PB-50 LH SB Vintage Series : Best bang for the buck

I needed a bass guitar quickly as my old one was quite beaten from years of playing. I am a guitarist most of the time, but I do play bass a lot and I needed a functioning bass for a specific studio project. I always loved the 51 stlye P basses and the price of the Benton is hard to beat, so I pulled the trigger.

Honestly, I was expecting an ok instrument and was sure I will need to get myself something "better" down the road, but to my surprise this bass suits me like a glove! Great P bass sound, lovely fit and finish and after I put on some flats it turned out as a killer bass.

I bought it and I used it on a commercial record about a week after the purchase with great results, so I guess that speaks enough about the quality of the instrument.

Pros:

- great playability, very comfortable unfinished neck

- great P bass sound from the single coil

- Fit and finish is very good for the price

- It was set up pretty solid out of the box

- For me it is a better fit than some of the squier basses that are double the price (prefer the unfinished neck on these, but your milage my vary!)

Cons:

- upper fretwork was not perfect (specially on the treble side), but nothing too bad (easy fix, had sharper frets on my gibson to be honest...)

- some minor cosmetic issues; there is a bit of glue residue wher the neck meets the body on the side of the fretboard, but it's only visual as it is "flat" and I can't feel any raised areas.

- the neck is chunky. and I mean CHUNKY. It is one of the chunkiest necks I've played, but I happen to love it. If you want to fly over the fretboard or prefer thinker necks, avoid this one.

- tuners are not the best, although they hold tuning well and turn ok, but it's the only thing that might need replacing down the road.