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Post subject: 51 p bass reissue or am standard?
Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 4:55 pm
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I know what you guys would say play both and see wich really suits you. But it's kindof unfair for the 51 p bass. I've played the am standard and love it but not the 51 cause no stores round here have one. I'm not sure wich bass is for me or how to figure it out. It's slot of money for a bass to buy either instrument and I want to pick the right one. So I'll say this, I'm willing to save the extra cash for the am standard if end up liking it better.

What would you say? Wich bass is a TRULY better buy? I'm so confused in what I should buy! Also the am p bass at the store says 1.400$ but the online(musicisions friend) says 1.200$. Should I tell them to match the price in this case?


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Post subject: Re: 51 p bass reissue or am standard?
Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 7:08 pm
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will pumpkin wrote:
I know what you guys would say play both and see wich really suits you. But it's kindof unfair for the 51 p bass. I've played the am standard and love it but not the 51 cause no stores round here have one. I'm not sure wich bass is for me or how to figure it out. It's slot of money for a bass to buy either instrument and I want to pick the right one. So I'll say this, I'm willing to save the extra cash for the am standard if end up liking it better.

What would you say? Wich bass is a TRULY better buy? I'm so confused in what I should buy! Also the am p bass at the store says 1.400$ but the online(musicisions friend) says 1.200$. Should I tell them to match the price in this case?

You could try. But probably, they won't unless the store has a stated policy of price matching. It never hurts to ask, though.
If possible I would bring a printout of the Musician's Friend listing showing their price.
As far as your original Q, I would probably go for the Am. Std., but that's just my personal preference.


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Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 8:18 am
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I'd go with the 51's, i love the standard P's but I always wanted a vintage bass without breaking the bank~


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Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 8:22 pm
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I'd go for the American Standard now and then save up for the '51 RI.

The '51 RI has a few quirky things about it such as the 2 barrel bridge, the tiny neck radius, the big fat neck, the "Vintage" frets, the reverse tuners and the RFI sensitivity of a single coil pickup. I love it, but not everyone would. The tone of a stock 51 RI is somewhere between a Jazz and a modern P-bass.

The '51 RI is nicely done wood and neck wise, I have one and after 300 dollars in mods I can gig with it. It is not EXACTLY like a real '51. It is a modern reproduction. The electronics are Japanese with mini-pots. The pickguard shape is off a little from the real '51 too. But the neck is darn close.

The local Fender dealer here will MATCH the online sellers. I'd let your local dealer know that you are definitely going to buy one and you'd rather buy it from them if they can get close to matching the price. Often local dealers do a full setup on a new bass, unlike the online dealers who never even take it out of the box. A setup is worth about $30 to $60 so if they are going to do a setup on it I'd take that into consideration and add that to the online price.

Also if the bass arrives damaged or defective there is the hassle and delay of shipping it back and waiting on the replacement.


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Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 12:57 pm
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You mentioned everything but the one that bugs me the most: the lack of body contouring. It's not a problem with jamming, but on a typical 4-hour gig at the local dance halls, it would get pretty old. Even so, I gigged with mine, trading back and forth with a Classic '50s P.

The second-worst feature, to me, is the two-saddle bridge. A lot of people defend them, saying they can't hear the lack of intonation up the neck, but I sure can. Luckily, and American Deluxe four-saddle bridge will drop right in, and it preserves the string-through-body feature.

The third worst is the 7-1/4" fingerboard radius, which was difficult to deal with in the beginning. Now that my other basses are the Classic '50s and a new American Vintage '57 with the same radius, I'm pretty used to it (and, yes, now all my fretted Ps have backwards tuners!).

All that said, I love mine, even with the U-G-L-Y yellow finish. I was able to plug mine into a friend's B15N and the whole group rode around the block on my fat, warm, bass lines. It's a different beast from the split-coil, but I can't imagine not having both.

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Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 4:07 pm
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lpdeluxe wrote:
You mentioned everything but the one that bugs me the most: the lack of body contouring. It's not a problem with jamming, but on a typical 4-hour gig at the local dance halls, it would get pretty old. Even so, I gigged with mine, trading back and forth with a Classic '50s P.

The second-worst feature, to me, is the two-saddle bridge. A lot of people defend them, saying they can't hear the lack of intonation up the neck, but I sure can. Luckily, and American Deluxe four-saddle bridge will drop right in, and it preserves the string-through-body feature.

The third worst is the 7-1/4" fingerboard radius, which was difficult to deal with in the beginning. Now that my other basses are the Classic '50s and a new American Vintage '57 with the same radius, I'm pretty used to it (and, yes, now all my fretted Ps have backwards tuners!).

All that said, I love mine, even with the U-G-L-Y yellow finish. I was able to plug mine into a friend's B15N and the whole group rode around the block on my fat, warm, bass lines. It's a different beast from the split-coil, but I can't imagine not having both.


Maybe the solution to the body contour issue is to have a big gut like I do. Actually that is not that hard to get used to. I don't play the '51 RI all the time but as a number two. I use it for a few things but not everything. The STING signature bass is pretty much the same bass in sunburst only and it has contouring. I've played both and the Sting sounds as resonant even though the body mass is smaller.

I did the Fender USA Deluxe Bridge upgrade on mine also, but the G and D strings would not intonate correctly with GHS 3025 Flatwound Light 45/60/75/95 strings. The tech tried everything he could think of and could not correct it due the shorter saddle travel for intonation on the Deluxe bridge. Next I switched to GHS 3050 Regular Flatwound 55/70/90/105 strings which made the "D" intonate properly but the G was still a bit flat at the 12th fret. The tech wanted to actually relocate the bridge, which I wasn't going to do so I wound up finding and installing a now obsolete Leo Quan Bad $@! III bridge, which like the USA Deluxe bridge is also a direct replacement that allows top load or body through stringing, but The BA III has much longer saddle travel. It now intonates perfectly. For me the intonation issue was not as simple as just dropping in the Fender Deluxe bridge.


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Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 5:38 pm
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brotherdave wrote:
Maybe the solution to the body contour issue is to have a big gut like I do. Actually that is not that hard to get used to. I don't play the '51 RI all the time but as a number two. I use it for a few things but not everything. The STING signature bass is pretty much the same bass in sunburst only and it has contouring. I've played both and the Sting sounds as resonant even though the body mass is smaller.

I did the Fender USA Deluxe Bridge upgrade on mine also, but the G and D strings would not intonate correctly with GHS 3025 Flatwound Light 45/60/75/95 strings. The tech tried everything he could think of and could not correct it due the shorter saddle travel for intonation on the Deluxe bridge. Next I switched to GHS 3050 Regular Flatwound 55/70/90/105 strings which made the "D" intonate properly but the G was still a bit flat at the 12th fret. The tech wanted to actually relocate the bridge, which I wasn't going to do so I wound up finding and installing a now obsolete Leo Quan Bad $@! III bridge, which like the USA Deluxe bridge is also a direct replacement that allows top load or body through stringing, but The BA III has much longer saddle travel. It now intonates perfectly. For me the intonation issue was not as simple as just dropping in the Fender Deluxe bridge.


That's interesting, and yet more proof that each bass, even when it appears identical to others, is its own individual. Now I've heard the spectrum from "my intonates perfectly with the stock bridge" to your need for more travel. So much for dogma. How long did it take to find the Leo Quan? I'd guess you were persistent.

As I pointed out, although the lack of contouring is its "worst" feature, I love mine, and the answer is, as we have both discovered, to give it rest from time to time. In my opinion this is musically necessary as well: to my ear the split coil fits more material than the single coil (or, maybe, fits more of my material etc). As a matter of fact, I never considered the Sting, having a dislike for sunburst finishes -- I have since overcome that prejudice with my '57 RI.

Mine has TI Jazz Flats, which are on all of my basses (the '51, the '57, the Classic '50 and the fretless, all Precisions). I'm thinking back at gigs where I happily played the '51 and thought it was the coolest thing around...at the moment I'm in love with the new squeeze (the A V '57) but I know I'll come back around. There's something about that Tele-style headstock that makes me swoon, and, I confess, I wanted one as soon as I saw a picture of it. In this case there has never been any buyer's remorse -- unless you count that rueful moment when I realized I could have had it new for $600, if I hadn't fooled around.

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"Digo: 'paciencia, y barajar.'" Don Quijote de la Mancha, Part II, Chapter 23


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Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 6:06 pm
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lpdeluxe wrote:
How long did it take to find the Leo Quan? I'd guess you were persistent.


Funny you should ask. I think I was looking for a month or two before one popped up on eBay. Before I found out I needed one, they were all over the place. As soon as I needed one of course they had suddenly become very hard to find.

Eventually I got a pre-grooved one on Ebay. The smooth saddles are much more common, but I wanted a quick fix.


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