HeadlessBassist

Fender have definitely been streamlining their production in recent years, especially in terms of necks - All of the mainstream necks from Squiers to Fender Ultra II now have skunk stripes on the back and top end truss rod access, and nearly all now have a 9.5" radius. Gone are the days of 2016-20 where you paid more for a better quality neck with a recessed MM-style truss-rod adjustment wheel in an Elite series bass. Although, my new American Professional Classic Precision has a very nice neck, it is still of the skunk-stripe variety, which used to be reserved for the cheaper Mexican models. It must be an easier and cheaper process to put the truss rods in from the back, then plugging the hole instead of inserting the rod from the top side before the fingerboard is glued and clamped on.

Some of the JHS Vintage range are very good and excellent value, but watch out for the weight. Some of the P's & J's can be mightily heavy.

That's very beautiful, Kiwi... 🤩

Only problem is I'm now looking at Ampeg Venture head units! 🫣

I bought one of the 40th Jazzes from @Sean in the Summer for a pupil, so if the Precision is anything like the same quality, it'll be a very nice sounding, good quality bass.

It is interesting, isn't it? Along with being 'mass produced' also comes that ratio of good ones, average ones and bad ones. I never see most of my old basses again either - I hope that's because they were all very nice examples that played and sounded fantastic. I guess they all found good homes, or several more good homes since my careful stewardship. Also, as I travel around the country picking up various basses for sale, I realise that there are a lot of Bass Players around who don't visit these hallowed pages. But yes, as for your list, maybe they are a little less 'mass' produced than we think. Fender maybe sells 1000 Indonesian Standards for every 100 Player series sales, and maybe those 100 Players equate to 50 American Professional sales, so how many American Deluxe/Elite/Ultras do they sell compared to those 1000 Indonesian Standard basses? 10? Obviously they must sell in much larger numbers than suggested above in order to feed that behemoth of a business, but it starts to give you an idea.

So many of you will have seen my thread on here entitled, "Do I reeeally need a Precision..?" Well, I ordered this on December 22nd and finally went down to The Bass Gallery in Camden today to get it. Thankfully, with a lot of people still on Christmas holidays, London was relatively quiet and traffic free. I plumped for the new American Professional Classic as it was sonically quite similar to my previous American Professional I, but considerably cheaper than the American Professional II, which doesn't sound anywhere near as good. From the videos I studied, the new Classic with its Pure Vintage series derived 'Coastline' 60s pickups has a very clear upper register and a subtly warm bottom end. I also really like the 'modern C' neck profile, which is very slim [fingers to thumb] for a Precision and the usual modern 9.5" radius/1.625" nut, which is almost like a '63 neck, minus a little thickness. So after driving all day (went to Bridgewater in Somerset too!), I've only had a little play, and first order of business as always is to get those awful stock Fender strings off and put some nice fresh 40-95 Elixirs on instead. Much better. After a brief setup, it's a very nice sounding bass. Very easy to play and sounds really smooth and full at the bottom end. Just what I was looking for - a mix of modern and classic. Being as this new series is supposedly the replacement to the long serving American Performer basses (and all the previous incarnations, such as American Special, Highway One, etc), the quality has been upped by a huge amount, bringing these much closer to the Am Pro II. This particular bass is flawless and everything lines up perfectly. The bridge is the same as the ones on the Vintage/Original/Vintage II basses, (which I've never had any issues with on my American Original Jazz in seven years), and the Gotoh Lollipop Tuners & high quality metal Domed Control Knobs are lovely to use too. More to come when I give it a good playing tomorrow...

This. Exactly.

Damn, I should've been on Batch 2, LOL!

Sorry to hear that, Michael. Fingers crossed it may turn up over the weekend. They seem to deliver via Royal Mail, and the local city Parcel Van, as opposed to the Postman. The Royal Mail tracker is also very delayed in showing you any useful information. It usually changes from "We're expecting your parcel" to "Out For Delivery Today" the very morning it's coming out to you for final delivery.

As MacDaddy mentioned, a lot of it really is in the fingers and how you phrase/articulate. If there is a signature sound for me, it always involves very clean strings, boosted highs and lows with mids in the middle. The singist/guitarist I've worked with for 35 years says I have the best live bass sound he's ever heard. High praise indeed. Audience members often come up to chat and comment that they could hear every bass note clearly, like it's some kind of revelation, so hopefully I'm doing something right! It doesn't seem to matter which bass I'm using - a Status, my GB Spitfire, my 30 year old MusicMan, or one of various active/passive Jazzes. I always sound like me. I'll be interested whether I still sound like me when the new Precision finally arrives...

Comparing it to the American Elite was never going to be a fair comparison, as the Elite is the very best of the Fender American Deluxe lineage with an 18V preamp onboard and one of the best Jazz neck profiles around. But I have compared it to a prototype Nitro Okoume Jazz with roasted maple neck/fingerboard that Silky999 built, which has Fender Pure Vintage 66 pickups in it, and it's not far behind. Obviously the cheap Fazley pickups aren't going to be as rich sounding as the Fender ones, but it has a nice Jazz bass scooped sound and it's very nice to play. Not particularly heavy either, being as the body is ash.

Well, it's now all set up and the only thing I have to complain about is the strings. They're supposedly D'addario sets, but they were pretty lifeless and the E was a dud with a nasty overtone. No problem! I bought a couple of Warwick Red Label 35-95 sets in the Black Friday sales for £8 each, so I've put those on it, and it sings. The pickups (whatever they are) produce a deep and toneful bottom end, and a clear, but in no way nasty top end. It's a low and fast funk machine now. This will make someone a fine bass. Total spend, £71.

As good as their word. It came this afternoon while I was doing a NYE Cello Duo Gig with an ex-pupil, so I'm just home... Okay, first I need to introduce The Judge from the Fazley Outlaw Series, aka "Kermit The Bass". So the hand oiled finish is about the worst shade of green you could possibly imagine, more like Ford Signal Green that you used to get on Escort Mk2s. But hey, it's only £63. About that £63... Look at the neck pocket fit and finish. I have £2k Fenders that aren't as well finished as this bass. I've a good mind to phone Bax and ask them if I owe them any more money?! Fit and finish is amazing for the money, even at the near £300 they should normally be. The roasted maple fingerboard is finished very well too. Frets are all properly seated with no sharp edges whatsoever, and the fingerboard edges are totally smooth, if not actually rolled. The ash body is a little lacking in grain, but hey, £63. Setup is almost bang on as well. It'll just need a slight tweak of the truss rod tomorrow. I haven't plugged it in yet, but so far I can't see any penny pinching as such. Even the tuners are the same quality as a Sire. Watch this space...

Judging by the colour and type of case (as well as the lollipop tuners), it's an American Vintage II, isn't it? The smell of Nitro Cellulose varnish when you open the case is lovely on these. My American Original Jazz is seven years old now, and still has the smell every time I open the case. 🤪

Hopefully mine will arrive tomorrow - depends on how efficient Royal Mail are... 🤔

Bass Bags / String Centre in Ripley, Derbyshire are very good - highly recommended and owned by a friend of mine.

Yes, the open pore hand stained oil finish may have an impact, similar to how the Nitro Cellulose finish basses always sound more open and alive, as it were.

Only in America... I do hope no one is so utterly stupid to fall for this. $50,000 would buy you nearly two new Alembics! I bet the neck dive is terrible, too.

@Silky999 You're becoming the single piece body artiste, my friend! That is seriously lovely...

Ah yes, the Dave Swift owned one. Very nice basses, they were. I had the Jazz version with the FSR hand oil stained finish. They were based on the American Standard 2012, but had the 2008 pickups, which were better sounding. I shouldn't have sold mine earlier this year. It had a hugely focused modern punch, quite unlike most other Jazzes.

Yes, the very same. If there's a faded Sherwood Green American Professional Classic still hanging on the wall, it's already been sold to me I'll have a look at those on the site. Might have to go down there in the next few days...

No, no, it has nothing at all to do with the fact that my American Professional Classic Precision has been delayed by some damned inconvenience called Christmas and there being no one at the Gallery who is capable of taking it to a Post Office or Courier and actually send it to me, or something similar. Obviously the Gallery folks don't have arms. No, no, no... What's that you say? GAS you say? Naaah, none of that here... But in all seriousness, I just want to see how much bass you can get for £63. Excellent tip-off, Michael

That's a fantastic clutch of T-40s and T-20s you have there! I hope you have a suitably re-enforced body brace for playing them live! Thankfully, I tend to be pretty pragmatic when buying/selling basses. I usually sell what isn't earning me money as a bass player, so thankfully manage to avoid huge amounts of instruments that way. There was one regret, the best five string Status S2-Classic I ever played, which I traded in for one of the Music Man Classic Sabres at the time. Huge regrets over that one. I've never seen it up for sale again in about 13 years, either.