Need bass advice
 

I have a choice between a 2003 American Precision bass or a G&L JB-2 US bass, both $599 each. Give me your advice and your opinions please.

What styles are you going to playing, mostly?

Mostly worship team music at church.

Precision basses work really well in a worship context IME. Especially with flats.

The worship band that I play in uses acoustic grand piano, lots of vocal harmonies and acoustic guitars, though. So what I can get away with might be completely different than what you can.

If you're planning to play more contemporary worship music, i'd go with neither of those and look into the active basses world. This sounds weird, but most "metal intended" basses work extremely well in contemporary worship music. In the youth praise band at church we play more contemporary stuff (I play electric guitar in this) and the bassist uses my Schecter stiletto. It fits that style music very well. It just looks a little odd to have a pointy headstock when playing at church, but as we all know, it's the sound that matters.

Prolly a p bass then

This.

I play also play for a contemporary (read "praise team") choir and my Pbass V with Chromes always fits really well. I do also play my Jazz V in that setting, but I usually find myself dialing back treble and sometimes dialing the pickup blend towards the neck. I originally put the Chromes on the Precision and set it up for a Motown sound, it just happens to work really well in the church setting. The Jazz is my main axe for my funk group, and is set up with more growl and attitude.

If I had to pick between the two, I'd have to give a slight edge to the Pbass.

5sg.

You have to choose either a handmade bass made of top quality components, or a bass from Fender's worst time period. G&L dude.

i have a jb2 and a lakland precision. play them both and see which works best for you. the jb2 will be more present and stand out more in the mix. the precision will be more punchy and not as present. they are both really good instruments.

:eyebrow:

Hmm. I just can't agree with that. While G&L's are decent basses, they're certainly not handmade basses, especially at a $599 price point. They're production level basses. And I'm not really a history expert, but as for "Fender's worst time period"... my understanding is that the later 70's and early 80's were bad years for Fender, not the '00s. My MIA Jazz is an '06 and it's been a killer bass. My MIA Pbass is an '09, the year they updated some of the features, and there's no difference in build quality between the two.

A bit of side trivia: G&L and Fender were both founded by the very same Leo Fender (RIP).

5sg.

I'd say G&L JB2
 

It's more than enough for your needs, while 2003 American Standard Precision is just too much for that price

Cheers,
Wallace

P=bass would be my advise.

I think the prices are fair.

If you can, go play them. If you can't, G&L IMO. It's too bad it's not an L2000. More flexible.

For that context, definitely the P.

Agree on the metro. Actually I prefer the metro rv4 over the NYC vintage 4 I just got. The super light chambered body with a neck with rods and thicker headstock on the NYC felt unbalanced and had some neck dive. The metro felt more solid and balanced.

I sold an mtd two weeks ago to try a sadowsky NYC. Taking the NYC back today and just bought a mtd 535 from alphaman. Thought grass was greener now realize what a great bass mike Tobias makes more than ever. His customer service is superior to any of the boutique builders ime. I emailed him yesterday with a question and minutes later had a descriptive response. Sadowsky experience for me was average. Nice for what they are.

A good Used metro is a good value. 8.5lbs to 9lbs I believe is the sweet spot for a good jazz bass

While I don't think the earlier 00's were Fender's WORST period (that title belongs to the late 70's instruments), I will agree that I was underwhelmed by the American 5-Strings from this era. Since you're talking about a 2003 4-string, I assume it has the S1 switch...

I might go for the USA JB-2 as well. About what people are saying about a P with flats - I'm sure a lot of gospel has been recorded with a J or J-Style instrument.

Not saying that a P is bad (I own 2), just saying that I would go for the JB-2 in this instance.

Huh?

OP asked about a G&L and a Fender. Posted in wrong thread maybe?:p

Thanks for all your help. I'm going to play both today with my amp and I'll let you know which one I get.

OK. I ended up getting the G&L. It wasn't even close. The Fender P sounded just like a Fender P, but the G&L was amazing! Fast neck and it just sounded so much more alive. The bass came with the standard G&L pick-ups in the case and a set of Sadowsky Humcancelling J-J pickups installed. They sound great. Thanks for the help. Pix.

Congrats! I'm glad the Fender P sounded like a Fender P -if you ever find one that sounds like a porpoise, let us know.

Seriously???


- georgestrings