Fender Standard Jazz Bass® (Upgrade) Bass Guitar,

[aceuggy]

I am currently playing a Squier P Bass and I have to say I'm pleased with it, but I want to upgrade. Unfortunately I don't have the funds to really splash out. I would like to buy a Jazz and have seen the Fender Standard Jazz Bass® (Upgrade). What do you guys think of this? Is it worth having a look?

[url="http://www.dv247.com/invt/34766/"]http://www.dv247.com/invt/34766/[/url]

Edited June 15, 2008 by aceuggy

[OutToPlayJazz]

In a word, yes. For the money they're one of Fender's better products. I recently had the Standard 5-string in midnight wine & it was a lovely bass. More recently, I played an MIM standard jazz 4 while testing amps & it was biblical! An awsome to play & awsome sounding bass. Make sure you try a few, though. As with every mass produced instrument, you're going to get a few dogs around, but Fender's recent Mexican quality control has been very encouraging!

[ashgeezer]

dont know about the jazz but i recently bought a mexican precision and im more than happy with it so i should imagine the jazz would be a great bass also.

[artisan]

[quote name='ashgeezer' post='219474' date='Jun 15 2008, 09:53 PM']dont know about the jazz but i recently bought a mexican precision and im more than happy with it so i should imagine the jazz would be a great bass also.[/quote]
+1 to the above.

[spinynorman]

I've been trying to find out what the "upgrades" were and when they started. I have a MIM Standard Jazz 5 of 1999/2000 vintage and the pickups are very weak. From the positive comments I guess the more recent ones have fixed that.

Edited June 16, 2008 by spinynorman

[artisan]

yes i'd agree about the pickups,my P has a very powerful meaty sound to it.
don't know if the body wood etc is any different though.

[Jono Bolton]

[quote name='spinynorman' post='220052' date='Jun 16 2008, 05:20 PM']I've been trying to find out what the "upgrades" were and when they started. I have a MIM Standard Jazz 5 of 1999/2000 vintage and the pickups are very weak. From the positive comments I guess the more recent ones have fixed that.[/quote]

I've got a MIM Precision from the same year (2000) and The pickup is the complete opposite, it's really meaty and very high output. The pickups on my Jazz were pretty weak, I've replaced the neck pickup and now I've got a nice blend between the 2.

[Leowasright]

The Mex Jazz pickups are still weak. I changed mine in a 2007 example for USA ones, the improvement was very noticable. It transformed the MIM into the one the band prefers the sound of .....(over a USA Jazz!).

Apart from the pickups, the MIM Jazz is not far off the USA. The neck is a bit thinner though.

[skywalker]

[quote name='aceuggy' post='219459' date='Jun 15 2008, 09:29 PM']I am currently playing a Squier P Bass and I have to say I'm pleased with it, but I want to upgrade. Unfortunately I don't have the funds to really splash out. I would like to buy a Jazz and have seen the Fender Standard Jazz Bass® (Upgrade). What do you guys think of this? Is it worth having a look?

[url="http://www.dv247.com/invt/34766/"]http://www.dv247.com/invt/34766/[/url][/quote]

You could try the Squier VMJ, lots of good reports of them on here.

[spinynorman]

Another thing to say is, being used to a P, you may find the neck on a J is too narrow. I don't like 4-string Js, the J I have is a 5-string, where the neck is actually relatively wide.

Given the comments about pickups, you might be better off with the MIM P.

[url="http://www.dv247.com/invt/34765/"]http://www.dv247.com/invt/34765/ [/url]

[Jezyorkshire]

I have a late 90s american fender jazz and recently bought a new squire jazz(£125) for one of my students. i took it home to set it up and to be honest it is almost as good as my jazz, i have also recently bought the Vintage icon Jaco model (£250) and the pickups on it are better than on my american jazz , cheers , Jez.

[4string]

Greetings fellow bottom enders, I just wanted to add my 2p...

I've got a defretted MIM Jazz and a USA Jazz (both bought new). I found the USA far superior to the MIM. The USA played, without adjustment from the box where the MIM needed a fair bit of bridge adjustment. Also the pickups on the MIM are much quieter than the USA. At almost half the price though, I suppose the MIM was a bargain

[Leowasright]

Funny that. My MIM was OK straight out the box, and the USA required so much fiddling that I gave up and took it back to the shop to set it up again.

And the USA's neck is unbelievably sensitive to tempereture change, which is odd, as it has graphite reinforcement in the neck where the MIM does not.

[bigjohn]

I love these MIA vs MIM things.


As far as the current and recent past - Standards (american series) and Standards (MIM) are very similar in my opinion. Both have bodies and necks machined in the same factory nowadays I believe. Difference is MIAs are assembled by Mexicans in America . Both should be set up as to the players preference, strings and environment.


MIAs have better qualilty hardware, although Highways have the same chrome tuners (16:1). Not sure about the bridges as I've not compared, but they look the same to me. (the 2008 MIAs have high mass vintage bridges though which look v nice) Some MIMs like some MIJs come fitted with MIA pickups. They're usually reissues or factory special runs though.

MIAs and some MIMs are fitted with bone nuts.

Mexicans are only currently available with a rosewood fretboard, although there have been maples in the past.

The Mexican "upgrades" have MIA electrics (not pickups) and US barrel knobs.

If you've got time and are interested just seek and find the fender parts lists on www.fender.com

[joe_bass]

If you're quite happy with your Squier P bass and aren't looking to spend a lot of cash then I'd expect you to really enjoy a Mexican jazz bass tbh.

For a start I was quite impressed with the neck on mine, I got it back in around 2003 and was really pleased with it, although I'm looking to now spend around £1000 on a bass I'd still be hesitant to sell this.

You should deff check them out mate, especially as the prices have seemed to have bombed (I've just come back from about a 2 year gap in playing and could swear these were around the £500 mark then?!)

[Leowasright]

All things considered, A Mexican Jazz is a perfectly good instrument, as mine is currently #1 over the MIA Jazz.

All I would say is the Mex pickups are the only thing that let the current MIM standard down. (Change 'em for USA ones like I did).

Going back to the MIM/MIA differences, the US bridge (1995-2007) has the ability to allow through body stringing, as does the new current "high mass" bridge. All Mex and Jap instruments have the good old fashioned "wobbly bridge", surface mounted, with the strings anchoring in the right angled plate at the back of it.

The MIM neck is thinner (front to back) than the MIA, has truss rod adjustment at the headstock end, and has a walnut truss rod fillet on the back, even though it has a rosewood fingerboard (why? it's not necessary).

The MIA neck adjusts at the body end, as does the Highway 1 (which must be made on the same machine).

Body wise the MIM can be made of up to 3 pieces of alder, whereas a MIA is probably 2 pieces tops nowadays.

I await the howls of disagreement.

[spinynorman]

I replaced the pickups in my MIM Jazz 5 with Basslines SJ5s. I think there's some difference in tone, but not a lot in output. While doing it I put the multimeter on both sets, Basslines 5.50 & 5.87, Fender 4.96 & 5.09. Jazz pickups I've had in the past, which were on copies, not Fenders, were more like 8-9. Presumably some people like lower output.

The bridge on the 5-string is quite a bit heavier than the 4-string.

Edited June 25, 2008 by spinynorman

[molan]

The answer to your woes Uggy is to flog the Fatboy for a tidy profit & buy a Street Triple - you don't really need the 1,050 engine of the Speed Triple and the 675 engine is a peach.

Having saved a huge wedge of cash you can then splash out on a much sexier bass & still be quids in