Best value base bass to upgrade

Gear
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I just want to be a PRO**:wink:**
I am enjoying the Toby that Al lent me. It feels really nice.
Electronics are not rhe greatest, but they have enough to them, you can shape them with pedals or sims.
It os a really comfortable neck, lile no other I have played. It is variable contour, which is probably why it feels both different and fantastic.

Little buzzing on G, but I am fixing that now.

I can tell Al hasnā€™t played it for a while.

It os gorgeous, and in great shape.I find the bridge. Pick up to be in thee PERFECT location for my plucking hand /fingers. YYMV.

Love the shape, and truth be told, this might be the first true Jazz bass with J/J pickups I have ever played around a lot with.

A friend had a MIG j/j corvette wick. Tonal range, especially in mids was great, and looked cool as hell, but I didnt find the feel of the bass quite to my liking. It was not bD, just didnt fall in love with it.

This Toby, like the Ray4, for the price is built extremely well, great fit n finish, decent hardware, just not the greatest pre amp or pick ups.
However
Unlike tje Ray 4, you could play these pick ups for a while with the pre amp, and find decent tones.
You can turn the nids and high up and not get ear bleed like I do with the stock pick up in a Ray4
But, with my aguilar pick up in my ray 4, yeah, it sounds better then the Toby.
Even with me, Toby, playing it. :joy:.

I like the Toby for sure, still pick a Ray 4, but if you want a Jazz, A non typical squire shaoe / look, this feels really solid, and could be, as Al said, a fun base model to upgrade.

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122

Idly looking at P-basses and the Squier Classic Vibe ā€˜70s caught my eye. Great looking value/quality and generally seems to be universally loved, with many saying itā€™s better than MIM Fender. Might check one out.

Meanwhile Lobster trashes on it with a bunch of silly nitpicking and rates it two claws, proving yet again that Lobster might be the least reliable reviewer out there.

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And replaced the electronics in a dig wall so it sounded more like a Jazz bassā€¦ā€¦

I agree heā€™s not the best resource.

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Donā€™t listen to anyone giving you advice if theyā€™re wearing pyjamas.

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ā€¦and slammed the BB735A because he didnā€™t like how his favorite strings sounded on it, and claimed it had a weak B string when it clearly only needed a pickup adjustmentā€¦

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That really did just kind of sink in for me. Like, who the hell buys a Dingwall as an upgrade platform? Especially to make it sound like a J?

ā€œSure, most people would love the Batmobile as-is, but I really like my Ford F-150, so I replaced the BatTurbine with this sweet V8!ā€

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Lobster trashed the Charvel San Dimas and let me tell you, they are a fantastic instrument. heā€™s kind of hit or miss. I watch Lobster for the tones while he plays. What he blabs about is inconsequential. I can make up my own mind.

Back to the subject. I agree with @howard that the Squier CV 70s P is a good candidate; I would also suggest the Squier CV 60s P. I owned the CV 70s for a while, and what I didnā€™t like was the ultra glossy neck; now I know how to fix that, and I did on the CV 60s.

What I like about both these products is here in the US Guitar Center has a limited edition model of each, Surf Green for the CV 70s P, and CV 69s P in Sonic Blue with a painted headstock, which I like.

The CV 70s has a black binding on the neck and block inlay, which I like too.

Anyway, GC deeply discounts these basses often enough, and they let me stack coupons and bonus bucks on top of a sale, and I got mine for half the list price. Which makes it a great value to upgrade. Which I did.

The only knock I have against it is the fitment of the neck in the pocket isnā€™t as elegant as a higher tier bass. But the neck feels great, it sounds great, itā€™s solid and well built. I sanded the back of the neck some and I actuallly like the feel better than the Sire necks Iā€™ve played.

I think for a bass you can get for sub $300 and as good a quality as a Player series, better in my book because the Player P has a chonkier neck, this is a good value for a bass to upgrade.

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Yeah I just went by Ikebe and did sort of a vertical P-bass tasting, starting with the MIJ Hybrid II, then going down to the Squier CV 70ā€™s, then up a little to the MIM Player. They were all simply great, no issues with any of them. I mean, the MIM had a loose knob, who cares itā€™s just a screwdriver twist to fix that. And sure, the MIJā€™s pots felt way nicer, but the Squier and MIM didnā€™t feel bad either; in fact both felt better than either of the Warwick Rockbasses I owned.

No idea what Lobster was on about. The Squier was just fine. I would be sanding that neck though, damn that was a grippy gloss.

MIM and MIJ had different but excellent satin necks, a bit nicer finish on the MIJ as you would expect. For just $200 more I would pop for the MIJ.

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One thing I donā€™t get though - why are Fender frets so small :rofl:

Iā€™m used to Jumbos and the mediums there felt tiny.

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Iā€™d say: Someone who has the money to do it.
If I could justify such spendings to myself, I would do it just because I can and want to see where it goes.

Youtube creators with lots of viewers have that kind of money, more so as spending that money has a good potential to create more money. I guess those ā€œOh no, he didnā€™tā€ kind of videos have a potential for lots of viewers.

(Well, at least I really like to watch those Jays2Cents videos where he puts in beer or milk into a computers water cooling :D)

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Well yes, obviously anyone can blow money just to do some wankfest over-the-top thing for views.

What I really meant was, though, who would be interested in Dingwalls and looking for reviews, and then get anything of value out of Lobsterā€™s ā€œupgradeā€ video? Literally no one shopping for Dingwalls wants it to sound like a J.

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Yeah, I sanded the neck and swapped out the pots to audio taper and put in a Switchcraft jack. There is nothing to complain about in my book, and even with the upgrades still half the price of a Fender

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To be perfectly honest, he didnā€™t trash the CSD as such, and had wonderful things to say on the feel and fit and finish. He griped extensively (and excessively IMHO) about the electronics. MIM Fender does have a reputation for QC issues, so he may have got a dud.

FWIW, his channel is much better for seeing a broad view of whatā€™s out there and getting a sense for the sound, rather than a fully trustworthy in depth review. OTOH he did do a good thing about the Gretsch pickup scam. So, like everything, grain of salt and YMMV.

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Over $700 million is sales. Some of them will be garbage. Not unlike buying a new F150, most will be great some will have problems. Itā€™s a numbers game.

Iā€™d guess every Sandberg that they produce from Germany will be magnificent but then volume and price are a factor.

Just like Yelp reviews, you mainly only hear the bozos who complain, whilst most are probably pretty happy. YMMV.

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its-tradition

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Not all are. This depends on model but in general they are med. still bigger than my peaveyT-40 and Rick 4001 frets. Def take getting used to

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It does take getting used to, however I have the same ones on my Patriot and I have to say that being able to set the action really low on a PV thatā€™s not actually such a big deal.

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Ya I enjoy it. You just work with a very light touch. Letā€™s you fly around more.

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When he did his best of/worst of 2021 video, he had it as his worst bass of the year. So there is that.

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I hadnā€™t seen that. Of course, management of expectations is an important thing and for the price you pay for the CSD I guess he expected something out of this world. Whether it was a dud or the bass just didnā€™t mesh with him, I donā€™t know. I did think his griping was excessive.

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