Fender AVRI 74 jazz bass.?

[bubinga5]

Can anyone who has owned or played one of these tell me if they are good instruments. Any experiences compared to high end jazz basses.? Ive been looking at a natural ash 74 to buy. 

 

Any thoughts would be welcome.

[Misdee]

I've got one of these. It's a terrific bass, but you need to be aware of the chunky neck profile. For some reason, I know not why, Fender decided to give these basses a big "U" -shaped neck. That is not  necessarily a bad thing by any means, but if you are expecting the more typical svelte Jazz Bass  neck dimensions then these basses could be a bit of a shock. I should also point out that the nut is slightly narrower than a typical Jazz Bass, and that seems to offset the chunkyness to some extent.

I love the chunky neck on mine , and I can shred on it as  well as I can on  any of my other basses  (i.e not very well at all 😄) despite it being more of a handful.   Nowadays I've got Thomastik flats on mine and I use it primarily  as my reggae bass. Nails all the classic tones perfectly. The  big neck feels really good for playing those kind of basslines on .

The 74 vintage reissue pickups are superb. They were developed for this bass but Fender subsequently marketed them as a separate item, and they would probably be my first choice if I were looking for a set of raunchy- sounding Jazz Bass pickups.

I've had plenty of high -end Jazz Basses and in comparison I would have to describe the 74 AVRI as being much more Fender - like, i.e flawed but brimming with personality, if that makes sense. The 74 AVRI has got clank and clunk rather than the thump and sizzle you get from a lot of modern- sounding  boutique Jazz Basses. 

[AndyTravis]

Yeah these were released and I god absolutely giddy.

tried one...not so much.

U profile.

 

[LukeFRC]

 I tried one, didn't like it as much as the slightly older '75ri models I had tried - for the life of me can't remember why I thought that though! 

[Geek99]

So what is the difference between actual  74 jazz basses and 75 models that they get a separate avri model ? 

[LukeFRC]

3 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

So what is the difference between actual  74 jazz basses and 75 models that they get a separate avri model ? 

A few years back fender "improved" the AVRI lines - the '75ri Jazz, '57P and '62P became '76J, '58P and '63P goodness knows why or what imporvements/cost savings they were making - I preferred the older ones. 


(also 4 bolt vs 3 bolt neck) 

Edited March 24, 2021 by LukeFRC

[AndyTravis]

I’d like another go. My tastes change

[Belka]

About a year ago I ab'd a '74 reissue next to a couple of real '70s jazzes (a '72 and a '78). The reissue had better build quality than the '72 (although it could have been down to wear and tear), although surprising given their reputation the '78 seemed to be very well built. Soundwise, the real '70s basses sounded very different. Whether they were better or not is subjective. In my opinion modern pickups, even reissue '60s and '70s one, are all wound hotter to give higher output. I understand that dealing with low output/resistance pickups may be a pain for modern players, who expect a certain level of output, but as a result they all tend to sound middier, without the sparkle in the highs you get from vintage pickups.