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Best Sub $600 P Bass

#30
Sire P5 and P7 are excellent imo
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#33
I saw a Sire P5 at a local music store that was being set up for display and the finish was really nice on it. From a few feet away I thought it was a boutique brand with the roasted neck and all. Well, there was a post from a few months ago where someone broke their Sire's roasted neck and took that as an opportunity to cut it in half. Well, the "roasting" was more like "tinting". I didn't play it but wouldn't hesitate to pick one up if I wanted an inexpensive bass.
 
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#34
Minimalist said:
How did you arrive at that opinion?

To objectively judge the QC of either brand you would have to have spend significant time at the production facilities of Yamaha and Fender, have access to their QC manuals, and likely observed their training process. Did you?
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I have arrived at this conclusion for several reasons:

I work at guitar workshop where we go through roughly around 1000 guitars every year. We also have a close collaboration with a dealer who sell both Fender and Yamaha instruments, and we often do warranty repairs for them. The quality of Yamaha guitars and basses is generally very good. Their top models are superb. The quality of Fenders can also be very good, but they are very inconsistent. To be fair, things seem to have been moving slowly in the right direction over the last couple of years. The absolute low point was during the introduction of the AmPro and Original series. The quality of MIA Fenders really took a nose dive during that period. Some of the brand new MIA Fenders I've seen over that last decade or so have quite frankly been shockingly poor when considering the prices they charge for their instruments.

Every single Yamaha manufacturing site, whether it is in Japan, China or Indonesia is ISO certified. Yamaha take quality control very seriously, and when something isn't right they treat dealers with respect, stand by their products and sort it out. Fender... not so much. They are a nightmare to deal with and the dealer is very often stuck with the cost of warranty repairs or fixing faulty, brand new instruments.

I also own around 10 Fenders, at least as many Squiers and a couple of Yamahas in various price ranges (guitars and basses), but this sample size is obviously much smaller than the number of guitars I go through at the workshop.

Based on this experience my conclusion is that Yamaha offer objectively better, and more consistent instruments than Fender/Squier in any given price range.
 
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#35
Deleted member 271037 said:
I have arrived at this conclusion for several reasons:

I work at guitar workshop where we go through roughly around 1000 guitars every year. We also have a close collaboration with a dealer who sell both Fender and Yamaha instruments, and we often do warranty repairs for them. The quality of Yamaha guitars and basses is generally very good. Their top models are superb. The quality of Fenders can also be very good, but they are very inconsistent. To be fair, things seem to have been moving slowly in the right direction over the last couple of years. The absolute low point was during the introduction of the AmPro and Original series. The quality of MIA Fenders really took a nose dive during that period. Some of the brand new MIA Fenders I've seen over that last decade or so have quite frankly been shockingly poor when considering the prices they charge for their instruments.

Every single Yamaha manufacturing site, whether it is in Japan, China or Indonesia is ISO certified. Yamaha take quality control very seriously, and when something isn't right they treat dealers with respect, stand by their products and sort it out. Fender... not so much. They are a nightmare to deal with and the dealer is very often stuck with the cost of warranty repairs or fixing faulty, brand new instruments.

I also own around 10 Fenders, at least as many Squiers and a couple of Yamahas in various price ranges (guitars and basses), but this sample size is obviously much smaller than the number of guitars I go through at the workshop.

Based on this experience my conclusion is that Yamaha offer objectively better, and more consistent instruments than Fender/Squier in any given price range.
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Thank you, seems you have an understanding of what you are talking about.
 
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#37
BGroovy said:
Peavey Fury might be the best value P bass all around. I see them pop up locally for $200. For a great USA made P.
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I own a USA nitrofinish Fender and a 90s Fury.

I also have a Peavey patriot (kind of different vibe)

For the life of me, I can not justify the USA price over a fury.

If you can hang with import... early Peavey Milestone is solid

Only reason I own a weathered USA Pbass is the country cirlces gives it extra cred on the gear list.
 
#39
There are lots of used Fender Precisions out there, and if not in a big hurry, I wouldn't at all be surprised if you could find a really nice one in this price range, if you're willing to take some time to wait for the 'right one' for you.

Otherwise, for a new one, the Squier Classic Vibe is hard to beat, and you may find deals on a demo, open box, or barely used one.

For a P/J, as others have pointed out, the 4-series Yamahas set the standard, Yamaha has had that balance down since the days of the BB2000's.
 
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