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Squier Vintage Modified Precision V: who's got one?

#1,961
Bassometer said:
Does anybody know if there are "stiffening rods" in the VMP5? I assume there is not. I have not found any dead spots on the neck.
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No graphite or metal reinforcements, just a conventional 2-piece neck and head-access truss rod.

Interestingly, the VM Jazz basses have a skunk stripe neck instead- no reinforcements on those, either.
 
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#1,962
Chuck M said:
...I have an American Standard PU on the way to me and already have CTS pots, a Switchcraft jack and a Sprague orange drop cap and will be upgrading the electronics when the PU's arrive. It actually is quite good as is but has a bit of an edge to the tone and gets very muddy sounding when the highs are rolled off. I believe the US electronics will improve the tone. I'll install a new set of strings when I replace the electronics.
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If you go waay back in this thread, you'll see that a number of us have fooled around with other pickups, and generally found that the differences are relatively small, especially between the stock Squier and Fender AM Standard pickups.

When I recently rewired mine with Bourns pots while installing a PJ setup, I took a moment to measure the stock pots. I was surprised to find that they were way beyond even normal 10% tolerances, with the resistance on the low side.

I'm still using the stock tone cap with the new pots in the PJ setup, and the tone control is very smooth and useful.

I normally don't bother with Bourns or CTS pots until the stock ones start giving me trouble.

However in this case, I'm wondering if the taper may be off, as well as the overall values, at least on some batches of the stock pots. That could explain people's inconsistent experience with the tone control in particular.
 
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#1,966
Well, I hit that buy it now a little too quickly. I bought a new USA Fender PU for my bass but it says in the ad that one of the plastic covers is gloss and the other is matte. I've been looking to see if I could find the Fender covers for sale but only find 4 string P PU covers. Does anyone know of a source for Fender AS P5 PU covers?
 
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#1,969
Steve York said:
This arrived at my door today. I live in Mexico . i have trimmed down to three basses. A Fodera ($11,000 new paid $8000); a Lakland 55-02 ($1400 new, paid $800) : and a Takamine TB10 ( $4300 new ,paid $800)
I mostly play jazz and latin jazz in jazz venues here, but also some ska, reggae , blues and rock in tourist bars where i do not want to risk my basses around drunks!
Good instruments are hard to find in Mexico. I have been searching for a good dive bar instrument and found this thread. My main bass for 25 years was a 1957 Precision bass which I sold for Fodera money! I do miss that wide maple neck and I play 5 bangers these days so these Squiers really appealed to me and I was disappointed to see they are discontinued.
i did a search on Mercado Libre which is Mexico's version of Amazon and ebay combined and was surprised to find some for sale brand new! Choice of all three colours. About $400 US including shipping. I ordered a sunburst. I think the white is better looking , but white looks bad once it gets dinged whereas beaten up sunburst basses somehow just look funky. The grain on mine already looks funky so I'm happy with it! I hope View attachment 3184128 the fb darkens with age!
The neck and fretting are great. The truss rod does not need adjusting and the intonation is good. I changed the strings for a lightly used set of Fodera nickels 45 - 130. they work really well and I'm amazed at how good the B string sounds. The weight is abot 9lbs versus 10lbs for my Lakland and 10.6lbs for my Fodera.
Since this is not my main bass I am not going to hot rod it. I will change the strap pegs for the mushroom head type. Also probably change the pots and capacitor to tame some of the nasty highs, but I am using Fender Rumble combos in the bars and the vintage and contour switches help with this. i have a luthier friend here who custom winds pickups so I may have him make one to my specs.
I felt that i was taking a big chance ordering this sight unseen but I have one year to return it. It's definitely a keeper just for the neck!
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Ok, I gotta ask...how did you score a $4300 bass for only $800?
 
#1,970
I was just able to obtain one of these elusive critters in CAR. I'll post a photo or two next weekend once I've picked it up.

Now my problem is, should I go to page 1 and starting reading through all 99 pages of comments to decide what mods if any I want to make to it. Hmmmm, I'm going to have to think about that.

TD
 
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#1,972
I installed an American Standard PU, CTS pots, Switchcraft jack and a new cap. It sounds great and the controls are easier to use since the taper seems more even. Was it worth it? I don't think so. There is a little less harshness in the highs with the USA PU but the difference is slight. I was able to do the work myself and it still cost about $100 in parts.

Take that $100 and buy strings. The original electronics sound very good in comparison to the USA electronics. This very fact was stated earlier in the thread but I had to hear for myself. Yup. My brothers were right....the original electronics sound great.
 
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#1,973
/\/\3phist0 said:
The bridge is the weak link. Pups are ok, pots and tonecap next. Tuners are ok also.
Oh and flat top knobs.
I did make a new nut for mine, and drilled for string through which was a waste of effort
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I think the consensus is pots are the weak point. After that, maybe the bridge.

I still have my original bridge, tuners, pup, but am going to replace the pots and cap. I did add a little spacer on the b string between the bridge and the ball, and cut the spring in half, otherwise there's an intonation issue.

Hipshot makes a drop in bridge for Squier, but personally I like their vintage bridge.
 
#1,974
tedsalt said:
I think the consensus is pots are the weak point. After that, maybe the bridge.

I still have my original bridge, tuners, pup, but am going to replace the pots and cap. I did add a little spacer on the b string between the bridge and the ball, and cut the spring in half, otherwise there's an intonation issue.

Hipshot makes a drop in bridge for Squier, but personally I like their vintage bridge.
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The bridge seems fine to me. I am able to intonate the bass with no problem. I do believe the next step will be to put some LaBella flats on it.
 
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#1,975
I've had mine (CAR) for 3-4 years, bought new. I am still playing mine stock. Only issue I have ever had is the jack cuts out from time to time. I love the neck on it so much when I came across one for sale, I bought it and put it on a VMJ5 body.

Fender hit a homerun with this one.

BnB
 
#1,977
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It is dark here today so photos are not the best. Yeah...it looks just like the one you have only this one is mine! LOL
 
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#1,978
Bassometer said:
How heavy is your VMJ5 body (compared to your VMP5)?
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Using the totally unscientific method of weighing me and the assembled bass at the same time, both weighed the same, 10.78 lbs. The VMP5 is stock, the J5 has an Audere which probably only would be an ounce heavier, so no difference. They are definitely the two heaviest basses I own.

BnB
 
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