@HowlinDawg is joking, as am I. The angle of the photo makes the headstock look big. The P Bass headstock has remained pretty much the same size for 75 years.
However when CBS bought Fender in 1965 they increased the size of the Strat headstock? Why? so that the Fender logo would appear bigger on TV. Details here:
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My opinion on buying Fender is: Yes, if you find the right one.
I love my Fender Precision. Killer tone, 8.2 lbs, perfectly balanced, Oly white, Rosewood fingerboard, Tort, and a killer ‘63 P Bass neck profile.
This one is a lifer for me.
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I am now up to 6 Fender basses.
1 US
1 MIM
3 MIJ
1 Squier Indonesian
I have to say I like them all, and have modified or will modify all but 1 of them in some way.
So, although I like them, I like them better with changes.
Another question then is….
Are there basses you find that are just darn perfect as they come from the factory?
If so what?
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Is that question aimed at Fender owners only? I’m asking because this is a Fender thread and one can only assume.
Not my MIM P Bass. There was some fret sprout. So I used my fret file to smooth off the sharp fret ends and spend a bit of time tidying them up.
The action was so high Gary Coleman could have easily walked under the strings. So a quick setup but nothing too hard.
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I have had no urge to modify any of my Yamahas at all. Pickups are fantastic, the other hardware is great, the basses themselves are well made and the fit and finish is outstanding.
Mine haven’t had fret sprout but you can definitely feel the frets along the edge. There’s nothing to file or round off, I think it’s just how Yamaha cuts frets - you notice them. I think Josh even mentioned it in his TRBX304 review.
If I had kept my Warwick Rockbasses, I would have replaced the EQ’s with 3-band. I dislike 2-band EQs a lot. And put in active/passive switches while I was in there.
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Sure, let’s keep it Fender for here, but maybe I will start another thread on the general topic.
@Barney
I am thinking more along the lines of upgrade needs/wants vs. quality control issues.
The only Fender I have not modded was the Custom Shop one, because it was exactly what I wanted. Every other Fender I have has or will have the pickups changed out on at the very least.
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I have 5 Fender bases.
2 - MIM (Player Jag and Jazz (up for sale))
2 - MIC (Squier Jag H and Paranormal)
1 - MII (Squier CV 70s P Bass)
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I see what you mean; the pickup thing is such a personal and relatively cheap mod. At some point I will be tempted to drop in another set of pickups for fun.
The standard pickups in my P Bass currently sound great to my ears; to you it might sound like the teacher from Charlie Brown. But my hearing is messed up from the military 
But I think old Leo got it right all those years ago. There’s nothing fundamental I’d change about this thing.
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I don’t mind the P pickup in my MIM Vintera at all, it6s just getting the Les Claypool
P’up to match the color scheme (and give it a whirl.
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For $800 I would have thought that they should have better quality control 
Both of my Yamahas played perfect right out of the box.
My 304 neck took over a week to settle in to be able to set it up and was nowhere near setup via sweetwater
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I think this is a question of perspective. The fretwork was generally excellent as was the rest of the fit and finish. However I have a little bit of OCD. Which is a very useful thing to have as a finish carpenter.
There was maybe a light 1/64th of fret sprout on some of the higher frets. Most normal people would think it’s great and wouldn’t notice it. But I want to slide my hand up and feel nothing, like it’s sliding on glass.
Secondly it’s a numbers game. The Mexican Fender plant produces a lot of guitars. Maybe some of those that are made aren’t quite as good as others.
Yamaha also make a large amount of guitars and some of those will also be not great. I’m glad you got a good one but somebody somewhere will get a lemon. If you’re knocking out a Bass for less than $300 some of them are going to be a bit rubbish.
I bought a new Yamaha acoustic years ago and it went straight back to the store. The frets were like barbed wire and for what i was paying I wasn’t going to fix it.
As far as setup. It was fine out of the box, but I like to run my action pretty low (less than 2mm on the E at the 17th) so there’s no way you’d ever buy any guitar from a manufacturer with that setup. They have to allow for the fact that the neck will move in transit so they set it higher at the factory.
Lastly $800 isn’t that much money for a Bass anymore. It’s Fender’s entry level guitar. But with a little bit of elbow grease and some patience it’s now lovely.
Like I said, I’m glad the Yamaha is working out for you.
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I wonder why it took so long to settle in.
According to the luthier in the music shop I deal with the Yamaha Basses he receives are shipped with the truss rods completely loose and very little string tension.
Maybe that’s the reason although a week seems like a long time.
The TRBX line has double action truss rods, so loose (the “neutral zone” in the middle) and loose strings is the correct way to store and ship them.
Not sure why you waited at all for it to “settle in”, though. Just adjust the thing to where you want it, and adjust it again later if needed. Adjusting the truss rod is easy.
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I agree from the manufacturing standpoint but things like fret sprout should have been corrected by the people you purchased the Bass from. Easy enough to spot and correct.
A lot here would argue that point and if this is Fender’s entry level Bass I wonder what they classify their Squier line as?
Bottom line for me is that I believe there are a lot better choices for the same money than Fender.
Like I said it’s a very very minor thing which most people would not have noticed.
Buddy, you enjoy your Yamaha and I’ll enjoy my Fender. It’s free country and I can spend my hard earned money however I like. I don’t like the look of the current Yamaha. Never have, never will.
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Oh, I don’t know, this one looks pretty good:
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Sexy! I had an old BMW R65 that I turned into a cafe racer…
My issue with Yamaha is that none of their current bass models are available left-handed.
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