Fender Semi-hollow P-Bass [MIJ] Reviews 3

About $600 from Bassment Trader in Ohio. I like semi-hollow basses, especially with both magnetic & piezo systems together.

It's smaller than many semi-hollow basses, fits in a regular bass case. Has a pick-up balancer knob plus master gain knob instead of seperate gain knobs. Cool sunburst. Well balanced and not at all heavy.

The piezo pickup tone is unpleasant when soloed. THe piezo serves to add dimension to the p-bass PU, but is not an suitable for use alone [My Yamaha and Ibanez double system basses certainly don't have this shortcoming]. I CAN solo the piezo if I add an outboard pre-amp, in which case it sounds great.

It's generally similar the hollow ASAT with a single f-hole on the bass side. Body is carved hardwood, chambered out to partly hollow with an acoustic top. Lace P-bass PU plus wooden bridge with piezo PU. Neck is not really P-style, more average-size for 4 string electric bass, with typical gotoh-type tuners. Can set reasonably low action despite the lack of an adjustable bridge [but not super low].

A good lightweight comfortable bass with ability to really liven up the P-bass tone by dialing in the piezo. You can get very acoustic sounds with an outboard pre-amp if you solo the piezo, otherwise the piezo is a "coloration" tool to mix in with the Lace split coil. It's a very enjoyable ax but it probably needs a complete internal upgrade of everything that runs between the PUs and the jack, and it's worth doing.

golem rated this unit 3 on 2004-11-22.

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