Fender Vintera III E 60s J Bass SNB

Received the bass very quickly (thank you Thomann as always!). I am a Jazz Bass player, been for a long time and I have seven of those in a number of variations but this one was missing in my collection so I treated myself for my birthday. After a few days, verdict is mixed:
- Similar to the other reviewer, set up out of the box was remarkably poor. I can understand shipping does not help but neck relief was over 0.4mm and string height was well beyond Fender recommendations. Same for pickup height (especially the neck which was extremely low) . Surprisingly, intonation was bang on for all strings except low E. I have been doing my own setup for years but this could really be frustrating for people who receive an instrument which is not playable out of the box. A visit to your nearest luthier is advised to get a proper setup.
- The fretboard feels really dry indeed. Not sure if this is a question of storage or quality of the wood. Hopefully, lemon oil treatment will have fixed the issue in a few weeks.
- I am still puzzled with the overall feel of the instrument. This is a light bass compared to some other Fender models. My 98 Japanese Marcus Miller weight and feels a lot more chunkier. Even a Mexican 70s classic series from close to 20 years ago feels the same. I did not get the chance to make body measurements so will not comment further on this.
Overall, a nice looking bass with some good features and a good sound and playability once properly set up but the price/quality ratio is not on par with some of the other manufacturers and you are definitely paying for the Fender name. For this price, maybe I should have gone for a used US model …