickup cover as a thumb rest, but...
Some more unnecessary accessories - went ahead and put on an actual thumb rest too. It's a bit more forward and kind of gives me two "positions" to work with. Forward on the thumb rest for more mellow or "thumpy" stuff, resting on the pickup cover for a bit more aggressive sound, and I guess a third would be palm on the bridge cover when playing with a pick.
And I reworked the electronics a little too. Not strictly necessary but makes me feel better, lol. Shielded the cavities and pickguard, Pure Tone jack, and new CTS pots. FWIW, the Player Series does use full-size pots, and they are actually given the same SKU on Fender's spec sheet as CTS, but they are some Korean-made ones called Jin-Sung or something like that (I can't remember name off the top of my head but sounds right...). I think some actually do get CTS as well, so it seems like kind of a mixed bag. Anyways, the ones it came with were decent enough but a bit "flimsy" when doing any work on them. At the usual heat I set my iron on it seemed like they were really taking a beating. They're probably fine but I replaced to be on the safe side.
Overall, I'm super pleased with how it turned out. The bass plays just great and feels awesome. I've had good luck with the CV Squier line for sure, and have heard mixed reviews on the Player series but I think they're great. Maybe I just got a good one...I haven't owned a new fender in a decade or so. To me, the current Player series feels to be on the same quality level as American Standards were about a decade ago. So it's a bummer that Mexi Fenders keep getting more expensive, but at the same time IMO (again, maybe I just got lucky) the Player line is classes ahead of the old Mexican Standards from a while back. So it works out okay for me. I'm also finding the neck to be a bit comfier. The Player series P-bass neck is somewhere in between a traditional P and J neck while the CV60s is closer to vintage P-spec. The gloss finish on CV squiers is pretty good too and not too sticky in my experience, but the satin finish on the Player models is super smooth and fast-playing to me.
Anyways the only other thing I've thought to do might be a pickguard change, but I don't know. Kind of thinking black might look nice...
I had a TON of Amazon gift cards so wanted to go that route as to avoid actually having to spend much cash of my own. Initially I decided I'd save a bit of cash and go with a Squier CV 60s. I've owned a handful of CV/VM Squiers (guitars, at least) in the past and been really impressed so figured it was worth a shot. (I'm still kicking myself for missing out on the $200 CV60s during the ProAudioStar sale - bought a couple guitars but should've just snagged one then)
Found a good deal on Amazon Warehouse, listed as "Used - Very Good" condition with "minor cosmetic imperfections" but otherwise that was it. Figured I could return it if it didn't work out....
So that was like January 25 I believe. Bass arrived on the 27th. Cosmetically, it was in pretty good shape. Some scrapes on the fingerboard but looked like they could probably buff out okay. The packaging was dinged up a bit (and just single-boxed) but overall in very good (aesthetic) condition. Unfortunately the rest was not so great. Plugged in - no output at all. Nothing major - the jack was lose and wire had broken - but not a great omen. And the action was CRAZY high, plus something like .035" of relief or something like that. Maxed out the truss rod and still could only get it down to .020" or thereabouts, which is still quite high IMO. I packed it up and dropped off for a return the next day.
And that's where the real debacle began. Typically in the past when I've had amazon returns they generally start the refund as soon as UPS has scanned in the item to their possession. Not so this time. Don't know if it was because it was a higher-value item or what but they informed me they wouldn't start to process the refund until they had actually received the item. No worries though, it didn't have very far to travel...Except that it made it to UPS depot about 1.5 hours from my house that evening and no further (in fact, that's where it still shows up as being). I had a few chats with Amazon CS and got conflicting information but ultimately the bottom line seemed to be that after 30 days they would manually process the refund whether they had received the item or not. So I went bass-less for a month and finally managed to get a refund to go through right at the end of February.
Because I apparently don't learn my lesson I decided to take another chance on Warehouse...this time for a Fender Player Precision. "Used, Like New" condition for a great price. Got here a few days ago, it's about as "used" as the ProAudioStar "used / open box" instruments were - meaning brand new as far as I can tell. Original packaging, all the goodies, etc. Action/relief was still a bit high but had plenty of play in the truss rod to get it down where I wanted it to be.
From there it was time for my usual treatment for new instruments.
New set of strings - LaBella flats.
Strap Locks - I use Dunlops (think I like Schaller slightly better, but I have more guitars with Dunlops and it's easier to stick with one to be able to interchange straps easier)
Some unnecessary bling - threw on the chrome pickup and bridge covers. Bridge one is purely aesthetic for me at the moment (I don't bother with a foam mute for anything yet), but I actually quite like the pickup cover as a thumb rest, but...
Some more unnecessary accessories - went ahead and put on an actual thumb rest too. It's a bit more forward and kind of gives me two "positions" to work with. Forward on the thumb rest for more mellow or "thumpy" stuff, resting on the pickup cover for a bit more aggressive sound, and I guess a third would be palm on the bridge cover when playing with a pick.
And I reworked the electronics a little too. Not strictly necessary but makes me feel better, lol. Shielded the cavities and pickguard, Pure Tone jack, and new CTS pots. FWIW, the Player Series does use full-size pots, and they are actually given the same SKU on Fender's spec sheet as CTS, but they are some Korean-made ones called Jin-Sung or something like that (I can't remember name off the top of my head but sounds right...). I think some actually do get CTS as well, so it seems like kind of a mixed bag. Anyways, the ones it came with were decent enough but a bit "flimsy" when doing any work on them. At the usual heat I set my iron on it seemed like they were really taking a beating. They're probably fine but I replaced to be on the safe side.
Overall, I'm super pleased with how it turned out. The bass plays just great and feels awesome. I've had good luck with the CV Squier line for sure, and have heard mixed reviews on the Player series but I think they're great. Maybe I just got a good one...I haven't owned a new fender in a decade or so. To me, the current Player series feels to be on the same quality level as American Standards were about a decade ago. So it's a bummer that Mexi Fenders keep getting more expensive, but at the same time IMO (again, maybe I just got lucky) the Player line is classes ahead of the old Mexican Standards from a while back. So it works out okay for me. I'm also finding the neck to be a bit comfier. The Player series P-bass neck is somewhere in between a traditional P and J neck while the CV60s is closer to vintage P-spec. The gloss finish on CV squiers is pretty good too and not too sticky in my experience, but the satin finish on the Player models is super smooth and fast-playing to me.
Anyways the only other thing I've thought to do might be a pickguard change, but I don't know. Kind of thinking black might look nice...
