I was near a local store and stopped in to say hello to an old friend who works there. Saw a new American Deluxe Precision on the wall, beautiful white blonde finish, maple board. Took it down, plugged it in, and I was underwhelmed. It has an active/passive switch, and the pickups were just anemic in passive mode. Really surprising, less output than a typical passive P or J. And the (noiseless) J pickup soloed did not sound good.
"While you're here, you ought to try this (American Deluxe)
Dimension." Umm, not for me. Odd feeling asymmetrical neck, and I found out I don't like compound radius boards either. The tone was so-so. If it's meant to be a competitor to Musicman or G&L, IMHO it doesn't make the grade.
Then I plugged in a rosewood board Standard (MIM) Precision. Perfect! I should have known! Don't mess with a classic. No tone-killing graphite rods, no fancy S-1 series/parallel switches, just plug-and-play tone for days. The fit and finish on the Standard was excellent, every bit as good as the two American-made ones.
I also briefly played an Indonesian-made Ibanez Talman bass that was sitting out. Sounded nice but the neck was really beefy, bigger than I like. Workmanship was sloppy in places, though. Still, a lot of bass for $300.