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Squier Vintage Modified Precision V: who's got one?
- Thread starter Chef
- Start date
Doug Parent
Supporting Member
I've heard different body woods/necks affect the signature "P" tone, but not so much that it's major.
Finally got the chance to try one of the VMPV this evening, It was nicely setup with the original strings, tried it through a Rumble Head into a 1x15 Rumble cabinet... Sounded really metallic, lacked a lot of character and definition... It sounded great when slappin, but I never really slap when playing...
Tried the VM Jaguar V next, and it was like day and night... Loved the tone coming from the P-Pickup, but didn´t liked the bass and treble boost controls too much... And to be honest the sound coming from the J-Pickup was near - really near - the sound I got from my American Deluxe JBV...
Have no problems with active basses, like the VMJV, but I wanted a passive.... Is just my experience with the PV or the sound is really trebby due to the maple fretboard?
Tried the VM Jaguar V next, and it was like day and night... Loved the tone coming from the P-Pickup, but didn´t liked the bass and treble boost controls too much... And to be honest the sound coming from the J-Pickup was near - really near - the sound I got from my American Deluxe JBV...
Have no problems with active basses, like the VMJV, but I wanted a passive.... Is just my experience with the PV or the sound is really trebby due to the maple fretboard?
Doug Parent
Supporting Member
Here's my take and I hope I don't rub anyone the wrong way....I find this bass to be lacking some focus in the lows, hence the treble region will present as somewhat extended. not unusual with a P pickup anyway, they can get quite bright in the upper mids. (think 2khz) Every basswood bodied bass I ever played was "spongy" in the lows. I've heard some 70's Fender P's with Ash body, maple neck, stock pickup, and it was a hammer down low. Its not that this bass has no lows, it's really about how those frequencies are attenuated around certain nodes. There's a big dip in the lower mids, like 150hz, hence the upper mids are going to cut like a knife. I'll try some Barts in this bass at some point and repot back. Right now I have some Nordy NP5's and it's punchy, but the body wood density seems to be sponging up some of the grunt. I think every bass will have it's own voice, so my bass may be different than someone elses.
Thanks Doug,
I've had one bass with basswood body, and it sounded great, nice lows on that... The VM Jaguar V I played today also has a basswood body, and that thing shaked the floor of the store...
May me the combination, basswood + rosewood fretboard sounding more defined that basswood + maple... Jut an opinion...
I'll try another one tomorrow to be sure, but the P sound I'm looking for wasn't there...
I've had one bass with basswood body, and it sounded great, nice lows on that... The VM Jaguar V I played today also has a basswood body, and that thing shaked the floor of the store...
May me the combination, basswood + rosewood fretboard sounding more defined that basswood + maple... Jut an opinion...
I'll try another one tomorrow to be sure, but the P sound I'm looking for wasn't there...
My 89 MIJ fender precision is a basswood body, and it's the most meaty precision bass. Amazing amount of balls.
Doug Parent
Supporting Member
The other comment I would make is not all basswood equals other basswood. Fluctuations on moisture content, density, origin, etc etc.
The Jag appears to have come out of a different factory. It has a thin-film finish on the neck, instead of the heavy Poly that the Precision gets. The fretwork on the samples I have seen have been inferior, although that is easily cleaned up with a fret file.
Also, there are functional differences. For instance, the body shape of the Jag results in it being more head-heavy.
If you're just after a generic P bass tone, the Jag will do fine, and offers you some extra versatility. It also offers a different look that many find appealing.
If you're really into the authentic P-bass experience, it doesn't nail the classic P-bass ergonomics as well as the Precision V, and IME/IMO, needs a little more work to turn it into a truly satisfactory, giggable instrument.
This has been repeated throughout this thread, but the one place where the factory setup on these consistently leaves something to be desired, is the pickup height adjustment. Most complaints about weak or overbearing B strings, output too hot or too quiet, middle strings quieter than the outer ones, etc., can be put down to the need for a pro setup.
If your bass isn't defective, and the setup has been perfectly dialled in, then the tonal difference between the OEM pickup and other vintage-style pickups (the most popular alternatives are the Fender Am Std and the Nordstrand) should be relatively modest.
In another post, you mention the low end being a little hollow. That's the way I remember the '64 Precision I bought in college, and every other vintage P I've played. They sound a little light on bottom, but fatten up beautifully with a little bass boost on the amp or the PA. I think of that as part of the vintage P appeal, and it's why I've never been big on pickups like the Duncan QP's.
IME, amongst people who believe that body wood makes a difference, the normal expectation generally seems to be for medium to light density basswood to have a softer, rounder, less detailed sound. Ditto for the Squier necks, which are mostly flat-sawn and made from softer than average maple.
Fatter and a little more mushy acoustically, which is to say NOT thin. That is exactly the way I hear mine- it's not the brightest or the most detailed P-bass I've ever heard, even after swapping in a Fender pickup.
But overall, it sounds very much in the same ballpark as ALL vintage-styled passive Fender precisions. Perhaps you are looking for something active, or that goes more in the "modern P" direction?
Regardless, your options are wide open:
- You can throw a preamp and/or a Delano pickup into the Squier to give it some more booty. I'm sure that Carey Nordstrand could wind you something a little hotter, for that matter.
- If you want a different bass, ESP has a nice PJ5 in the Diamond series, for a couple hundred $$$ more than the Squier.
- As you get spendier, there's the Fender Am Std, boutique P5's from Alleva Copola, Lull, Sadowsky et al.
- You can even get a fanned-fret, slim-bodied, extended scale P5 from Dingwall, if your tastes run to the more exotic.
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I believe there's some hair - splitting going on here. I do have a P5 and a VM P5 and have a/b'd them. The P5 is a little deeper and rounder sounding and the VM P5 growlier (P5 with .o47mf orange drop and Sadowsky Black label stainless steel rounds, VM P5 stock). So far so good. The Band likes both, I gig the P5 with the VM P5 as backup, practice with the P5. When I switched them at practice recently due to a gig, the band noticed immediately and commented how good the VM P5 sounded, as did a visiting guitarist. My P5 never got more than a nod. Just saying....
I know how you feel. Once I put the right strings on my VM P5, it totally produced the chunky funk tones I grew up loving with the benefit of a B string.
Thank You guys, so with a pair of proper strings and some work a VMP5 will sound much like the "funk machine" as a VMJ5 will?
Sheesh. Missed this comment, or I wouldn't have wasted your time with my last post.
I know what you mean about it sounding a little spongy. I originally did the pickup swap on the basis of a suspicion that perhaps the VM pickup was overwound.
As Dr Cheese and Thumper have pointed out, we're getting into the finer subtleties at this point- I haven't heard any recent-vintage Squier P-bass that was so far off the mark that it didn't sound like a P-bass.
That said, I actually got more mileage out of thinning the poly finish on the back of the neck by about 50%, and switching to the 5-string D'Addario Balanced Tension sets that one of the string vendors offers (Bass Strings Online?).
Sanding the back of the neck made it a little more resonant, and sound less congested. The BT string sets served to even out the response, particularly in the low end. I ended up preferring the lighter gauge set, which is unusual for me.
I suppose that's just another indication that the Squier benefits from a little fine tuning. It makes sense that a $300 instrument made with less dense tonewoods is going to resonate a little differently than an AM Std with alder or ash, real North American rock maple, carbon fiber neck inserts, etc...
Well... Couldn't resist, so I took one more visit to the music store to decide. All the info I'm this threat helped me to go and ask exactly what I wanted to test. So I tried one more time the VMP5, beautifully setup, rumble 500 head onto 1x15 rumble cabinet. Almost flat eq, cutted a bit of hi-mids, added a bit of lows and voila! The beast come alive...
Played like 45 minutes, didn't even wanted to try the VM Jaguar V, falled in love with the sound and the playability of the instrument. Got lucky because it was on sale, U.S. $ 330.00 with a Fender urban gig bag and setup included (Original price here in Perú was U.S. $ 420.00 for the bass alone).
So I pulled the trigger... The sales guy came with a sealed box, brand new instrument inside, we opened it and it was a dream... Amazing setup, just a tuning and nothing else needed...
Will post some pics later, thanks for all your help!
Played like 45 minutes, didn't even wanted to try the VM Jaguar V, falled in love with the sound and the playability of the instrument. Got lucky because it was on sale, U.S. $ 330.00 with a Fender urban gig bag and setup included (Original price here in Perú was U.S. $ 420.00 for the bass alone).
So I pulled the trigger... The sales guy came with a sealed box, brand new instrument inside, we opened it and it was a dream... Amazing setup, just a tuning and nothing else needed...
Will post some pics later, thanks for all your help!
Kudos to the people posting in this thread. Robust, passionate discussion about a really useful, cheaper bass. So much useful insight, experience, and solutions to issues for people looking to fine tune theirs into a giggable budget bass.
Lots of perspective, and no flaming.
Lots of perspective, and no flaming.
NicJimBass
Flossin'? I thought your name was Munson!
I'd also like to get into this. I usually prefer satin finish on my necks, but I've been really happy with the neck on my P; however, I'm all about improvement, so...
I bought a couple of sets of deliberately unfenderish pot knobs to go with the black PG. Right now I rather like the chicken head knobs (even with the smudge off my grubby mitts)!
Here is mine, loving it so far... Thinking about an aged white pearloid pg and maybe and ashtray cover for the bridge. Has anyone replaced the tuners for Hipshot HB7s?
I'm not touching the pups or the bridge, I think they're ok by now.
I'm not touching the pups or the bridge, I think they're ok by now.
