I'm not a Jazz Bass guy, but I had a '62 AV Precision, and I compared it back-to-back to a couple of the RW Precisions. They are different animals, to be sure.
Although I'm not hot on the look, the RW's sound and feel very good to me. However, I still preferred the AV. But I think the difference is close enough, that it would come down to what you're after.
The '62 is 1.75" wide at the nut, like a real early sixties P-bass. It's not a chubby "boat neck"- the shape is quite a shallow C, and the fingerboard feels wide and roomy. I suppose it's a shape you either love or hate. I have fairly large hands, and it felt both faster and more comfortable than the RW neck to me.
Compared to the RW, the AV neck didn't have that "broken in" feel, but it didn't feel stiff and new, like most MIM's and American Standards. I didn't find the gloss nitro finish on the back of the AV to be sticky at all, but I have fairly dry skin, and my sweat isn't very acidic. If you had "problem perspiration", then the RW might feel better to you, with the near-matte finish and all that raw wood.
Overall, the finish on the '62 is like having an NOS '62, instead of a battered old road-warrior. Unlike the awful yellow colour on the Japanese Vintage RI's, the lacquer has just the right amber tint to it. They must choose pretty choice pieces of Alder for the bodies as well, 'cause the grain on mine had a nice 3D look under the sunburst.
Meanwhile, I had an honest to goodness, beat-up '64 P-bass a number of years ago, and the RW basses totally miss the look. A real vintage bass has the "patina" that you see on old furniture- sure, it's worn and maybe a little beat up, but you can see that it's really good lumber, and there's a kind of hand-rubbed glow to it from all that handling. To my eyes, the wood in the RW's looks cheap, and they look dirty and mistreated rather than lovingly roadworn.
As far as relic finishes go, the AV was a good reminder of why Gibson and Fender switched from nitro to poly back in the day. I'm careful with my instruments, but the fragile finish on the AV picked up a lot of little dings during the year or so that I had it. Unless you're extremely impatient, I think it would be more fun to see how the AV relic'd on it's own, instead of accepting the every-one-looks-the-same fake relic job on the RW. It's a matter of taste, but I thought the RV looked more honest and less embarrassing than the faked-up finish on the RW. To me, that look alone is easily worth a few hundred dollars more than an RW.
Weight-wise, the AV was a little lighter. Sound-wise, I've only had the one, so I don't know if my AV was average, but it was definitely more resonant, more "alive" feeling than the RW's I've checked out. If I'd met them in a blind taste test, I would have guessed that the RW was basswood, and the AV was alder. The AV pickups come closer to the sound I remember from my '64. A little light on the low E string, until you dial up some bass on your amp, but then the sound blooms. And the bright top end goes nicely with the resonant body.
If you dig the fatness and more even tone that you get from putting a set of Nordy's into a hot-rodded modern P-bass, I think you'd find the AV to be pretty much the opposite. Strung with fresh roundwounds, my AV sounded raw and aggressive in a good way, a little more three-dimensional and open at the top end than an RW.
I also liked the details on the '62 AV. The tuners worked backwards, just like my '64. It had the same dead spots as my '64, and the same rubbery "funk" to the tone, that the new Am Standards seem to lack. The fancy tweed case is also a nice upgrade on the AV.
Price-wise, I lucked out on mine. I picked it up off eBay for a little less than $900 plus shipping. Assuming that a used RW would be worth about $600-700, I would have been quite happy to pay an extra $400 to $500 for the AV.
But I have big hands, and a fondness for the feel, the look and sound of vintage Fenders. If I had smaller, sweaty hands, liked the pre-relic'd finish of the RW and preferred the darker sound of hot-rodded basses, I might have gone the other way...
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