i bought a squier precision pj bass
I needed a bass guitar, and this one fit the bill, so I bought it.
Does this mean I got rid of a guitar to get it?
Yes.
I traded out the Squier Classic Vibe '60s Jazzmaster. All I have now are Stratocaster guitars and the bass, and I'm okay with that. The Jazzmaster just wasn't working for me. For a while I was all about that guitar, but with this fifth (yes, fifth) Jazzmaster, the magic just wasn't happening, so I let it go.
The bass I bought is Squier Affinity Precision Bass PJ. This is in fact my first P-bass, but not my first PJ.
Being I just talked about Squier Jazz Bass, why didn't I get that? A few reasons specific to me.
I love the look of the Squier CV '70s Jazz. That thing looks perfect - but - the Jazz Bass shape doesn't agree with me for seated play. It's because of the shorter bottom horn and the bottom upper curve moved back due to the body shape. I just don't prefer it.
Why didn't I just go for a Squier CV '70s Precision Bass then? No J pickup and only a P. That is of course traditional to the P-bass, but I need that modern PJ set to get the bass sound I like best.
What is a PJ bass?
Regardless of shape, it's a bass that has a split-coil Precision Bass style pickup and a Jazz Bass style straight pickup. It's called PJ and not JP because the front of the body is the neck side and the rear of the body is the bridge side, hence P first, J second.
To note, a P pickup is not a humbucker. It's a split-coil. True, it cancels hum just like a humbucker does because of that split, but neither coil runs the full length of all 4 strings.
Does this mean the J pickup has single-coil hum? Yes.
A PJ is where you get the best of all worlds where Fender style bass tone is concerned. You can run the P-pickup only to get that old school fuller sound, the J-pickup only to get that high midrange "honk", or both for a modern "punchy" sound. No fancy electronics are required. All that's needed are 3 knobs. P pickup volume, J pickup volume and master tone. Nothing else is needed. You get everything required to blend exactly the style of Fender bass tone you want.
In all honesty, most people would have no use for the J pickup and would be perfectly happy with a cheap-as-chips Squier Sonic Precision Bass. One P split-coil pickup (which, again, is hum-canceling), one volume, one tone. It doesn't get any easier than that.
However, I like that J pickup in the rear and it's useful to me for bass tone shaping. And it just so happens to be that the bass I bought is one of the lowest cost ways to get a PJ.
Is it the cheapest? No, there's one cheaper, the Jackson Spectra Bass JS2. The only reason I didn't go with that one is because of the body with its short bottom horn. I'm 100% certain that would be a nonissue for everybody else, but I notice stuff like that. That Jackson would be ideal for most people. It even has active pickups in it (and yes, it has a push/pull knob that bypasses the battery, so it isn't required to run a battery if you don't want to use it).
General overview for people stuff actually care about
The Squier Affinity Precision Bass PJ is light in weight, is easy to set up, is easy to play, has all the tone shaping you'd ever want out of a bass, and most importantly...
...it's a bass when you can just pick up and start playing. The only thing you'll have to do is minor setup. And that means adjusting the saddles, maybe a light adjustment of the truss rod and that's all. There's really not much else to do, if anything.
I needed a bass in my life
A bass is one of those on-again/off-again things where I have one, then I don't, then I do, then I don't, and so on.
Right now is a time in my life where yes, I feel I needed one in my life, so I have one. I parted with the Jazzmaster to get it, and that's okay.
One last note:
If you record at home, yes it's easy to use a keyboard to play your bass parts. But if you use a looper (which I do), it might be easier to just unplug the guitar, plug in the bass, record the bass part into your loop, then go back to guitar. Or record the bass first, then guitar.
Sometimes having a bass is the easier way to get bass parts recorded.
good to know: car air filter sets exist
Recently, I had an oil change done for my car. Of course, the shop I went to tried to get me to waste money on air filters. Yes, plural. One for the air box in the engine bay and the other for the cabin. The shop said they were dirty. I didn't believe them.
A few days later, I inspected the filters myself. Turns out the shop was right and they were dirty. Since filters are easy to change, I did it myself...
...but I absolutely do not like buying these things. It's almost too easy to spend $40 or more per filter. I wasn't about to do that.
This is when I started searching around and found out about air filter replacement sets, as in air + cabin filter sets. Obviously, you'll have to find which fits for your car, but I was so happy to find these sets exist. Why? The price can go as low as 15 bucks for the set, depending on car.
When I said it's $40 per filter at a shop, I'm not kidding. It's almost too easy for the shop to tack on 80 bucks to your oil change if they sucker you into buying air filters. Sometimes they'll even try to sucker you into overpaying for filters and wiper blades all in one go. Add another $50 to $75 for those - and that's not an exaggeration.
I also found out something else. Getting the filter set is in many instances cheaper than buying them separately. I was originally going to separate the purchases, but the set turned out to be the better deal for my car. It wasn't an insanely lower price, but hey, I'll take whatever savings I can get for this stuff.
The price I paid for my filter set was lower than $15, even with tax included.
What would the price have been at the shop? You guessed it, 80 bucks. I saved a whopping $65 just from getting the filter set and installing them myself.
the gross 1990s
This is another reminder to people who grew up in the 1990s that some things about it were just plain stupid.
I remember the '90s. From my mid-teens to mid-20s, I experienced that whole decade and all the dumb stuff that came along with it.
Something that happened with toys, video games and cartoons was a huge uptick in toilet humor.
Here are three examples of what came from the '90s:
Example 1: "Son of Stimpy" from the cartoon show Ren & Stimpy. That was released (pun not intended but can't help that one) in January 1993. The original title was "Stimpy's First Fart". The ENTIRE EPISODE is about a fart. I am not kidding.
Example 2: Boogerman, a video game released for the Sega Genesis in 1994 and later for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. It is exactly what you think it is. Your "ammunition" in the game is burps and farts. Again, not kidding.
Example 3: Grossinator.
This was a toy released in 1995. It is battery powered and has prerecorded phrases. The question mark button randomizes the phrase, the green button plays your custom phrase.
On the right, four buttons to customize the phrase. Each press goes through several prerecorded phrases, and then the Play button plays it all back.
Button 1: You're like, Let's all make, How about, I just love, I'm gonna make, There's nothing like
Button 2: a big, a long, a revolting, a disgusting, a slimy, a foul, a horrible
Button 3: gross, oozing, awful, wretched, stinky, putrid, smelly
Button 4: fart, burp, scab, booger, snot, barf, puke
This means you could create phrases such as:
"There's nothing like a revolting smelly fart"
"Let's all make a disgusting wretched burp"
"You're like a big oozing snot"
...and so on.
If I didn't show you a photo of the actual toy, you would probably say the Grossinator never existed and I'm just making it up. It did exist. And the reason I know it exists is because someone I knew back in the '90s actually bought one and showed it to me.
Did the '80s ever get gross?
For the most part, no.
However...
Things I remember from the '80s that went into the gross category were Madballs and Garbage Pail Kids. Both of those were purposely created with the gross-out factor in mind.
There was also You Can't Do That on Television, a children's cable television program most know from being on the Nickelodeon channel. That show famously dropped green slime on anybody that said "I don't know", which qualifies as slightly gross at best.
Other than that, the overwhelming majority of cartoons, video games and toys did not trip the line over into gross territory. Characters in cartoon shows and video games did not belch or fart in the '80s, but absolutely did in the '90s. And the closest you ever got to gross was if you came across a copy of a Totally Gross Jokes book.
Is gross stuff sold now?
Yes. The National Geographic Super Gross Chemistry Set is such an example. But at least it's a chemistry set with educational value to it.
Gross Me Out Mad Libs is another.
For the most part there is "polite grossness" with products aiming for the gross-out factor. Or said another way, it's NOT gross in a way that will make you lose a few brain cells.
I suppose that's progress.
best jazz bass i've seen in years
I totally admit that I have a thing for '70s Fender guitars. It's the reason I own a Squier Affinity Stratocaster. While technically a late-'60s headstock design, people associate the big CBS headstock with the '70s, as do I.
The '70s style does extend to the electric bass, and oh, does Squier absolutely nail one just right:
...the Squier Classic Vibe '70s Jazz Bass.
Yes, Squier also does a '70s Precision Bass, but it's the Jazz that gets my attention.
It's that headstock with that font that puts a smile on my dial.
When somebody gets a shape and font just right, I get all sorts of happy. The Squier CV '70s J is the bass that does it for me.
You've got the big 'ol oversize clover tuning keys, big circular string retainer, and the all important playful-yet-classy JAZZ BASS font.
Yeah, I know, I'm gushing over a font. But it's a damned good font. It's serif, but leans, curves and swoops, and seeing the double-z in JAZZ... there's just something about it that's just great. So great that my eye trains on that first and always before even seeing the brand name. And it works so well with a natural finish.
Everything about the CV '70s J is awesome. It comes in Sunburst, Black and Natural. The Natural finish is best because it has that very-'70s "looks like a coffee table" appearance to it. Usually that's bad, but not here. It works.
Does Fender make a J like this?
Yes. There's the Fender Geddy Lee Jazz Bass. Two models. One USA version and one not. Hope you like black, because that's the only color it comes in...
...and that's it. If you want that headstock with that font in a J bass with a Fender logo on it, the Geddy Lee model is all that's available.
I'm honestly surprised Fender doesn't have a Vintera II '70s Jazz bass. There's a Fender '70s Telecaster Bass in Vintera II flavor, but no Jazz. Fender is missing the boat on this one.
Squier, for the moment, is doing a better '70s J. True, the Geddy J has a more beefy bridge on it. But the Squier just looks better. The neck has a deeper tint and 3 color choices instead of just one.
The Squier just looks the part. And because it's a Classic Vibe model, that's top of the line in the Squier lineup. Glad to see a proper '70s J represented there, because it looks fantastic.
i bought two of these because they're getting rare
Something I've learned over the years with computer crap is that any time you find something that's good and cheap, buy backups. If you don't, your favorite computer-whatever thing will wear out and you won't be able to find a cheap replacement.
This literally applies to anything computer. Drives, USB sticks, keyboards, and in this instance...
...computer mice.
Yes, it's true for the moment that you can still buy a cheap USB wired optical mouse, but my preference is the Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse...
...which USED TO BE cheap. Not anymore.
I was fortunate to get two of them new-in-box for $24 total after sales tax and shipping. Not too long ago, you could get these one of these for under 10 bucks almost anywhere, so I was lucky to get them for about what they are worth. There was just one seller on eBay that had them new at the right price, so oh yeah, I bought both. Didn't even think twice about it. All the other sellers either have used ones or charge $25 or more PER MOUSE. And yes, that is way overpriced for what it is.
Why do I have such an affection for this mouse? I'm used to it. The shape, tension of click for the buttons and scroll wheel are just right for my hand.
When I received the mice, I tested each one to make sure they worked. They did. After that, they went back in their boxes. And that's where they'll stay until the one I have wears out.
Given that it takes years for me to wear out a mouse, I'm good for a long while in the mouse department.
A computer mouse is something you never think about UNTIL it breaks. Then it's suddenly a major concern.
Can you use your computer without a mouse? Didn't think so. Buy a backup or two.