LeftyBassist.com

my two cent : i had a 83 p in black in the recent past. i played it in a gig or two and get rid of it because the tone was not impressing at all. IMO beside the fat baseball bat neck, there is nothing interesting about those early 80s P, unless i was unlucky to get a lemon.

I had two of them back in the '80's; I hated the tone, and hated the necks.

Early 80's were not the best years for Fender with a few exceptions.

'83 is the beginning of the Dan Smith era, which was a much better era from a quality control standpoint. I just didn't like those particular basses, or the Strats, either (I owned 2 of them, too). Ironically, I've liked every Fender I've owned or played from the late '70's-early '80's.

Actually i think Fender were putting more effort in the V (Vintage) reissues at the time.

A friend of mine owns a RE57 P-Bass (Righty, AFAIK Fender did not build any V bass in lefty version) from the same era and it's his favourite axe, i must admit that it's one of the best sounding bass i heard in a while. And also it's great from the construction point of view, very light and without the flaws of the late 70s Fender production.