Guitar Nerds Anonymous

My wife has a CV Mustang. It’s decent, although not as nice as a MIM Fender.

I’m still slowly working my way towards a bass… Anyone with opinions about the Squier CV stuff? Or Mexican/Player? I want P style or PJ, like a Jaguar bass. Though I was listening to a demo of the Epiphone Jack Casady and I thought that sounded great.

In my experience, quality on the MIM fenders and squire basses vary quite a bit even between same models. Play every one the shop has in stock, regardless of colour, and pick the best one to take home.
My MIM Jazz is a keeper, didn't even want a boring black bass but it was miles above the sunburst I'd set my heart on. Rated it above my American deluxe, too.

Over the years Fender have finely honed their incremental improvements across the model ranges so that it really is the more you spend the better you get. There will of course be outliers where you get one good cheapie or an expensive dog but they're rare nowadays.

The Squier stuff is fine for the price but not really great (CV are better than VM). The body woods are not as resonant as decent alder & the finish is applied very thickly.
Specifically on the 70's P this might be a personal thing for me but I don't like the idea of pressing the strings down on what are essentially plastic blocks, I feel like you've got to lose something there.
Having said that, if I was playing in lots of dive bars again I'd use one of these Squiers - better yet a used Matt Freeman model.

Mexican Fenders are solid workhorses - you can change stuff on them to taste but you don't need to. They're not as nicely finished as the American ones but they're better value for money.

American fenders are another step up - depends on your financial situation, they're nice things to have but are probably over kill if it's not your main instrument.

If you're going down the classic passive fender style, I wouldn't bother with a PJ - without pre-amps to change them they don't do the job of a P or a J as well as the originals.

Jack casady basses are nice to play and will sound fine at home played solo - I don't think they would work well in a band settling (outside of the man himself using one).

G&L are a pretty good, cost effective fender tribute act. or you could push the boat out with an active MM Stingray.