It was a Jazz. I had no idea about basses at the time. But the plate is the giveaway! You are right!
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Jazz basses are not the only ones to use a Jazz plate. Well, they are because anything with a Jazz body Fender labels Jazz. But PJs can also have a Jazz control plate.
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That shape ashtray over the bridge is the jazz ashtray, the P ashtray is a differnt shape, shorter. Did not have to cover the lower pickup is why
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Yeah. That’s a Jazz body for sure.
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So it was a Jazz. Would be great to still own it. Thanks to everyone for the input!
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I’m confused - that headstock clearly says “Precision Bass”…
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Yeah - it’s weird. Clearly a Jazz body shape but a P neck?
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This getting interesting! Perhaps I bought a Frankenstein that didn’t even work well but I never knew. As I mentioned before, all I knew about basses at the time was that one could recognize them by the four strings… Nice mystery!
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From the Wikipedia page:
Precision Bass Lyte models were made in Japan and came to the market in late 1984. They had a smaller body shape and a modern C-shape maple neck with 22 medium-jumbo frets. They had an active P-J pickup configuration with a 2 band eq and pickup pan knob. They were produced until 1995.
Maybe? I dunno…
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I don’t remember it saying Lyte but I wish I remembered what the pickups looked like. That would say a lot but I unfortunately don’t.
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So we know it’s a jazz body with a P neck.
Pickguard, control plate & bridge cover say there’s Jazz pickups underneath.
Either a modded bass or an oddball for sure.
I’ll try to look through my fender books to see if I can find it tomorrow.
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Block inlays were a J bass thing. In the 70s a P would have had dots, which is why I wondered if it were a precision special, ie PJ
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Fender is just weird and inconsistent this way. Like the Duff, which clearly has a P-bass body, but is called a Jazz, and has inlays (and probably a J neck in general?)
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You can get them now, my Squier Classic Vibe Precision has block inlays, though it is a Jazz neck. It’s wide open now, back in the day, nope.
Duff’s bass’s neck is very custom by the way. When they got their first check he went out and bought a bass, an MIJ bass. And when they started to hit big, he needed backup basses, and they went to the Fender Custom shop to build them.
And Duff couldn’t get a neck to please him. So Fender came out and measured his bass, and the neck had a production error and was not to spec - it’s sort of oblong on the back. So Fender went and retooled to reproduce the production error, and that’s what you get today.
It’s called a Jazz because it has a Jazz body, which is how Fender does these things. Pickups not taken into account, then name comes from the body. Which is why an Aerodyne is a jazz special, as I suspect that picture is too if we could read it
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Yeah the Duff is a great combo.
But that’s clearly a Precision body, not a Jazz, on the Duff.
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This is my dream bass
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The Duff looks like a really nice bass.
There’s also the MIJ P-Bass Noir:
which I think is the best looking bass Fender has ever made.
Or if you want to stick with a P/J in that color scheme, the Yamaha BB734A in matte black:
Part of me still wishes I had gone with the black on that one. Great bass 
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My next bass will be black! But for know I like to have different colours. I figured that I usually wear black clothes so that makes my bass at least stand out a bit 
Love that MIJ P-Bass Noir.
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