Fender Vintera '50s Precision Bass MN Sea Foam Green

I've been a Precision Bass player since I started playing bass years ago. This is my first "real" Fender bass however, after playing several different Squier basses over the years. While Squier makes great instruments at a fair price point, this Vintera Precision is like a different world compared to my previous basses.

You can feel the overall quality of the parts, the fit & finish, and the materials just by picking up the bass and playing around on it. I received it in the mail almost perfectly set up by Music Store. Only the action was too high for me, but that was an easy adjustment.

The bass has a wide, not too thin neck profile that is not very deep. Super comfortable to play. The nut width is slightly larger than on other modern P-Basses which is nice if you like the extra space. I really like the way this forces you to play a little bit different compared to a narrower fretboard, like for example on a Jazz Bass. The difference compared to a regular P-Bass is pretty small. You just get a feeling of more space for fretting. The fretboard radius is also a bit smaller than on a modern P-Bass. This makes for a very balanced playing feel in my opinion. These differences are all nice touches and make for a slightly different playing feel, but don't make it any harder to play than a regular P-Bass.

The sound is absolutely wonderful. The 50s-style pickups have a slightly compressed sound that sound great on its own, plugged directly into a DI box or an interface. I replaced the factory set of strings with .045-.105 LaBella flatwounds which is a perfect fit for this pass. The low-mids are greatly enhanced by putting a set of flats on this bass. It sits beautifully in the mix and is never weak or overpowering - always perfectly balanced.

The fit and finish of this bass is great. I'm not one to go looking for faults in the paint or anything like that, but I absolutely have not spotted any quality control issues with my bass. The hardware is absolutely fine and does the job. You don't get a massive bridge or fancy hardware here, because everything is done to vintage specs. You can, of course, modify these parts later on, but I really don't think that's in the spirit of this vintage-focused instrument. If you want to put a more massive bridge on the bass and modify it in other ways, I would choose a Fender Player Series P-Bass instead which is a bit cheaper - you can spend the difference on your mod parts.

The bass is surprisingly light. If you have back issues or generally dislike heavy instruments, I would definitely recommend this one! The lack of weight does not impact the sound quality at all. The only drawback is that, in some positions, it can have a little bit of neck dive, not to a point where it really becomes a problem, however. I always wear a strap even when sitting down, and that takes care of the very slight neck dive very easily.

One thing to keep in mind is that the hardware, specifically the bridge and trussrod, are truly built to vintage spec. This means that the string height adjusters on the bridge do not have tiny hexagonal screws but small slotted screws instead. You will need a very small slotted screwdriver to access these screws. The trussrod can only be adjusted at the base of the neck which can be annoying. You need to remove the neck in order to adjust the trussrod. Here, again, there is no hexagonal screw but rather a large philipps screw to adjust. Small minus points for these features that could have been left out in favor of more modern solutions. I guess the placement and types of screws used make it more true to the vintage specs, but I would much prefer if they had just chosen the modern versions instead.

Overall, this is a very beautiful and great-sounding bass that I can only recommend if you like P-Basses, vintage sound, and flatwounds. The build quality is fantastic and I have no doubt that this bass will stay in great shape for a long, long time.

Klinkt super. Echt het jaren 50 geluid. Niet zwaar en heel licht bespeelbaar af te stellen.

Very fast to play.Precision sound and jazz sound all inclusive.
It’s versatile,definitely a winner!