Your opinion on new Fender P5

search function? no offense intended but i'm sure i've read reviews.

 

Oh yes, I love the new P-basses, and the 5ers are as well-made as the amazing 4-strings. Yet for me, based on playing only one P5, I prefer the feel of a 35" B string.

 

5 posts down

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=444776

 

Check out this review of the P5 by Ed Friedland on youtube.



IME, the B is one of the weakest parts of the tone. It's usable, but fairly floppy and unfocused IMO. I'm not sure how much of that is due to the Fender Nickel strings because I've not tried anything different yet. I have the action as low as it can go with very little neck relief. The exposed core B is a must, and I'm not a huge fan of this type of low B. I have had better luck with the low B with DR Hi Beams on other 34" scale Fender style instruments I own. To my ears, the B is much less floppy.

In the vid with Ed on youtube, he discusses the low B and how much he likes it. Check it out and see what you think.

 

I can't help you with the recordings but I know mine works great live, I feel and sound like I'm playing my 78 P but have the B available.

I might just put a preamp in it one day but will gig it a bit more before I do.

I did put a BAV bridge on it and it helped the tone a bit, it's a bit more clear.

Mike

 

Over the past month, I've been to the big music stores here in Florida, Atlanta and Jackson MS and no one had them in stock I'd really like to play that B string before I plop my $$$$ down. Ed Friedland could make a washtub bass sound great

 

I played one for a few minutes at the 14th Street GC in Manhattan - cured my GAS right away. Neck is *way* chunkier than I like, but the tone was great!

 

I just got mine Friday, White with Tort..god, it's sexy.

It's incredible. I've been playing 5 strings since 86...so I have a bit of experience on 'em.

This will be short, as I can't find anything else to add to Ed's Review.

The bass is super light, and feels like 'home' if you know what I mean.

While someone made a comment here about a 'super chunky' neck. I disagree.

I have a 2000 MIA Fender Jazz V....at first, the P5 neck looked exactly the same, except for the new headstock and tuner configuration and the dark rosewood board.

However, I found the front to back profile on the new P5 thinner...wide yes..uhm it's a 5 string, but chunky is not at all is how I would describe it...wide and flat, very comfortable.

The strings were the biggest suprise for me. I was freaking out about the string gauge of the Fender 8250 Tapers....130 B, .110 E. However, with the taper, the feel of the strings are such that I just ordered 5 more sets, which one I will add immediately to my Jazz V..The strings work, very playable, 'speak' well and have tons of tone.
The feel of the strings IS different. I understand the 'floppy' issue..however, this sure as hell doesn't mean a 34" scale can't do it, as not many complain about the B on a StingRay 5. Floppiness usually lies in the string, not the bass...but again, that's only my experience.

Recording wise, which I did in Pro-Tools this week. It smokes. I WILL be honest and say I may raise the pickups a bit, as it came with the 'slanted' configuration which has always puzzled me, since I've always kept my Pbass pickups about equal height.
But this is a niggle. The B is dead on with the rest of the strings.

This bass is top notch. I've been a Fender player for a looooooong time, but not a Fender buyer of their recent stuff, not a vintage snob (bunch a hooey IMO), but the 'crapshoot' factor of Fender is what I was always concerned about, how you had to play 5 or 6 to get to the 'one'... Whatever Fender is doing THESE days, seems to be the right thing, I bought this on the web, perfect out of the box. I'm no noob either, so I do know what perfect means...

It's killer, and, it made me think: I wonder what that new 08 Jazz 4 would be like...

Hope this helps

mk

 

I also disagree with the comment about the neck being too chunky. My experience was the opposite - the neck is very comfortable, in large part because it is extremely flat front to back. I had no problem reaching across the neck to play the low B - amazingly comfortable.

The string spacing also feels narrower than a traditional P-Bass (very much like a Jazz), allowing for fast runs with surprising ease.

In all, the 2008 American Standard series from Fender is incredible, with many improvements to the instruments, and a major improvement to the hardshell case.

I did, however, swap out the strings for a new set of Thomastik Infeld Superalloys. These strings feel great - terrific for slides. But they sound worlds better than the default Fenders, pristine and booming. They expecially brought greater clarity to the low B, and eliminated the slight "wobble" I experienced before changing strings. Even though the TIs are not tapered, and thus rest slightly on top of the saddle groove (this I thought was a mistake by Fender, an "improvement" designed possibly to sell more specially designed Fender tapered string sets), the strings nonethteless feel "tight", stay in tune, and intonate almost perfectly. This is an important consideration, and I would tell other owners of new 2008 Fender American basses not to hesitate to try their favorite strings, even if not tapered to fit the new Fender saddles. In my case, doing so brought immediate improvement to feel and tone, especially to the low B.

FYI, I own the P5 in Candy Cola finish with maple fingerboard - looks just great and the maple adds just a hint of bright zing for more aggressive styles. I'm considering getting a rosewood board to string with flatwounds for classic Motown and reggae thump.

Hope that helps - for the $, the 2008 Fender American basses are just terrific.

 

My thoughts exactly, what else do you want for 1100 bucks.

At that price I can mod a few things if need be and still have cash to burn.

 

The slanted P/U config. is to match the relatively small fingerboard radius. With a totally flat pickup the A string is farther away from the P/U than the B and G. IME, it's not a huge difference, but I do hear a volume difference across the strings with the P/U flat.

 

I've wondered about that myself. In the past I too have changed out the factory Fender bridge for a BA, but this is the first bridge that I really have confidence in. It's beefy and solid, but hey, the BadAss bridge is a tried and true upgrade so I can definitely understand the desire to switch. I may have to A/B the Badass just to see.

As a previous poster noted, the bass does leave some cash available for doing some modding.

 

I liked it, but there were things about that particular bass that just made it not perfect for me.

But, it's a 5 string version of a regular P-bass. There's that.

 

The BAV did help, my p5 was pretty light, so it gave it a bit more weight, better balance and some more roundness in the bottom end, notes come through a bit clearer now as well.

The new bridges are good, but I've always done the BA on my Fenders or Fender clones, they just look right to me.

If I can, I'll get a photo and post this weekend.

I often wondered about flattening out the pickups, I might try that before I gig tonight. I would think it would help get the B string through a bit more.

Mike