Leo Fender has left the chat.
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That’s cool but this from the same range has piqued my interest
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Agree that’s the one I would get
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I am so disowned form the Fender family. There goes my inheritance.
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Yeah that one is super cool. They need to lay off the Telecaster bong hits though, apparently they are down to “Slap a Tele headstock on a P-bass and call it a Telecaster Bass.”
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Actually I think I prefer this color. Goes better with the bong hits
Something to note is the Vintera series seems to have the remove the neck to adjust the truss for all the models, except this one looks like the nut is on the headstock
This is also a slab body which is fine by me
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Ooh thats a great color.
I really like this thing, but the marketing cracks me up
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I’d worry about the bridge being too narrow like on the Squiers this the Stay Trem wider one which is almost a must for intonation. Curtis Novak pickups are a luxury but I gotta believe better than what they put in a MIM. I don’t see a mention of the AVRI Trem in the specs.
Honesty, for $1399!!! I’d rather upgrade a Squier…
Here is my tally =$1189
Bass = $519
Upgraded:
Curtis Novak Pickups = $390
Stay trem Bridge = $90
Mastery Vibrato = $190
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Or ditch the trem, convert to hardtail, have way better tuning and intonation, and shave off a couple pounds of weight.
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One other consideration…
The Vintera has truss rod adjustment at the heal, Squier at the headstock. BOOO Vintera dopes
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As long as there’s a slot in the pickguard to adjust it, I really prefer heel adjustments, by like a lot. It’s so much easier IMO.
If you have to remove anything to adjust it, yeah that’s just dopey vintage cultism.
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I don’t see it in the specs either, but the trem does have a lock on it like the AVRI. And the patent number on the plate, so if it’s not AVRI, it’s a close copy
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Imagine how much nicer it would be without the trem arm sticking up between the strings there. Realistically, how much do you use the trem on bass?
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ROFL. Like clockwork, a nice looking SBV-J2 turned up on Yahoo Auctions 11 hours ago:
It’s fine though, I want the SBV-800MF more, and they are asking $500 too much for this one to boot.
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That’s the same bogus one I sent you a while ago. They refuse to answer any questions about it. It looks chipped in a couple places bad but won’t tell me if they are chips or reflections. Etc.
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that’s a crazy deal !
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IKR? Due to the weak yen you can pick up 550s for around 450 euro now too. A bunch on the market around that.
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Wow that’s insane. At the time, maybe 12-15 years ago, my goal was a 550 and I was unable to find one for sale in Europe (!). That’s why I bought my 500 (which is super cool already, but yeah, I was searching for a 550).
I’d love a 550 and even more a 800, obviously, but the neck on the SBV is a bit too narrow for me … that’s why I’m not searching for a 550 anymore. I keep my 500 because that’s a “Jazz Bass but everything is better” to me, I’m not a Jazz Bass guy but that’s cool to have a nice one.
Still, the SBV line is absolutly stellar considering the quality which compares easily with the Fender MIA range, the pickups are excellent (much better than average Fender MIA pickups) and actually the instruments are kinda perfect : I don’t see any upgrade.
It’s incredible that you got a 800, @howard.
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Can’t wait for it to arrive 
Agree about the quality, these are extremely well made instruments. And yeah, Yamaha’s in-house pickups are really good in general and these are standouts even for Yamaha. The instruments just sound great.
Now that I think about it, I have never been tempted to replace the pickups in any of the many Yamaha I have owned. Whereas for many other brands I do so more or less right away; neither of my Fenders went unscathed there (and were greatly improved by the swap). But Yamaha pickups are nearly always great.
It really is kind of crazy:
tons in that range.
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