NBD - Fender Deluxe Precision

[dmccombe7]

My new bass arrived this morning from GAK.
Surf Pearl finish with rosewood neck Fender Deluxe Precision.
I tried the sunburst one last week and was very impressed and decided i liked this one even better.

Straight out the box and it only needed a minor tweak of the P pick up on the E string. Neck and action feel ok but was told by GAK to allow the bass time to warm up before making any adjustments to neck etc. Many thanks to Sean from GAK for all his help and advice.

To be honest the action and neck feel just about right for me. I normally set up a bass to Fender set up spec anyways and tweak from there as needed.

Colour and finish is pretty good and can't fault the bass at all so far.
Was a bit worried about it being a MIM bass however nothing to worry about as i would say this compares well with any other Fender i have or have tried.

Nothing compares to a Fender P pick up. I've tried other mfr's basses and for some odd reason a Fender just seems warmer and more depth to me. Add in a touch of that Jazz pick up and WOW this i great.

Bass tone adj is pretty powerfull and don't really see me needing much on that one.
Treble control has quite a light tonal adj to me but you can hear the top end roll in / out when used.
Mid control has the most dramatic effect off all and can change your sound quite a bit going from boost to cut. Very nice.

The controls all feel good quality pots. Nice smooth feel to them unlike my Jazz bass where the pots have always felt that little bit "loose".

Will maybe do a proper review once i have played a few times and gigging it tomorrow night with my new band so that will put it thru its paces.

Here's a quick pic just to let you see the colour of this. Think you either love it or hate it to be honest but i'm loving it.

[attachment=236719:DSCN1112.JPG]

Not sure why pic has rotated as its saved ok on my PC.

Cheers
Dave

Edited January 27, 2017 by dmccombe7

[gary mac]

That looks rather lovely

Nothing to fear with Mexican instruments and some of them are exceptionally good. I've been working on a Mexican Strat this week and might even ask the chap if he would consider selling it to me.


Hope the gig goes well.

[Cato]

Excellent taste sir.

I'm particularly loving the neck on mine, it's one of the most comfortable I've ever played.

Good luck with the gig, let us know how you get on.

Edited January 27, 2017 by Cato

[ROConnell]

What a lovely finish and colour combo! Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy mine, it's a real pleasure to play and have such a vast array of tones on one bass.

[Bass_Guardian]

Love that colour congrats!

[EliasMooseblaster]

Another vote for the colour combination - looks like a real beauty from the picture! Looking forward to hearing how you get on at the gig.

[karlfer]

Welcome to the Mex P/J club Dave.
Although mine are passive, every one of this Mex Deluxe Series I've had, has been a great workhorse bass.

Enjoy

[Cato]

[quote name='gary mac' timestamp='1485522777' post='3224599']
That looks rather lovely

Nothing to fear with Mexican instruments and some of them are exceptionally good. I've been working on a Mexican Strat this week and might even ask the chap if he would consider selling it to me.


Hope the gig goes well.
[/quote]

I've got a Mex thinline Tele which I bought c2000.

To this day it remains pretty much my favourite skinny stringer I've ever played. My ex's dad had a fairly impressive collection of top end Gibsons and Fenders which we used to jam on from time to time. I wouldn't swap my mex Tele for any of them.

That experience has given me complete confidence in Mexican Fender instruments, only reinforced by the mex deluxe precision special that arrived to live with me recently.

Edited January 27, 2017 by Cato

[dmccombe7]

[quote name='Cato' timestamp='1485543945' post='3224869']
I've got a Mex thinline Tele which I bought c2000.

To this day it remains pretty much my favourite skinny stringer I've ever played. My ex's dad had a fairly impressive collection of top end Gibsons and Fenders which we used to jam on from time to time. I wouldn't swap my mex Tele for any of them.

That experience has given me complete confidence in Mexican Fender instruments, only reinforced by the mex deluxe precision special that arrived to live with me recently.
[/quote]

How you finding your new toy Cato. You've had it over week now. ?

Dave

[dmccombe7]

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1485542046' post='3224845']
Welcome to the Mex P/J club Dave.
Although mine are passive, every one of this Mex Deluxe Series I've had, has been a great workhorse bass.

Enjoy
[/quote]

Cheers Karl
To be honest i'm kinda liking it in the passive mode altho there's no tone control in passive mode on this one.
Nice feel to it. Need to make a few little adjustments tomorrow. Finding the P pick up needs tweaked as the E and G string are a little quiet with slight tone change from A and D strings. Sorts itself when you press the pick up down a bit to even the response. Also some of the frets i'm gonna smooth the ends off a little. Not too bad but i hate feeling fret ends on a bass even if its very slight.
Other than that the tonal changes available are unreal. Why did i not do this before

Made me think about changing pick ups on my Jazz to get more depth. I believe there are pick ups out there that are wound same way as a Precision but in a row to fit Jazz basses. Might as well change the pots to Vol, Pan, Tone on my Jazz too.

Dave

[Cato]

[quote name='dmccombe7' timestamp='1485548637' post='3224926']


How you finding your new toy Cato. You've had it over week now. ?

Dave
[/quote]

I just keep finding more things I like about it.

Unfortunately I trapped one of my plucking fingers in a folding table at work the other day so I can barely play at the moment, at least not without knocking the scab on my fingertip off, which to be fair I've done at least once a night since the injury, as I can't resist picking the bass up and playing it.

[merello]

Love it!

[dmccombe7]

1st gig with new band last night and decided to give the Deluxe a wee trial run. Not rehearsed with it in a band situation yet.
Also going thru someone else's bass rig of Hartke LH500 and 2off 15" Hartke cabs.
Sound was deep but enough mid to just hear the bass thru the mix.
Think the 15" are a little too muddy for me. Would have preferred 12's or 10's but bass adapted quite well.
Stage was a bit cramped as it was guitarists birthday party and there were 3 bands playing that night.

All in all bass did feel good and tonal range was there to bring in the jazz pick up as and when i needed a little more punch. Mostly ran the bass and amp flat and when needed just erred towards the J pick up a touch or a little boost on the mid control.

Several good comments on the bass sound and how much they enjoyed the band.
All seems to have been a good night and i'm pretty chuffed with the way the bass behaved.
Needs a little fine tuning to get right but that will happen over next few weeks as i get more used to it.

Here's a wee pic from the night.

Dave

[prowla]

I don't suppose you used an iPhone for the picture, did you? I think that they may not put some info into the photos, as I've had it happen of late when I've uploaded photos to tinypic. I've found the answer is to open it on your PC (in my case a Mac mini) and save it as-is; it then uploads fine.

Oh, and nice bass, btw.

[dmccombe7]

[quote name='prowla' timestamp='1485708147' post='3225986']
I don't suppose you used an iPhone for the picture, did you? I think that they may not put some info into the photos, as I've had it happen of late when I've uploaded photos to tinypic. I've found the answer is to open it on your PC (in my case a Mac mini) and save it as-is; it then uploads fine.

Oh, and nice bass, btw.
[/quote]

I used a camera and saved the photo to PC then rotated it to get right way up. Saved correct way up on my PC but when i then loaded to BC it turned again. Looks like it copied over the original file rather than the rotated one.

Dave

[Bassman Sam]

Love that colour. Enjoy.

[White Cloud]

Beautiful looking P bass!