Re: Fender bass necks - P or J?
.... If you're the kinda guy who likes those 50's profile Gibson necks, U profile Fender Tele necks or wide-fat PRS necks, you may actually prefer the P-Bass neck.
In theory yes, but unfortunately it doesn´t really translate that way due to the different scale length, string spacing and string guage resulting in different fingering technique for most players. I also generally prefer meatier profiles despite the ompression my collection of shredsticks may imply, but I can´t stand the huge baseball bat of a neck that a typical P-bass has.
However, it is imo a bit easier to learn how to slap and pop on a p-bass spaced neck, becasue the strings are spaced slightly farther apart. But not really enough to make that a viable reason to buy one, as the difference is nowhere near as great of that between a 4 string and a 5 string.
Interestingly enough however, when you get into 5 and 6 string basses it
does start to translate becasue the strings are generally spaced closer together....
As far as how wide the P-bass neck really is, you used to be able to buy a conversion kit to turn a p bass into a narrow 5 string (probably still can, IIRC it was a 3D Wilkinson 5 string bridge and a hiopshot tuner packaged with a new nut). I tried it myself on a cheapo for ****s and giggles, drilled for an extra tuner, slapped on a wilk bridge I had lying around and cut a new nut. The strings were a bit close at the nut, but it was actually a very playable solution, IMO much better than with 4 strings.
FWIW, I've never had a single issue with Schaller hardware on any of the instruments I've had in the past. I think they're as good as anything else out there so if you like them, keep with 'em.
Schaller hardware is top quality and will generally match just about anything in it´s price range. Same holds true for Gotoh. And for most any other brand manufactured by either such as Original Floyd Rose or Tonepros.
