MiM P to Fender P Dlx Special

I've been playing a Fender P MiM with SeymourDunc. QPs for what seems like forever. It was my first bass and all i've done is replace strings and upgraded the pickups. Great sound for blues, which is what I play, but it seemed to only have one sound. The 'tone knob' never seemed to do anything. I was perfectly content with the sound. One bonus is that I was never "fiddling" with the bass as it was pretty much plug in, turn up volume, play. Tho, going to the amp to change the tone was a pain. I do like the 'passive' sound and I've never had batteries go dead on me

Anyhow, I read up on the active P bass special, didn't think much of it, but it was a P body but had a J neck. I've got pretty small hands, so I figure on my way home from work last week I'd try one out. Never hurts to try.

After a bit of "fiddling" I was able to dial in the neck pickup just so and add a bit of low-end, remove a bit of middle, and I had my sound. It wasn't my old trusty P bass sound, but different. Reminded me of MM a bit, but somehow it seemed a bit clearer/cleaner, could've been the activeness of the bass. Dial in just a hint of bridge (J) pickup and some of the roughness came back into the tone.

I was sold. G*dd*mnit, I really didn't want one, but it sounded good, and one added benefit is that it feels MUCH lighter. Took it home, set the string height *nice and low*, plugged it into the eden rig and I figured it would take some time to get used to the new neck, but I had no problems with a bit of 'Pride and Joy', 'Laundromat Blues', 'Born under a bad sign' and (just b/c it's fun to play) CCR's "Down on the Corner".

It's definately a flexible bass, I'm not much for the growly side of some basses and prefer a smoother sound, (oddly, if I play on the J pickup, with only the J pickup enabled it sounds as if I'm playing about 1cm from the bridge on my P-bass). The smaller neck makes playing by the head much easier which is generally where I am most of the time.

Sidenote: A couple of people have recommended upgrading to a baddassII bridge, not sure what that would accomplish, doubt I'll do it. I'm not a big fan of the 'gold pickguard', but it's different. The chrome knobs have to go, black ones would look better.

One thing I've got to get used to is unplugging the bass when I'm done. With the passive P, I just leave it plugged in all the time, with the active if you do that you end up with a passive

Later,
Growler