I don't know anything about Fender P Lyte bass, but I always have faith in Pood's opinion. So I did some research and found this following comment very interesting.
Here it is;
"As a career bassist for the last 30 plus years, I've toured across the United States, Canada, Mexico and taken 13 overseas trips. In all that time, I've owned many instruments and played many others. So I know what's good and what's not good for my playing style. Of course, any instrument playing is VERY subjective and before you buy an instrument, no matter what kind it is, make sure you play it at some length, if possible. Hand sizes are different, as are arm and finger length. But there are common pluses and attributes a player can look for in any instrument.
Before you buy any instrument, make sure you answer several questions about the one you have in hand.
1) How does the bass feel in your hands? Is it balanced well? Does it hang well around the neck? Remember, you will probably have to wear it for long periods of time.
2) Is the neck straight? Look both ways down the neck by putting your eye close to the neck and look down the strings. The neck should be almost perfectly flat without any bumps or rises. Many necks may have a very slight bow (as in the shape of an archer's bow) and most times this may be acceptable. But they can also be very bowed, or warped, which is the opposite of bow, where the middle of the neck rises toward the strings. This is not unusual with some necks but if the warp or severe bow can not be taken out of the neck at the store by manipulation of the neck's truss rod (one or more metal rods that run the interior length of the neck), then DO NOT BUY THE BASS. Some times you have to look at and play several instruments before you find the right one. Don't rush into buying and don't let the salesperson pressure you. If they don't want to help you NOW, what kind of service do you think you'll get after they already have your money?
3) How does it sound? If possible, either plug the bass into an amp just like yours, or bring yours to the store. It's very important that you know what the bass will sound like with your other gear. Another idea is to see if the store has a bass just like the one you are interested in buying that they will rent you over a weekend. This way, you will hear the bass through your amp and in the situations where it will be played.
4) Does it have the features you want? Make sure it has the pickups, tone controls and anything else you require in an instrument. Don't be afraid to compare apples and oranges. Most basses will be different in features and feel and you have to weigh all the pros and cons of each bass and then see if it will meet your needs.
And finally:
5) How's it look? Your bass needs to look good to you or you may always resent having bought it and it could end up in the closet or on eBay!
I've owned numerous basses and guitars over the years, made by different companies, all with pluses and minuses. I've owned several made by Fender, one by B.C. Rich, and then several Hofner Beatle bass copies made by no name companies (I just bought an Epiphone Viola Beatle Bass and I will review that soon). But my favorite bass, a 1963 tobacco sunburst Fender Jazz Bass, was stolen years ago, and I've been using my backup, a 1969 Fender Precision, on the road all these years. This bass has taken unbelievable beatings but has been very faithful to me. Still, I felt it was time to look for a new bass to tour with so I started looking and playing around.
I was looking at Dan Electros, Steinbergers, Hofners, Gibsons, Epiphones and a mess of others. But it wasn't until last year, when I was invited to a reunion concert of the progressive jam band, Glass Harp (
http://www.glassharp.net ), and had the opportunity to play bassist Dan Pecchio's Fender P-Bass Lyte Deluxe, that I realized I had found the replacement. It felt great, played wonderful, looked beautiful, was made well and the price couldn't be equaled in value.
So I started looking.
I eventually found a slightly used bass on eBay and at the price I was looking for. Now buying an instrument on eBay is another whole article. I've managed to buy many good instruments on eBay without issue but you do have to use caution. Again, that's another long article and not for this space.
The bass arrived in perfect shape and I haven't even had to have it re-set up after getting it. I've used it numerous times in concert and it is probably the best sounding bass I've ever owned in my 41 years of being a professional musician.
Here are some of the features of this Japanese manufactured electric bass:
1) Neck: The Fender P-Bass Lyte Deluxe has a Jazz Bass style long scale neck which is 33.5 inches from the tip of the headstock to to end of the fretboard. The playing surface is 24.5 inches from the nut to the highest fret and there are 22 medium round frets. The neck is rosewood with dot fret markers. There is no binding. The idea of the designers was to create a bass that combined the best features of their two most popular basses. The thin neck on their legendary Jazz Bass and the smaller body of their also popular Precision Bass. The Jazz Bass neck on the P-Bass Lyte Deluxe is thin, fast, straight, and a great pleasure to play on.
2) Body: The P-Bass Lyte Deluxe is a hybrid design. They took the shape of a standard Precision Bass, which is large, heavy and blocky, and made it out of light mahogany, shrunk the overall size down, and heavily rounded all the edges to make it have a smaller profile and be much lighter than a regular P-Bass, which is typically made from alder or ash woods. The finish of the body is a dark, almost cherry color, hand rubbed with oil and without a protective coating of polyurethane, which the stock P-Basses come with. The four standard length long scale bass strings are "body through" which means you thread the string through holes in the body of the bass from it's back, then pull them through the tailpiece and over the saddle. This theoretically increases the bass's sustain, since the strings are now anchored in the body of the guitar, and not just on the surface. The only minor issue with the smaller, lighter body, and the full size Jazz Bass neck is that now the bass is slightly neck heavy, and wants to pull downward on the neck side of the guitar. But this is a minor nit-pick and is easily gotten used to. I've played this bass in concert many times now and don't even notice it. On the back of the bass is a large plastic access panel to effect repairs to the electronics and to change the 9-volt battery. Fender dropped the ball on this design. Most other companies had already started putting in the easy access quick change battery compartments and Fender could have too. Instead, be sure you swap the battery out BEFORE it goes dead since you can't use the bass without the active electronics.
3) Hardware: The P-Bass Lyte Deluxe comes standard with gold plated hardware. This is okay and looks great on the bass but remember to wipe down your bass after playing EACH TIME because the sweat on your hands WILL tarnish the hardware if you don't. The hardware includes some extremely smooth Grover style tuners that are slow taper. In other words, it takes some turning to change the pitch of the string. This is desirable in that you can make fine adjustments in pitch much easier. And they do hold pitch well. Of course I wrap my strings as many times as I can and use the split to fold over the string so it catches under one of the wraps. This is the professional way of keeping your guitar in tune and it does help. The nuts, washers, and string peg on the headstock are also gold. The bass has a gold plated Bad-A*s style adjustable bridge that is very similar to the traditional P-Bass bridge but with refinements. It works fine as is but some may prefer to replace it with the bridge of their liking. The bridge will also tarnish easily since it sits right under your right hand so remember to wipe it off after each session. The strap button is also gold plated but because this is a heavy use metal on metal fixture, the gold wears off very quickly. No big deal.
4) The electronics: This is where the bass really shines. The P-Bass Lyte Deluxe comes with Fender's version of EMG active pickups in a P-J configuration. What players were doing on their own was to have their P-Basses routed out and the bridge pickup replaced with a Jazz Bass pickup. This gave them a combination sound and was part of the inspiration for this bass. But Fender has taken this a step further. The bridge pickup in this bass is a Humbucker, known because of it's design to help "buck" or resist hum. I have to admit, it doesn't really work very well on this bass. Just like all my other basses, I have to either cut my feed between songs or keep at least one hand on the strings or it buzzes loudly through any amp or D-I I'm plugged into. So, it's not perfect. The active electronics can NOT be defeated, like most other basses allow, so you are stuck with it, unless you take it to a COMPETENT luthier and have them rewire your bass. Be careful with that. The controls on the bass are many and very functional. There are five pots on the bass, a master volume, a blend control which pans between the two pickups, and then a high, mid, and low boost/cut. This works pretty well and gives you an almost infinite amount of adjustment on your sound. I would have preferred that instead of the blend/pan pot, to have two independent volume controls, one for each pickup. So I could control how much of each pickup to add to the mix. This could again be added by a competent luthier or guitar electronics moder. And again, change the battery often since if it goes in the middle of your gig, you better have a backup axe or be real fast at unscrewing four tiny screws in the dark to change that battery (don't lose any).
But besides all of that, everyone always wants to know, "How does it play?" Well, up until the purchase of this bass, my favorite bass had been a 1963 Fender Jazz Bass that just was so nice to play, I used to tell folks that "it played itself", that's how easy it was to play. It was stolen in the early 1980s and I never got it back though they caught the guy who stole it. And it was mostly because of that infamous Jazz neck. This bass comes as close as any I've played to that playability, and with it being much lighter and having a much greater range of sound, or a more updated sound.
One word of warning. I've been told this is a live bass. What that means is that it sounds great live. But I have received a few reports that it doesn't sound so great in a recording studio. I don't know if that is true, I'm just reporting it. I've yet to record with it but I do play live through a monster sound system, directed straight through, and the recordings of us off the board sound just fine. Just be sure you try before you buy.
To sum it up, The Fender P-Bass Lyte Deluxe electric bass is one of the finest basses I have ever played or owned and I would indeed recommend you give it a try, if you are in the market for this kind of instrument. Since it is no longer made, you'll have to find a used one, and as always, try before you buy and take someone more knowledgeable along with you to help you. Happy thumping!
Dear7, I know this comment will help you more or less, but to my personal believe I'll wait until Pood re-discovers his lost bass and buy it from him. I have my trust in him
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