Fender Precision Bass Lyte Deluxe

Bought on eBay for £305 in March 2004. A toss-up between this and a brand new Fender Mex P-bass Special, this came up and was too good to miss.

This is a lightweight but powerful-sounding bass. Easy to play, good access to the top frets due to the rounded heel, low action and a fast jazz neck, it almost plays itself. The P/J pickup combination (active) gives it plenty of punch, and you can change the balance between the two very easily. Plus, of course, it was a bargain!

There's not much I don't like about this bass. The body is 3-piece and you can see the different pieces throught the sunburst finish, but only if you're looking. It lacks the 'presence' of the real P-bass because it's that bit smaller, but I'm being picky really.

This bass was built in Japan in 1989, apparently Ibanez made them for Fender. 3-piece body (not bookmatched), fast 22-fret Jazz Bass rosewood neck, matching sunburst headstock, gold hardware including a BadAss style bridge. The original pickups were on an active circuit but on mine have been upgraded to Seymour Duncan BassLines. The controls are fairly self-explanatory - pots for volume, bass cut/boost, treble cut/boost and a rotary P/J pickup selector. It may be scaled-down, but the bass is every bit as rugged as a 'real' Precision and the only minor irritation is that the joins in the body are visible if you look for them.

These were very successful basses when they were launched and it's easy to see why. They are small and light enough for just about anyone to play, and have enough tonal diversity for any style of music. For a small bass they pack a lot of punch and I struggle to find reasons to be critical of mine. They stopped making these but Fender have replaced it with the Zone bass which is almost identical, so if you can't find a Lyte, the Zone is almost identical. A quality piece of kit!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com