PB-50 SB Vintage Series : Simple bass with a great sound

I bought this bass to travel to the summer school of jazz in Sligo. I didn't want to travel with my other, more expensive instruments. I also didn't want to draw attention. The plan worked perfectly. It also turned out that it has an awesome tone, which works great with jazz and funk.

There were some issues I needed to sort out after the purchase:

- frets had painful sharp edges, I needed to file them down

- the nut had a sharp edge, needed to be filed down

- the bass needed a setup; I needed to adjust the truss rod, the action, and intonation (this is expected with a new bass)

- some teething problems, like the jack socket screw going loose

Once I set it up, the bass was comfortable to play, and in tune.

The pick up can be a little noisy sometimes, so I built the habit of turning the volume knob down when I'm not playing. (It's a good habit to have anyway.) It's expected with the old style, single coil pickup.

The biggest surprise was the tone. I am a fan of late 1970's Herbie Hancock records such as Sunlight, where the rhythm section was Byron Miller on bass and Ndugu Chancler on drums. Same rhythm section as on 1970s and 1980s George Duke records. I think that Miller played the '60s style (not '50s style) Precision, but the 50s style precision produces a similar tone. I enjoyed playing funk tunes with the vintage tone!

I wouldn't use it for practicing at home, because higher quality instruments teach more nuance. Then you can pick up this 50s style bass and see what you can do with it.

Overall, I'm keeping this bass in my bass collection. It'll be the one to carry when going to a jam session and look inconspicuous. If I find myself playing it more, I'll replace it with a Fender Squier just to enjoy a higher quality build with fewer rough edges.