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Fender's Jazz Bass range... which to choose?


geoham

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I posted before about my old MIM Jazz Bass being stolen, and I'm in the market to replace it. I've pretty much decided I want something with vintage voiced pickups, preferably in a fairly pale shade of blue and a red tortoiseshell scratchplate (to look reasonably similar to my missing one, which I loved the look of!).

It looks like Fender do three tick could potentially tick all the right boxes.

American Original (About £1600)

Vintera (About £800)

Squier Classic Vibe (About £330)

There are some differences in materials / parts used on these, but I'm interested in what this translates to in the real world? Has anyone tried any of them side by side?

I can afford any of them, I just need to wait a little longer. Right now I feel the Vintera is probably the right one... however , if the US built one was substantially better I'd prefer to just wait an extra couple of months and get that. With the same token, I could be tempted to pull the trigger on Squier straight away with some encouragement!

Regarding usage - it'll be strung with flats and doing 20 or so pub gigs a year with a few weddings/functions. It'll sharing duties with my Lakland 55-01, with the Jazz covering the vintage side of the set and the Lakland the more modern stuff.

I'd love to just try all three myself, but I'd probably struggle to find somewhere with them all, never mind the virus situation!

 

George

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If the Original is of similar quality in build, sound and playability to the Professional I’d def recommend giving it a try. Who knows you may not gel with it but in my experience not trying out one of the ones on the list is like an itch not scratched, better to scratch it and find out for definite.

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4 hours ago, Defo said:

I got the Classic Vibe recently, I reviewed it at the page below 

 

Thanks, this is useful.

How would you describe the pickups? I’m after something smooth, not to harsh. I previously paid not far off the price of this bass for the CS60s pickups that I put in my now stolen Mex Jazz and really liked the tone of them.

Given I’ve got a Helix to replace too, the cheaper option will let me get back to a even position a bit sooner.

George 

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2 hours ago, geoham said:

How would you describe the pickups? I’m after something smooth, not to harsh.

Any alnico pickups will be smooth, it's ceramic pups which can be harsh.

The US Original will be the best overall bass. The Vintera will be pretty close in sound and feel, but the hardware won't be as good. The CV will be close in sound and feel to the Vintera, but the hardware won't be as good. 

I'd go for the Vintera, lots of cool colours, and an excellent happy medium.

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7 hours ago, hooky_lowdown said:

Any alnico pickups will be smooth, it's ceramic pups which can be harsh.

The US Original will be the best overall bass. The Vintera will be pretty close in sound and feel, but the hardware won't be as good. The CV will be close in sound and feel to the Vintera, but the hardware won't be as good. 

I'd go for the Vintera, lots of cool colours, and an excellent happy medium.

This is basically exactly where my head is, though quite tempted by the Squier as I have enough in my gear fund to get it today!

I try to fund gear purchases with the small amounts of money I earn from gigs, which Corona has killed for the foreseeable. Not always a enforced rule, but I like to tell myself it’s a self funding hobby.

George

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Just worth mentioning that the Original series is an actual lacquer (nitrocellulose) finish unlike the other two. I see countless posts from people who buy basses from the ranges that use nitro finish (Nate Mendel, road worm, AVRI, American Original etc) who are used to polyurethane finishes and start talking about sanding back the neck or that it’s ‘sticky’ etc.
 

Whilst on paper they look great and the price/spec is above the more standard ranges, the lacquer seems to be the biggest factor that affects playability for most people so if you’re seriously considering it, I’d suggest trying something with a nitro finish and seeing if you get in with it first. It’s a lot of cash to spend if you’re going to then 1) Have to strip back the finish immediately and affect the resale value or 2) simply not be happy with it.

Also, the American Original series has all the vintage quirks like 60 cycle hum on the pickups etc, which seems to be another gripe that pops up a lot (why is it so noisy? Why are the pickups buzzing? etc).

Probably just worth knowing what you’re buying in to!

Edited by skej21
More info!
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24 minutes ago, skej21 said:

Just worth mentioning that the Original series is an actual lacquer (nitrocellulose) finish unlike the other two. I see countless posts from people who buy basses from the ranges that use nitro finish (Nate Mendel, road worm, AVRI, American Original etc) who are used to polyurethane finishes and start talking about sanding back the neck or that it’s ‘sticky’ etc.
 

Whilst on paper they look great and the price/spec is above the more standard ranges, the lacquer seems to be the biggest factor that affects playability for most people so if you’re seriously considering it, I’d suggest trying something with a nitro finish and seeing if you get in with it first. It’s a lot of cash to spend if you’re going to then 1) Have to strip back the finish immediately and affect the resale value or 2) simply not be happy with it.

Also, the American Original series has all the vintage quirks like 60 cycle hum on the pickups etc, which seems to be another gripe that pops up a lot (why is it so noisy? Why are the pickups buzzing? etc).

Probably just worth knowing what you’re buying in to!

Some very good points! I like vintage looks and tone on a Jazz - but don’t particularly care about it being truly accurate. Especially not at double the price... 

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39 minutes ago, hooky_lowdown said:

@geoham this may be an alternative to the Squier CV, better quality hardware than the CV and decent alnico pickups...

https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Vintage-VJ74-Reissued-Bass-MN-Natural-Ash/2EYO

 

Does look great value for money. Pity I can’t see one in my preferred colour.

Reminds me of a support gig I did with the Pat McManus band, the man himself played Vintage guitars and sounded great.

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23 minutes ago, geoham said:

Does look great value for money. Pity I can’t see one in my preferred colour.

Reminds me of a support gig I did with the Pat McManus band, the man himself played Vintage guitars and sounded great.

I have a lot of posh Jazzes with very posh pickups (Lindy Fralins and Fender Noiseless pickups) but I also have an old beater with Wilkinson pickups in it and they sound really, really nice.

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Bought a Spector recently but got a free hit at a few basses while considering. The one that jumped out and really made me sit up and take notice was a gold  Vintera Jazz. Made me wonder if I should just buy it and pay it up. I’m not keen on the 7.25 neck radius ( I think this has one) but the neck felt excellent.

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On 20/03/2020 at 20:41, geoham said:

Thanks, this is useful.

How would you describe the pickups? I’m after something smooth, not to harsh. I previously paid not far off the price of this bass for the CS60s pickups that I put in my now stolen Mex Jazz and really liked the tone of them.

Given I’ve got a Helix to replace too, the cheaper option will let me get back to a even position a bit sooner.

George 

The pickups are lively but certainly not harsh, definite vintage vibe. That said, smooth would not be the first word I would reach for 

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I have owned about 50 jazzes from pre-CBS jazzes to modern ones and I have to say that the FSR Jazz Bass I picked up before Christmas is exceptional.

Its personal taste, naturally, but the workmanship is top quality, and the materials excellent (I had a solid rosewood neck). The neck feels like a vintage bass and the pickups are warm. A high-mass bridge and through neck stringing add to the tone and it looks like the balls too.

I tried quite a few and have to say that the guys at PMT were brilliant and let me play loads then offered me the online discount price in store.

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4 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

I have owned about 50 jazzes from pre-CBS jazzes to modern ones and I have to say that the FSR Jazz Bass I picked up before Christmas is exceptional.

Its personal taste, naturally, but the workmanship is top quality, and the materials excellent (I had a solid rosewood neck). The neck feels like a vintage bass and the pickups are warm. A high-mass bridge and through neck stringing add to the tone and it looks like the balls too.

I tried quite a few and have to say that the guys at PMT were brilliant and let me play loads then offered me the online discount price in store.

It is pink which isn’t too everybody’s taste.

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I have one of these.  It's by far the cheapest bass I own, but to me, it holds it's own against my far more expensive USA Fenders.

I'm not saying the Talman is as good as them in absolute terms, but it's still very good in it's own right.  It's also the lightest bass I have, plays well, sounds great with the standard pickups and I think they look very cool.  I used to gig it a lot, BV. (Before virus.)

EDIT.  Just realised you want only a Fender. :(

Frank.

https://www.andertons.co.uk/bass-dept/bass-guitars/modern-bass-guitars/ibanez-tmb100-mgr-electric-bass

Edited by machinehead
Not reading original post carefully.
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