• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

MIM Precision Bass - diasappointed!

#241
mp40smg said:
exactly.

If they have to send an instrument out (on average) twice , once for "people with no intention of keeping them" and then once to an actual buyer. That has got to add at least $100 onto the sell price.

If has been mentioned also, that gear that is new and shipped once returned now become "B" stock and further discounted those extra charges also have to be reflected some where.
Click to expand...
Cmon.....returns are figured into the overall price along with re-stocking fees.

While we are at it, why dont we mention warranty work that adds to the cost as well.

I mean how much do you think Fender has in a MIM P bass? The profit margin is fairly large to begin with.

There are many guitar companies that are known for outstanding setups from the factory like 'G&L' for example....i see more complaints about Gibson overall but plenty about MIM Fender over the years.....USA and MIJ Fenders i recall much less quality issues with the exception of 70's Fenders that varied the same as Gibson (some were real crap).

Get the instrument "right" from the factory....heck, i've bought cheap Korean Agile guitars that were near flawless out of the box.

I have consistently seen various quality issues with MIM Fenders for the past 20 years (though much better now), to the degree i would likely return some of these MIM Fenders guitars that i have seen.

Thats why i buy MIM Fenders used AND when i am done "fixing neck, pot and fret issues" i generally love them to death!......but i digress!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati
#244
DavidEdenAria said:
Cmon.....returns are figured into the overall price along with re-stocking fees.

While we are at it, why dont we mention warranty work that adds to the cost as well.

I mean how much do you think Fender has in a MIM P bass? The profit margin is fairly large to begin with.

There are many guitar companies that are known for outstanding setups from the factory like 'G&L' for example....i see more complaints about Gibson overall but plenty about MIM Fender over the years.....USA and MIJ Fenders i recall much less quality issues with the exception of 70's Fenders that varied the same as Gibson (some were real crap).

Get the instrument "right" from the factory....heck, i've bought cheap Korean Agile guitars that were near flawless out of the box.

I have consistently seen various quality issues with MIM Fenders for the past 20 years (though much better now), to the degree i would likely return some of these MIM Fenders guitars that i have seen.

Thats why i buy MIM Fenders used AND when i am done "fixing neck, pot and fret issues" i generally love them to death!......but i digress!
Click to expand...

I would presume that you have never worked at or run anything like the store/ operation in question?
 
#245
Most of what you complained about wouldn't even have passed my notice. The fretboard edge sharpness? Come on. Why did you buy it without playing one? Can't complain about that, lots of people would be fine with that edge. The E groove in the nut - I would not have noticed that even after 10 years of playing it. The wiring under the pickguard? Sloppy, but hey - easy fix, just shove it in and BAM it's fixed. The tone knob - welcome to *all* Fender tone pots, including your Jazz, unless of course your hearing is non-human. The tuners... ***? There's lots of room to insert a string end there.

Glad you're happy with the grain matching at least.

Feel free to send it over here for a free "fix". I *totally* promise, I'll send it back quickly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati, C_Becker and Korladis
#246
I don't know y'all...those prices would be the exact same regardless of how many people return products. Do you really think a company is going to lower the prices, when people seem to buy at the current market value? What company does that? My guess is that money would be extra profit, as opposed to a savings passed on to the consumer.
And while I'm thinking of it, you folks that are outraged...you ever go to your local store to try out the new EBMM/Fender offerings? How many times do we throw gratitude at the folks that do reviews for us by walking into guitar center and filming themselves plucking around in the new hotness with no intention to buy? How many times have you stopped by a music store just to kill time? Where's the moral outrage, then?
Is it the shipping cost that really pushed you over the edge? If you think that you aren't doing the same thing because it isn't packed and shipped Everytime you stop into a physical store do mess around, think again. The space that the bass takes up on the wall is money. The time it sits there is money. The amount it gets used by folks like us is money. And then we moan about how places like guitar center sell used floor models for retail price, with horrible set ups and scratchy pots. So pat yourselves on the back for being part of the problem, too.
Lastly, thomann seems to understand how their customer base is making decisions, which is why they offer the return policy. If it were crushing the market, they wouldn't do it.
Y'all are goofy.
 
#247
flojob said:
I don't know y'all...those prices would be the exact same regardless of how many people return products. Do you really think a company is going to lower the prices, when people seem to buy at the current market value? What company does that? My guess is that money would be extra profit, as opposed to a savings passed on to the consumer.
And while I'm thinking of it, you folks that are outraged...you ever go to your local store to try out the new EBMM/Fender offerings? How many times do we throw gratitude at the folks that do reviews for us by walking into guitar center and filming themselves plucking around in the new hotness with no intention to buy? How many times have you stopped by a music store just to kill time? Where's the moral outrage, then?
Is it the shipping cost that really pushed you over the edge? If you think that you aren't doing the same thing because it isn't packed and shipped Everytime you stop into a physical store do mess around, think again. The space that the bass takes up on the wall is money. The time it sits there is money. The amount it gets used by folks like us is money. And then we moan about how places like guitar center sell used floor models for retail price, with horrible set ups and scratchy pots. So pat yourselves on the back for being part of the problem, too.
Lastly, thomann seems to understand how their customer base is making decisions, which is why they offer the return policy. If it were crushing the market, they wouldn't do it.
Y'all are goofy.
Click to expand...
No they aren't going to lower prices unless they have to but anyone with any business acumen knows, if the cost of doing business goes UP, so do prices. This stuff is really elementary. Hundreds of customers playing the same bass on the wall costs nowhere NEAR what it costs to pay for shipping instruments both ways to hundreds (thousands?) of non-customers who end up degrading them. If you're okay with doing this kind of thing, I don't know what to say.....
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sartori and gln1955
#248
Sixgunn said:
No they aren't going to lower prices unless they have to but anyone with any business acumen knows, if the cost of doing business goes UP, so do prices. This stuff is really elementary. Hundreds of customers playing the same bass on the wall costs nowhere NEAR what it costs to pay for shipping instruments both ways to hundreds (thousands?) of non-customers who end up degrading them. If you're okay with doing this kind of thing, I don't know what to say.....
Click to expand...
There's really nothing to say. Just throwing my 2 cents in.
 
#249
Sixgunn said:
No they aren't going to lower prices unless they have to but anyone with any business acumen knows, if the cost of doing business goes UP, so do prices. This stuff is really elementary. Hundreds of customers playing the same bass on the wall costs nowhere NEAR what it costs to pay for shipping instruments both ways to hundreds (thousands?) of non-customers who end up degrading them. If you're okay with doing this kind of thing, I don't know what to say.....
Click to expand...
There are not necessarily NEARLY that many basses on walls of Fender dealers, especially in the past....some of those guitars sat for 3 to 5 years, unsold NEW guitars with often wear from being tossed around by careless ....my store never had more than 5 or 6 basses and the others maybe 10 or so....this was BEFORE Guitar Center.

Companies i worked for that were mail order wholesalers, the CUSTOMER paid for the shipping one way....if an account abused the return policy then re-stocking fees applied...the policy changed thru the years somewhat but the average AMOUNT of "returns cost" was ALWAYS figured into the price from the beginning..... and the customer was cut off or had to pay shipping both ways, PLUS the re-stocking fees if they abused the policy for no good reason.

The OP would have to pay shipping both ways and re-stocking fees with my company.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sixgunn
#253
Eternal Day said:
Up to now I always played jazz basses and hollowbodys, never tried a precision, so I ordered a MIM standard p-bass, just to get an idea what they're all about. It's one of the new ones with the Pau Ferro fretboard.

Yesterday I received the package and what can I say? Well, let's just get into it...
Bare with my english, I'll give my best.

NECK
As soon as I took the bass out of the package I noticed that there's something
off about the neck.
View attachment 2797556

See that edge? It feels just as sharp as it looks, almost like holding a 2 by 4.
The fretboard is very rough for the most part, only in the upper register you find some smoothness. The frets are not polished as far as I can tell, they look dull, feel rough and most of them have these dark spots on the sides. First I thought, they cut to deep into the fretboard and filled it up with woodfiller but these spots seem to be markers. The back of the neck is covered with some very weird, plastic-like stuff that feels very slippery and unorganic. Very different from any neck I ever hold in my hand.

NUT
While tuning the thing up I had problems with the E-string. It's impossible to get a stable
tuning and I think I found the reason.
View attachment 2797576

The slot for the E-string is far to wide as you can see.

TUNERS
They turn smooth and everything but the holes where you put the string in are far too small.
A lot of people including me bend their strings, before cutting them so you end up with a
hook type of string end which you put into the tuner. Well that's not possible here and even
just getting the strings in and out is a pain in the neck because it's so narrow in there.
Take a look:
View attachment 2797620

For comparison my CIJ jazz bass:
View attachment 2797621

TRUSS ROD
Does it work? Probably yes, because the neck has a back-bow but I'll never know for sure.
Why? First of all, the tool they gave me is FREAKING BROKEN:
View attachment 2797586

Fortunately I have several allen keys in the exact same size but none of them did fit!
Btw, the foil is intact so the allen key must have been broken, when they put it in there.

SETUP
There is none to speak of. The Instrument comes in virtually unplayable condition.

ASSEMBLE QUALITY
I don't know if the guys and gals in mexico are working under extreme time pressure
and I don't wanna judge anyone but they surely didn't look too close, while assembling this bass. There is a cable stuck under the pickguard:
View attachment 2797597

The knobs are not aligned but that's a minor thing compared to everything else.
This is how it looks, after I got in there:
View attachment 2797603

Yup... still bent. They used a cheap ceramic capacitor btw. At least the solder job is decent.
But this is another thing, I've never seen:
View attachment 2797604

TONE CONTROL
Roll it off 95% and you have a nice high-cut, roll it off 100% and it sounds, like you rolled
it off 50%. This is NOT how a tone control is supposed to work. Probably just cheap, bad pots.

BRIDGE
The bridge is... weird. I love high action and set it up just like my jazz bass, take a look:
View attachment 2797616

Compare it to the bridge on my jazz bass:
View attachment 2797617

As you can see almost everything about this bass is weird and off but not everything!
Let's talk about the good stuff!

BODY AND FINISH
The way they combined the wood pieces, the sunburst... just perfect, I love it.
It looks like one solid piece of wood. Nice on photo but stunning in real life:

View attachment 2797623
View attachment 2797624

SOUND
After spending a good hour or two setting this mess up with some Labella's I had laying around it was ready for a sound check. Good thing the Labellas are high tension, they just about cured the back-bow. I'm sure the pickups are not the best and they sound kind of
one dimensional but it's sooo much fun to play this thing! Put some foam by the bridge
and thump thump thump, great.

So yeah that's my experience with this thing. It's a fun instrument but honestly it feels
like a cheap toy and the thought of someone getting this bass as a birthday present made
me feel sad, lol.
Click to expand...
Bah .. this is Fender .. maybe USA made ones are slightly better but I own MIA and MIM P-basses and the differences are not that significant IMO.
I don’t know, maybe frets need a little dressing, but this can be done even in house.
The cable trapped below the guard is not an issue, come on.
The broken wrench is a pity but who doesn’t have a spare one at home?
The difficulty in tuning the E string .. can’t comment but looking at the nut it seems normally made; the bass looks beautiful and the MIM pickup can be changed although there’s a lot of people who are fine with it ..
In my opinion your comments are a little too negative even because you enjoy playing the instrument, so .. what?
In any case, you may always return it, I guess ...
 
#254
Gianni "Orlandez" Orlati said:
Bah .. this is Fender .. maybe USA made ones are slightly better but I own MIA and MIM P-basses and the differences are not that significant IMO.
I don’t know, maybe frets need a little dressing, but this can be done even in house.
The cable trapped below the guard is not an issue, come on.
The broken wrench is a pity but who doesn’t have a spare one at home?
The difficulty in tuning the E string .. can’t comment but looking at the nut it seems normally made; the bass looks beautiful and the MIM pickup can be changed although there’s a lot of people who are fine with it ..
In my opinion your comments are a little too negative even because you enjoy playing the instrument, so .. what?
In any case, you may always return it, I guess ...
Click to expand...

He may be a tad past the return window.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back