Ok...here goes, I have taken the bait after swiiming around our little pond and seeing the hook dangling in front of me...
I love my pro 2, P. But is has taken me while to sort it out.
I also have the pro 1 and a 2012 that came with the 62 custom shop pick up, which I never got use to and swapped the pickup for a custom shop 63...
Based on those comparisons I rate the pro 2 as the best.
To my ears the pickup on the pro 2 is noticeably different to the pro 1, the 62 custom shop 62 and 63
I base that on live playing and recording.
As for playing it in a shop, I did that with the pro 1...it sounded less than average.
But I trusted my instincts and by the time I got the pro 1 to rehearsals and gigs, I was happy.
The pro 1, has the goods if a US P is what you are after.
The voicing, I feel, is different on the Pro 2. But that is something I have come to really like about it.
I have spoken and asked my band members in two different bands how they feel about my sound. They say its great...
For me its it sits well live and it appears to have good clarity.
I am now running mine through a Vintage MarkBass 500 and and Aguilar 4 ohm DB 210.
I moved onto the Markbass head after a lot of trial and error with my tone hammer. I love the tone hammer but found it to be better with my J bass.
I also did a lot of trial and error with the MB preset settings flat, old or scooped and now settle on using scooped.
I think that is a good setting with a pick which is where I am at these days.
I am feeling the same way when I pair the pro 2 with my Fender Rumble 200 and on that its referred to as 'contoured.
Having said all that, I understand and respect that some people detest the scooped sound, but for sake of this thread, that setup does seem to go well with the pro 2, P.
I wont be surprised if Fender comes up with a pro 3 and with all of us picky people it will probably get to pro 4 and 5 with each one marketed as the 'p' bass sound...
For me I love the simplicity of the P bass and with the pro 2, it took me a bit of patience
For sake of trying it in a shop and going 'nah'... well so be it...
I would like to add though, and from numerous posts by people on this forum over the years ... there is a school of thought that presses the point of how important mids are and I get that, nothing against mids....
But for me, I think the culprit, for want of a better description on the pro 2, and for the 62 custom shop for that matter, is the high mids...
For me, its really noticeable on the Rumble and I use to hold that against the Rumble.
I use to fear playing scooped because of all the hype about mids...
When I got over that and ventured down the line of scooping out some mids, I started to get a whole lot more comfortable with my P's and especially the Pro 2.
I then started getting serious about attacking it with a pick and my whole life changed....I am really happy with it
having said all of that I can understand and accept that the pro 2 is not everyone's cup of tea...It is a new voicing ....
one other point, I had this addiction to round wounds, and everytime I moved to flats I would go back to rounds...
I cant speak for slap players, but for using a pick, I swapped over to Dunlop flats on my Pro 2...It seems to be a good combination...The horn players in one of the bands I am in always make sure I bring the pro 2 with the 'good sounding strings'....
Each to their own, just some points from my perspective... and understandably thee are so many basses out there and each of us needs to be happy with what we have and how we sound...I get all of that.
So I am not professing the pro 2 P as being 'the bass'..
All I am trying to say that its plenty decent.... different? ....from my perspective, yes... but in a good way...
Other may hear and sense it differently, and fair enough too...
On other things, I love the neck and the little truss rod is a great improvement by Fender, neck adjustments and intonation with the little tools they put in, easy done on the fly....
Holds its tuning and intonation....like a rock...
and typical of most P's...dime the gain and you have the line noise...and it stems from the tone pot..
For me that's not an issue, once I worked that out, because by taking the gain back a bit and boosting the volume, the juice comes on...
A bit counter intuitive but if you need quiet, cut the gain and boost the master...
By comparison to my J bass, where you can dime the gain and the J is quiet...
It took me ages to work all that out... but once I had that sorted my love for the P just deepened...
On the back of all of that.... I shall now depart ... have a rehearsal to get too... !!!
