Though I do respect it if you feel the need to make it a nuclear navel gazing exercise 
Life is short…just buy both of them.
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I got an itch to finish my shed so I can have my own bass den. 
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I like my Stingray because I can vary tone controls, I can also move my hand around to get different tone so I can go from punchy and nasally to flabby and fat and everywhere in-between. I actually don’t play my Squire PJ too much because two volume knobs are the most awkward way to dial in tone. Mine was active EQ at one point and got converted. I think I might see if I can go back. Is rather have 2 tone knobs and a blend instead of two volume knobs and a barely there tone.
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Hey now this was out of context, 
Do you think for a second that you can ve talked in to less because I’d love to have talked you into this Pete Wentz mod.
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That my motto! Buying what? I forgot already 
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It’s not too late - I have loads of veneer here. I could rip out the dreaded jazz pickup and fill the cavity of the bridge pickup and spray some paint over it
The only real issue would be the pickguard … I am still in 100% failure mode!
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There no pickguard interference because you are eliminating the jazz pickup and bring all down to just one volume knob. So you just need to cover the bridge pickup cavity and get the dots to cover the knob holes.
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Hahaha! I’ll keep that in mind - if I do that you know that I have failed miserably!
I have three raw pickguards here … and they WILL be used for making new pickguards and control plates, no matter what.
But this trivial thing turns out to be the most complicated thing.
But let’s not “spoil” this thread with pickguard discussions.
We have the other wonderful thread for that ^^
I own two P/J, currently they are all I own. Neither have especially thin necks and both are 40mm nut width. Both are beefy tone monsters and sound great.
But they aren’t P-basses
I have owned a P-bass, a nice MIJ Fender. It was a great bass. It was very different from my P/Js; I like the P/J more, but if I had an itch for a P-bass, I would get another P-bass.
It has nothing to do with the sound or tone. I can make either of my P/J’s sound so close to a P-bass that it doesn’t matter at all, especially in the mix. But, like I mentioned earlier and others filled in some more details around, a P-bass has a different quality to it, simple, very Zen, it does just one thing, in a big chonky way.
I’m not looking for that but if I was I would get another P-bass.
Back to @sunDOG though - did you get the Aria? You should get the Aria
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I bought the Aria, and have spent the entire evening trying get it half-decently set up. The neck had been shimmed, the truss rod completely loosened, so the neck had a huge bow in it and the saddles wound up as high as they would go. I’ve removed the shim, tensioned the truss rod and lowered the saddles, so it now reasonably playable, but still not 100%. I’m actually tempered to book it in with the local guitar tech and get him to have a look with it. Oh, it’s also sporting new, D’Adario flats. I’ve played flats on my fretless, but never on a fretted bass. It’s “interesting”…
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Yikes! Can you get the neck flat? Might make sense to remove the strings, tension the neck completely flat, check for high frets etc, and then put on rounds you like (as they will be lower tension too). Then start from there, with everything screwed down to roughly factory spec (from anyone, doesn’t need to be Aria’s specs) in terms of pickup height and string height. Basically a complete reset.
If the neck is warped into the bow, another thing I have done before is remove strings and put in a slight backbow with the truss rod and let it sit that way for a few weeks, to help fix any warpage that had set in. Seemed to work.
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It’s more or less flat now, still a slight bow in it, but nothing like it was. The truss rod was getting tight and I didn’t want to go to far… Are rounds lower tension than flats? I didn’t know that. I actually prefer the feel of rounds, so yes, I’ll restring it. I also quite like the feel of the strings I have on my Dingwall - I know a completely different beast - but they are lighter / thinner than normal, I might try to get something like them. That will also ease the tension.
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Rounds as a rule are lower tension than flats
Round core as a rule are lower tension than hex core
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I’ve got one of those P/J’s and I haven’t been able to make it sound close enough to my P bass yet that I’d just go with it over my actual P. Even going all on the neck pickup and boosting the bass for more thump, I can hear a difference.
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Absolutely. A PJ is its own beast. Only a P is a true P.
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Long thread, but fun.
You really wanted a P bass, so bought a PJ?
I hear you. Trying to find a P Bass in todays market is tough. They’re pretty rare. Sometimes you have to compromise I guess.
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Whoaw - you have put a lot of effort into getting that bass reasonably playable.
I would have a bad feeling about it, especially if it concerns potential truss rod issues.
I hope that a luthier can sort it out!
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Sorry to hear it is a bit of a lemon you got there… 
Hopefully with some TLC and potentially the assistance of a luthier you can get the bass back in shape!! (A lot of the issues could come from a bad shim job!)
100% there with you!
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The neck is pretty much flat now and I’ll make some more adjustments after I have restrung it with rounds - need to order some. That said, I recoded the bass line this morning and it sounds really good. To yesterday’s conversation, I had it just on the split p pickup and with the tone rolled entirely off and the sound it was making fitted pretty well with the song. Need to play around with it a bit more, plus pick a slightly different preset in the multi effects pedal - need a bit less sustain that the one I was using this morning - but this will be a job for this evening.
I’ll report back!!
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