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Fender Precision US v current Musicman Cutlass


Slick Bass

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Hi All,

interested to hear your views on the comparison between these two instruments.  The Cutlass doesn’t appear to be a huge seller, but people seem to like them, the Fender P seems to be everyone’s favourite.  Apologies if this is a novice question.

Cheers, Ben

 

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I've owned a couple of US P basses and only played a Cutlass, in a shop.

In general I'd say EBMM gear is of a higher standard than Fender, though there will always be exceptions.

If I was looking for that type of bass, I'd definitely go for the Cutlass.

It looks feels and sounds, so good.

As you say though, the re-sale on a Fender will always be better.

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I'm currently after a P style bass with a J neck and the Cutlass' brother, the Caprice has my attention

Guitar guitar were showing a cutlass at a good price from what I remember 

EDIT - looks like its sold now

Tony

Edited by sshorepunk
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20 minutes ago, sshorepunk said:

Thanks for that link, was after one of the solid colours, but will keep an eye on this one

I have Musician caprice set up with notifications in eBay, so surprised I didn't se it

Tony

 

Possibly if you did Musicman instead of Music Man - it may not have picked it up

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I'm really interested and if I had a grand + to drop on a bass a cutlass would be it! The pickups being single pole must make a difference to the sound - I've read a few different reason for the Fender double pole pieces but most consistently seen a variation on:

Quote

Plus, early bass amplifiers had only limited ability to deal with the sharp, powerful signal spikes of magnets placed directly under the strings of a bass, and would distort the sound. So Leo placed the polepieces on either side of the string, to provide a smoother "attack", more like an acoustic upright bass. 

But also on the Seymour Duncan site:

Quote

Each string used a double pole to reduce the unwanted “beat” effect common in pickups with single magnets.

https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/swd-qa/why-do-fender-precision-bass-pickups-have-two-offset-coils

Huh!

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2 small overlapping  fields, 1 wider field 

String lined up directly, or slightly off (stingray old smoothie)

AlNiCo (whichever version) vs Ceramic magnets 

Scatter wire vs none scatter

All decent things to do that produce slightly different flavours that will suit some more than others i reckon - personal taste, non of which is wrong

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The Cutlass feels a much better quality bass Compared to a Precision and the neck profile is to die for. Tone wise it is a bigger sound than a Precision, kind of a Precision on steroids vibe...

The only reason that I sold mine was the lack of body contouring at the top of the bass, I found that I couldn’t play it without it irritating my forearm, that could just be my sloppy technique but it was nevertheless an issue. 
Back to a Jazz or Precision and no more issues...

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