• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

What Fender P Bass Is This?

Davealicous

Davealicous

Sep 23, 2023
33
35
#1
Hey all. So, I may or may not still be in the market for a new bass after all the comments I received on my last post (thank you all who commented). I found this bass on marketplace that I'd love your help in identifying and assessing it's worth and if it's worth wanting.

Anyway, the serial number is MN409533 (he sent me a pic of it), and it erroneously comes back as a 1994 telecaster special guitar. In his words, "[It's a] Real Fender (not a Squier). It is, however, the Squier series - but it predates the Squier brand. To my knowledge: American made neck and body that were shipped to Mexico when there was a fire at the California Fender plant. It was assembled there, so it's labeled MIM."

Since I can't verify any of this, I have no idea how to assess this bass. Does anyone here have info to share? Thanks!

Bass.png

Bass5.jpg

Bass2.jpg

Bass4.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Eli_Kyiv
#2
I had a few of these, precision and jazz. They were the start of the made in mexico basses. I worked in a guitar store back then, I think they arrived in Canada in about 1993? The bills of lading were all Squier labeled, and we called them "Fender by Squier". They were pretty good, but slightly substandard electronics. The jazz basses had two identical pickups, same size, same wiring so you could not get a humbucking setting. The jazz pickguard was once piece with no control plate. Squiers were around then too as we also sold them but this was an early offering of mexican made instruments. I sold my precision in around 2008 for $400 which was what the market would bear here at the time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bassic_desires, Davealicous, newfuture and 1 other person
#3
Beej said:
I had a few of these, precision and jazz. They were the start of the made in mexico basses. I worked in a guitar store back then, I think they arrived in Canada in about 1993? The bills of lading were all Squier labeled, and we called them "Fender by Squier". They were pretty good, but slightly substandard electronics. The jazz basses had two identical pickups, same size, same wiring so you could not get a humbucking setting. The jazz pickguard was once piece with no control plate. Squiers were around then too as we also sold them but this was an early offering of mexican made instruments. I sold my precision in around 2008 for $400 which was what the market would bear here at the time.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Would moving from my Squier P bass to this be an upgrade?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Beej
#5
Davealicous said:
Thanks! Would moving from my Squier P bass to this be an upgrade?
Click to expand...

Not sure where you are in your bass journey, but I'm gonna give you a piece of advice. Think hard as to why you want to upgrade. This will save you time, money, and heartache in the long run.

Is it because your current bass is lacking something?
Is it because you want the Fender name on the headstock?
Is it a playability thing? is your current bass set up properly?

I wish I would have been aware of these questions when when I started. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. Hell sometime we just want a new bass, to inspire us, and that's totally ok too. just do it for the right reasons.

Regarding being an upgrade, very much depends on which Squire you have. I have a Squier vintage vibe Jazz and plays nicer than some of the Fender Player Series.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ghastly, Bassic_desires and Pocket4
#6
I have one of these basses and I love it! It's the bass I play out with most often. I didn't change a thing except the strings. I went specifically looking for this era because I heard great things about the quality of the wood and build. I think I lucked out with the pickups.

$650 feels pretty high to me, though. I paid $300 for mine in 2020. That said, if pay more now for this one, knowing how much I like it. You're probably not going to see any resale value if you buy it at that price, though.
1000009554.jpg
1000009555.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: GreaserMatt, Davealicous and eaglemachine
#7
Davealicous said:
Hey all. So, I may or may not still be in the market for a new bass after all the comments I received on my last post (thank you all who commented). I found this bass on marketplace that I'd love your help in identifying and assessing it's worth and if it's worth wanting.

Anyway, the serial number is MN409533 (he sent me a pic of it), and it erroneously comes back as a 1994 telecaster special guitar. In his words, "[It's a] Real Fender (not a Squier). It is, however, the Squier series - but it predates the Squier brand. To my knowledge: American made neck and body that were shipped to Mexico when there was a fire at the California Fender plant. It was assembled there, so it's labeled MIM."

Since I can't verify any of this, I have no idea how to assess this bass. Does anyone here have info to share?
Click to expand...
GC has a used one in red, same logo, same white control knobs, 420 bucks...

As to the condition its in, they have it listed as in great condition.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
  • Like
Reactions: Davealicous, Rev_Slinky, sxaxsx and 1 other person
#9
Seems just too expensive… even if it was somehow ‘worth’ that in some justifiable sense, there are just SO many great P-basses available for less than that. If you have cash in hand, just go try out some used ones at pawn shops and guitar shops until one makes you feel giddy.

There are many Mexican fenders that play fantastic, and any with meh electronics can be upgraded for less than $650 all in, and the same goes for Squier (while keeping an eye out for versions with crummy hardware).. you can get a fantastic feeling bass for $150-300 easily, and even upgrading the pickups and paying for a setup would get you in under $650 probably.

Hell, 650 isn’t that far from getting a decent brand new one.

Also- if you’re shopping basses, get good at setups, and just bring an Allen wrench with you.. I’ve never been told anything about fixing the action on a bass.. maybe don’t mess with the truss rod, since you don’t want to have bad luck and break a defective rod or something, and I’d find a way-out truss relief to be suspicious enough to probably pass on anyway (for a generic find-anywhere bass).



i’m no fender historian, but this is not one of those iconic lineage instruments whose story adds some value.. it’s basically “these are some of the earliest Fenders that they made cheaply and wired badly!” and I can’t say it inspires my romantic side.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Davealicous, FRoss6788 and Clark W
#10
eddododo said:
...there are just SO many great P-basses available for less than that. If you have cash in hand, just go try out some used ones at pawn shops and guitar shops until one makes you feel giddy.
Click to expand...

Guitar shops tend to know what they have. But pawnshop buys can be the best, especially if they have wear in the right places. Buckle rash on the backside. Wear on the forearm contour and the frets, especially the first five, etc.... It lets you know the bass was good enough to be played, a lot.

And don't forget Goodwill. With the way they have been doing things lately, you're liable to walk out the door with a vintage bass worth 5 grand for only 500 bucks! Wouldn't that be a heck of a find?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Davealicous
#11
Price is very high IMO.

I had one (a P) I got off craigslist around 2002 or so for $50 and struggled to sell 6ish years later for 150.
I changed the PU to a baselines as the stock was a little anemic sounding to me.

Played very nice, but nice for $50. Gigged it in a scorpions tribute for a couple gigs then relegated it to beater duty.

Still regret selling it, but as others have mentioned, vintage modified or better squires are a lot better.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Davealicous
#13
Clark W said:
Guitar shops tend to know what they have. But pawnshop buys can be the best, especially if they have wear in the right places. Buckle rash on the backside. Wear on the forearm contour and the frets, especially the first five, etc.... It lets you know the bass was good enough to be played, a lot.

And don't forget Goodwill. With the way they have been doing things lately, you're liable to walk out the door with a vintage bass worth 5 grand for only 500 bucks! Wouldn't that be a heck of a find?
Click to expand...
To be honest, I’ve found pawnshops pretty clued in these days, whereas guitar center is about the most clueless actor in the space
 
  • Like
Reactions: Davealicous and Rev_Slinky
#14
Ibycan said:
Not sure where you are in your bass journey, but I'm gonna give you a piece of advice. Think hard as to why you want to upgrade. This will save you time, money, and heartache in the long run.

Is it because your current bass is lacking something?
Is it because you want the Fender name on the headstock?
Is it a playability thing? is your current bass set up properly?

I wish I would have been aware of these questions when when I started. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. Hell sometime we just want a new bass, to inspire us, and that's totally ok too. just do it for the right reasons.

Regarding being an upgrade, very much depends on which Squire you have. I have a Squier vintage vibe Jazz and plays nicer than some of the Fender Player Series.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this comment, Ibycan. I loved reading every comment posted on this thread, and all of them had valuable information regarding my original post. Your comment, though, really got me thinking. Taking your advice and thinking through why I really want an upgrade, I have come to this conclusion:

I really don't know anything about bass guitars. I don't know what strings to use. I don't know much about pickups (I think I know the basic difference between active and passive) or how one decides between the stock pickups or replacing them with this or that option and why. I don't know how to gauge whether a bass was constructed well (like, are the frets set correctly and to the correct heights, ect...) I don't really know what sound I want (I kind of do, somewhat based on what I've learned I don't want over the years, though) nor how to get that sound. I can't work on my own bass. For this reason, I have no idea whether the basses I've played over the years were worth playing. I keep thinking, "What am I missing here in terms of sound and ease of playability? Would I be happy with this bass if only I knew what the possibilities were?" I have this mini dread that I've been playing a crappily set up bass this whole time and that I'll kick myself someday when I finally have one in my hands that plays like a dream and sounds just right.

So... with all that being said. I wonder if I need to start a new thread where I lead with that? I've only owned two basses in my life. I bought a late 80's early 90s MIM Fender Jazz bass in 1992 that I played for eight years before selling it. I didn't play bass again until last year when I bought a Squier Jazz, realized I didn't like the pickups (and hadn't really liked them with my first jazz, either) so I traded it straight across for the Squier Classsic Vibe '70s P bass I have now (my profile pic). I like the sound more because it doesn't pick up every little finger touch of my plucking fingers so I've learned something there. However, the frets aren't the correct heights, nor are they set correctly into the next (at least according to the GC tech who looked at it. For instance, when I play a low G on the E string, it buzzes on the nearest fret. Long story short, what I really want is to discover the sound I want in a bass, find that nexus of quality and price, find one of those that has been constructed well so I don't have to F with stuff like fret heights and whatnot, so all I have to do is do the set up myself and not have to do any drastic rehabs on it. I don't care if it's fender or not.

Damn, this is getting long. I live in Kalamazoo, MI. The GC store here isn't very big. Someone commented on a previous post I'd made about the bass I currently have, and advised me to make the 2 hour drive to Ft Wayne to the Sweetwater store there and get busy playing all the basses. That'd be the sure fire way to zero in on the sound I want. After that, I'll have to watch some videos on how to gauge whether a bass is worth buying or not. I'm sure they're out there. Anyway, this is lot of read and could require a long reply, and not everyone's got time for that. I'm thinking a new thread might be in order just for this, but if you do reply to this, I'll see what you have to say, first. You and anyone else who's read this whole thing!
 
#15
Davealicous said:
Thanks for this comment, Ibycan. I loved reading every comment posted on this thread, and all of them had valuable information regarding my original post. Your comment, though, really got me thinking. Taking your advice and thinking through why I really want an upgrade, I have come to this conclusion:

I really don't know anything about bass guitars. I don't know what strings to use. I don't know much about pickups (I think I know the basic difference between active and passive) or how one decides between the stock pickups or replacing them with this or that option and why. I don't know how to gauge whether a bass was constructed well (like, are the frets set correctly and to the correct heights, ect...) I don't really know what sound I want (I kind of do, somewhat based on what I've learned I don't want over the years, though) nor how to get that sound. I can't work on my own bass. For this reason, I have no idea whether the basses I've played over the years were worth playing. I keep thinking, "What am I missing here in terms of sound and ease of playability? Would I be happy with this bass if only I knew what the possibilities were?" I have this mini dread that I've been playing a crappily set up bass this whole time and that I'll kick myself someday when I finally have one in my hands that plays like a dream and sounds just right.

So... with all that being said. I wonder if I need to start a new thread where I lead with that? I've only owned two basses in my life. I bought a late 80's early 90s MIM Fender Jazz bass in 1992 that I played for eight years before selling it. I didn't play bass again until last year when I bought a Squier Jazz, realized I didn't like the pickups (and hadn't really liked them with my first jazz, either) so I traded it straight across for the Squier Classsic Vibe '70s P bass I have now (my profile pic). I like the sound more because it doesn't pick up every little finger touch of my plucking fingers so I've learned something there. However, the frets aren't the correct heights, nor are they set correctly into the next (at least according to the GC tech who looked at it. For instance, when I play a low G on the E string, it buzzes on the nearest fret. Long story short, what I really want is to discover the sound I want in a bass, find that nexus of quality and price, find one of those that has been constructed well so I don't have to F with stuff like fret heights and whatnot, so all I have to do is do the set up myself and not have to do any drastic rehabs on it. I don't care if it's fender or not.

Damn, this is getting long. I live in Kalamazoo, MI. The GC store here isn't very big. Someone commented on a previous post I'd made about the bass I currently have, and advised me to make the 2 hour drive to Ft Wayne to the Sweetwater store there and get busy playing all the basses. That'd be the sure fire way to zero in on the sound I want. After that, I'll have to watch some videos on how to gauge whether a bass is worth buying or not. I'm sure they're out there. Anyway, this is lot of read and could require a long reply, and not everyone's got time for that. I'm thinking a new thread might be in order just for this, but if you do reply to this, I'll see what you have to say, first. You and anyone else who's read this whole thing!
Click to expand...
Well I read it all. And here's the conclusion I have come up with....

Whoever said drive 2 hours to Sweetwater and play a lot of basses, gave you the best advice one could give in your situation.

I'll add to that, go early on a day off so you can spend as much time there as possible.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CTBassGuy, Davealicous and Rev_Slinky
#16
Agreed. Playing other basses is going to be a great way to see what else is possible.

The nice thing about already having a relatively inexpensive bass is that you can start learning how to work on it without too much fear of messing it up! This place seems like an inexhaustible font of bass wisdom, so you're in the right place for that. There are also good tutorials and other resources out there. It would probably be helpful to find a good tech/luthier that you really trust who can give you an honest, informed opinion on things. The home of Gibson and Bell's Brewery ought to have a few good options! Best of luck!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Davealicous
#18
Davealicous said:
Thanks for this comment, Ibycan. I loved reading every comment posted on this thread, and all of them had valuable information regarding my original post. Your comment, though, really got me thinking. Taking your advice and thinking through why I really want an upgrade, I have come to this conclusion:

I really don't know anything about bass guitars. I don't know what strings to use. I don't know much about pickups (I think I know the basic difference between active and passive) or how one decides between the stock pickups or replacing them with this or that option and why. I don't know how to gauge whether a bass was constructed well (like, are the frets set correctly and to the correct heights, ect...) I don't really know what sound I want (I kind of do, somewhat based on what I've learned I don't want over the years, though) nor how to get that sound. I can't work on my own bass. For this reason, I have no idea whether the basses I've played over the years were worth playing. I keep thinking, "What am I missing here in terms of sound and ease of playability? Would I be happy with this bass if only I knew what the possibilities were?" I have this mini dread that I've been playing a crappily set up bass this whole time and that I'll kick myself someday when I finally have one in my hands that plays like a dream and sounds just right.

So... with all that being said. I wonder if I need to start a new thread where I lead with that? I've only owned two basses in my life. I bought a late 80's early 90s MIM Fender Jazz bass in 1992 that I played for eight years before selling it. I didn't play bass again until last year when I bought a Squier Jazz, realized I didn't like the pickups (and hadn't really liked them with my first jazz, either) so I traded it straight across for the Squier Classsic Vibe '70s P bass I have now (my profile pic). I like the sound more because it doesn't pick up every little finger touch of my plucking fingers so I've learned something there. However, the frets aren't the correct heights, nor are they set correctly into the next (at least according to the GC tech who looked at it. For instance, when I play a low G on the E string, it buzzes on the nearest fret. Long story short, what I really want is to discover the sound I want in a bass, find that nexus of quality and price, find one of those that has been constructed well so I don't have to F with stuff like fret heights and whatnot, so all I have to do is do the set up myself and not have to do any drastic rehabs on it. I don't care if it's fender or not.

Damn, this is getting long. I live in Kalamazoo, MI. The GC store here isn't very big. Someone commented on a previous post I'd made about the bass I currently have, and advised me to make the 2 hour drive to Ft Wayne to the Sweetwater store there and get busy playing all the basses. That'd be the sure fire way to zero in on the sound I want. After that, I'll have to watch some videos on how to gauge whether a bass is worth buying or not. I'm sure they're out there. Anyway, this is lot of read and could require a long reply, and not everyone's got time for that. I'm thinking a new thread might be in order just for this, but if you do reply to this, I'll see what you have to say, first. You and anyone else who's read this whole thing!
Click to expand...

I gotcha. the knowledge you seek comes with experience. no matter what anyone tells you online, there are things that you will have to discover yourself. but I would agree, that making a 2 hour drive to Sweetwater may be worth it, because there is nothing like taking your time, and finding a bass that speaks to you. not to say that your taste, and likes may not change later, but if you find a bass that inspires you and you can barely put it down then, that's a keeper. There are gonna be dulls and incredible finds regardless of the brand.

Regarding your current bass, there are things that can be fixed, and things that can't be. I have found that a good luther and a set up (not a guitar center tech) can do wonders, join a local facebook page or something with bassist or musicians and find someone that that does good work, then take it to them and see if they can make your current bass play better. and get rid of the things, that bother you. a good set up goes a long way.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back