Squier Classic Vibe 60s Precision Bass, 3-Color Sunburst, Laurel Fingerboard

After not playing the bass for almost 25 years, I picked this up because some guys I know needed a bass player. I used to play a '72 Fender P-Bass in my youth. This thing is not a '72 P-Bass but it's an amazing guitar for the money. I love it. I paired it up with a Fender Rumble 30 amp and it sounds great!! Played great right out of the box. No setup required.

Squire did it again. Great bass at this price point

I’ve been a pro player in Nashville for over 30 years. Vintage P-Basses are hit and miss. This particular series is exceptional. The finish is excellent - specifically- the frets are clean on the edges and it dame setup pretty nice in terms of intonation and action. As far as the sound goes, it actually plays and sounds better than my 1960 original vintage P-Bass.

El bass venía defectuoso solo lo usamos para probarlo y donde se conecta el jack se cayeron los tornillos . Lo devolví tan pronto pude .

This review is for the 2019 Squier Classic Vibe sunburst Precision bass. For the price of this bass it is a phenomenal value. I had a genuine sunburst Fender 66' precision bass back in my teens and later on a 72' fretless model which I paid less for with Fender case than I paid for this, but I feel this one actually plays better than any of those, but most of the reason is that I never had a clue on how to set up a bass back then. I never even touched the truss rod or knew what it was for. We were always told it was for just in case your neck got warped, how silly! The only immediate issues I have had with the new Squier thus far are one of the pickguard screws was missing which Chicago Music Exchange replaced. Hardware stores don't seem to carry these screws. Funny that it came with an inspection mark off sheet and one inspection catagory item was (pickguard secured properly). Tells you these people just make the checks but don't do the actual inspection. Also one of the tuning keys is a little notchy compared to the other three but once tuned it seems to stay in tune. The tone and volume control were really stiff and notchy at first but after 2 weeks both are now somewhat better. The one metal tone knob is slightly pitted on top which bothers me why anyone would put it on there in the first place. The frets came reasonably smooth but I did file down some sharp areas on the sides at the bottom edges of the frets. Paint job is good but not perfect, there are some slight ripples if you look hard enough. One odd thing, this is supposed to be 60's Classic Vibe Precision, but there is no thumb rest like on all the 60's Precisions so someone really missed the mark on the Classic Vibe designation of this bass. I could buy a Fender thumb rest and put it on myself in the same location it was originally back in the 60's (on the treble side) just to give it a little more classic vibe that's missing in that regard, but then again I may never use it. Once this bass is properly set up and you put on better strings (I put on Roto Sound round wounds) it is a really nice bass. I really forgot how much fun a Precision is to play after using other basses. I'm not sure how much better the American made versions are for around $900 more than the $350 I paid for this one. I suppose that you get all the screws for your pickguard though.9/20/19 Took away one star because one of the tuning keys now won't make a complete rotation without getting stuck. The gear is out of specification so when it reaches that flawed point in its rotation it jams against the worm gear coming to a complete stop. I'm also getting small metal shavings breaking off. This won't do!9/30/19 Decided the tuners are pretty much garbage so I replaced all of them with Hipshot HB7's. It was a lot of work because I had to drill new holes and fill in the old ones but it is now so much easier to tune plus tuning is more precise. I also replaced the bridge with a highmass Omega, getting much better sustain. The two pots now rotate much smoother since I figured out how to remove the chrome knobs (there are no set screws) and sprayed some WD40 inside there. I believe they are Alpha pots, perhaps not as good as CTS or some others but for right now they are staying. I put a coat of dark walnut stain on top of the Indian Laurel wood fret board and wiped off the access to make it nearly indistinguishable from the no longer available Rosewood, looks really nice! Apparently Rosewood is on the endangered list from all the tree cutting. When they shellaced the neck, instead of putting the nut in afterwards they got real lazy and went right over the sides of the nut with shellac making it darker on both sides. Also the nut was not glued in properly, fell right off when I changed the strings. I lightly sanded the nut removing the brown shellac on both sides making it white again, looks much better. Glued in the nut with a few drops of superglue for a more solid bond for better tone and sustain. Still, for $350 this is a good bass as long as you are willing and have the know how to make things right on your own, perhaps even having to put some more money into it.10/ 3/19 I thought the stock Squier pickups were a little boomy and muddy with not a lot of definition so wired in some Lindy Fralins. It was between those and EMG Geezers but after lots of U-Tube listening and bass forum browsing I chose the Fralins. At $140 they are over one third the price I paid for the entire bass. When I removed the old pickups the vacant cavity in the body was really dusty and looked like it even had a few spider webs. Cleaned out the wood cavity and then soldered in the new pickups. Had to add some new foam to raise the pickups higher to have better adjustability later on, then plugged it into my amp and prayed that it all worked. It did and I immediately noticed more clarity with harmonic richness and lots of "air" there, kinda like a very expensive stereo system. I'm getting none of the out of control bass heavyness in the E string that was there with the stock pickup. Sounds very Steinway Grand Pianolike to me in tone character which I love!10/21/19 After pondering over the really poor soldering job on the volume, tone pots and input jack and after getting a disgusted feeling when I saw the chaotic mess of wire the way it was stuffed inside the guitar cavity, I decided that with all the other upgrades I had made that it was time to also do something about this. Today I installed a 920D Custom Shop prewired harness for a Precision bass for $42 after a 15% discount. The soldering is immaculate, everything is high grade components and all the wiring well organized. All I had to do was solder in the pickups and a few ground wires. It even came with two new ALL METAL knobs WITH SET SCREWS which I was not expecting. I was prepared to buy new quality all metal knobs ( the stock Squier knobs have plastic inserts and are lighter) for $15 so the $42 I paid for the wiring harness turned out to be a real bargain. The Squier now sounds even better than before with a broader tonal range. Before with the old pots I found that my Treble EQ was set at around the 2:30 position on my amp to punch through and the tone knob on my bass fully cranked. Now with the new pots I've notched the amp back to the flat 12 oclock position and tone control on the Squier to about 85 %. The knobs turn smooth as butter!11/8/19 I initially wasn't very fond of the Fender round wound strings that came stock with the bass so immediately replaced them. Today I put them back on and it turns out the strings were not the problem. After changing out the pickups and ditching the old pots and electronics the stock Fender strings now sound fantastic, so much so that I am going to order a few more sets! I think I like them even better than the Rotosound 66 and DR high beams I've been using which are more expensive and lose most of their tone after just a few weeks.So now I have put an extra $367 into this bass doing all of the work myself which I never really intended to do, and for the total amount invested instead of a bass that says "Squier" on the head stock I could have had one that says "Fender", a Fender made in Mexico Player version that is. However this bass, the way it plays and sounds now would easily trump one of those, so I think I'll just ignore any snobbery I may get along the way for the "Squier" signature on the head stock and just have a silly grin on my face all the time knowing that I have a real sleeper on my hands for not a ton of money. Bottom line is I am very happy with mine but I had to basically gut the thing, put in quite a bit of time/work/do a great set up and spend more than twice the amount of money I had anticpated to get to that point. After each change I made I could hear a small but perceptable improvement in the sound of my bass, but combined all of the changes together made a huge difference in the sound of the bass. Some American made Precisions can run as much as $2,000 or even higher which takes away all buyers remorse one may have for the extra expenses. I'll put my $717 Squier up against any one of those any time. It just sounds phenomenal and is so effortless to play! If I hadn't done a thing to it other than do a really good set up and replace the one bad tuning key it still would have been a good purchase at $350, but that's just not me. Things that are not quite right really bother me and I wanted something special that anyone would be proud of but I didn't have $2,000 to put out for a premium Fender Precision so went this route. I hope this review was helpful, please mark below if it was. I really enjoyed doing this project but I'm also quite glad it's over with. I can finally just sit back and play the thing.

A very nice looking and well put together bass. I wish Fender would make a 60's P Bass with a simple Maple neck. Might not be historically accurate, but Indian Laurel is not really rosewood either. I don't care for the Indian Laurel fretboard all that much.

Perfect action and intonation out of the box. Sounds and feels amazing. One thing not mentioned in the description is that the Classic Vibe series comes with narrow tall frets rather than the common medium jumbo. They can feel a bit sharp and bumpy on slides until you get used to them, but I've found that I actually prefer them after a few months.

I ordered from Amazon Warehouse, so keep that in mind.Item was described as used but very good condition.Shipping was very fast, but the bass arrived in a single-layer cardboard box with a very thin layer of foam and no additional padding or support. Box was visibly damaged.Cosmetically the bass was in pretty good condition however there were numerous scrapes and gouges along the edges of the fretboard.Initially there was no output at all. The output jack was loose, so I opened up pickguard to find that the wire connecting to the output jack’s tip had completely snapped and was just loose in the body cavity. A quick fix but concerning nonetheless.Action was very very high, nearly unplayable. String relief was initially measured at 0.032” which is far too much (factory spec is approx. 0.012”-0.014”). After some adjustment I got it down to about 0.020” which was a big improvement but still too high. Unfortunately at this point I realized whoever previously owned this bass had either stripped the truss rod nut or already tightened it quite a bit; the nut was unable to turn any further so that’s as good as the relief could get. In turn this made it impossible to properly set the action and as such this particular bass had to be returned.On the plus side the overall “bones” of it feel nice. Good fit and finish on the body and the neck construction outside of relief/action is quite good. Tuners are fine, and the pickup/electronics sounds good (once reconnected). It sounds like you would expect from a P bass.I have been very impressed with the Squier Classic Vibe line in the past and suspect a new condition bass would be just fine but am just writing this as a bit of a buyer beware for used/“Warehouse” items.