Mysterious 1996 Fender MIM "Black Label" Precision Bass...

Saw this for sale locally and picked it up. I didn't need another Precision (already have two), but figured for the price, what the heck. Surprised that it plays pretty well after adjusting the truss rod. Weighs 8.6lbs. Decided to take it apart and peek under the hood. Appears to be all stock, with crappy mini pots and the pickups are sealed and have bar magnets on the bottom. Sounds half decent plugged in, but the pickup is pretty darn hot (I like a little more of a vintage-voiced pickup) and a little noisy, and it's also pretty bright and really had to turn down the tone to get a sound I half liked. The volume pot is super scratchy and it just cuts out intermittently.

Surprisingly, the neck is really nice. Frets have ZERO wear on them and are just a little tarnished, but nothing a cleaning and polishing can't fix, action is a touch high, but even with just minimal relief I wasn't getting any buzzing anywhere up the neck.

So here's what I'm thinking...I don't want to dump much, if any money into this thing. I have to stock pickup sitting in the box from my Classic 50's Precision, which isn't a bad pickup at all, and was thinking I could throw that pickup in there, and also have a 2008 American Standard P pickup in my box of parts as well (I swear those two pickups are the same pickup!) I have a couple 250k Alpha pots I pulled out of a CIJ P. Also have a spare set of Fender chrome, knurled knobs (those Strat-style knobs they use to put on these back then have to go!) I have a spare vintage style bridge with the slotted/grooved/threadded (whatever you want to call them) saddles (nothing wrong with the stock saddles, but I just kind of like those threaded/grooved saddles more) in my parts box. Tuners work fine and are adequate. Nothing spectacular, but they work and seem to hold tuning just fine, so no reason to replace them.

Also have to decide what strings to put on this thing. I have GHS Precision Flats and Fender 7520's on my other two Precisions. I have a set of Chromes and Dunlop Flats that aren't being used currently.

Only thing I'm thinking of buying is a new pickguard. Cant decide between brown tort or 3-ply black. (My other basses are 3TSB American Standard with rosewood neck and tort guard and a 2TSB Classic 50's with an anodized gold guard) Which one do you guys prefer:





I'm for sure going to shield it (already have paint and foil, so just need to decide what I want to use.

Finally, does anyone know much about these "black label" MIM's from the mid-90's? I read about them briefly. Some say there are just glorified Squiers, others say they are made from leftover MIA parts and shipped down to Mexico. I have no idea and have to look into it a little more. Here's a crap-load of pics:

 

Pretty much what I discovered in my brief search as well. Thanks for the link!

 

I can see that. For some reason I just don't like the way white pickguards look on Precisions. I'm a fan of 1-ply white pickguards on a white blonde Tele, but for whatever reason whenever I see a white pihckguard on Olympic or Vintage white it just looks cheap to me. I actually went with a 3-ply black pihckguard. I think it will look good. Found replacement BWB for really cheap, so what I'm thinking is I'll just keep the loaded white pihckguard in case I ever want to put it back to it's original state if I ever decide to sell it it will be a super easy, quick swap, and can keep the better pickup and controls.

 

Decided this bass is going to wear rounds. I usually play with flats, so I'll put rounds on this one and Keep the GHS Precision flats on the American Standard, and ordered a set of LaBalla Flats for the Classic 50's P.

 

It only has one CNC hole. No inspection sticker on the pickguard. The guard is 3-ply WBW.

 

The black pickguard arrived today. Fits perfectly. Liking the look, but still waiting for the tort guard to arrive. At $10 each I figured I'd splurge and pick up both and decide which one I prefer.