AndyTravis Posted November 17, 2021 Share Posted November 17, 2021 (edited) A friend…ahem, May have happened across a Fender Aerodyne Jazz bass… Has anyone among these pages had much experience with them - it’s been years (about eight…) since I’ve played one - And a lot of my prior experience was filing nuts and setting them up in BEAD tunings for lads who’d splashed their student loans on them. How are the stock pickups… This mate of mine…they play funky stuff, rather than the rock/metal they seem to be used for. I know Fender did a Dimarzio (DMC) edition for the Japanese market. Just general musings for an evenings thinking… Edited December 8, 2021 by AndyTravis I lied, I buyed… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted November 17, 2021 Share Posted November 17, 2021 I changed the J pickup on the one I had to a Seymour Duncan Hot Stack and it did beef the sound up, but to be honest I did it more for the hum-cancelling aspect. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tegs07 Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 9 hours ago, AndyTravis said: A friend…ahem, May have happened across a Fender Aerodyne Jazz bass… Has anyone among these pages had much experience with them - it’s been years (about eight…) since I’ve played one - And a lot of my prior experience was filing nuts and setting them up in BEAD tunings for lads who’d splashed their student loans on them. How are the stock pickups… This mate of mine…they play funky stuff, rather than the rock/metal they seem to be used for. I know Fender did a Dimarzio (DMC) edition for the Japanese market. Just general musings for an evenings thinking… I bought one from here a while back and love it. My only complaints are: 1) it’s just too pretty and feels like it wouldn’t take much punishment. 2) I’n used to the P bass shape and find the offset body is taking a bit of adjustment to get used to. Its a quality bass though and the neck is superb. For its price band, particularly used, it’s a lot of bass for not a lot of cash. The stock pups are fine but I have a set of Geezers that I had in another bass so replaced the stock pups with these. To me it’s a big improvement, but that may be more down to personal preference/familiarity. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Browning Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 I had a pair of Aerodyne Precisions. I would guess the pickups are the same. They were the Achilles heel and seemed a bit weak to me. I changed them out and really loved the bass. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obrienp Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 I recently sold mine, not because there was anything wrong with it, in fact the opposite but arthritis in my left hand is forcing me to go short scale. They are great bases but IMO the stock pickups were a bit weak. I put a DiMarzio set in which really gave it a new lease of life, plus they were a lot quieter. That mod plus, shielding the cavities with copper tape made it really quiet on standby. The DiMarzios have four wires, giving you the option of clever wiring combinations, should you wish (parallel/series on a push/pull, etc), or you can just use them vanilla. They have a super fast neck and are quite a lot lighter than your average J bass. They also look great with the lacquer style finish and top binding. The body does end up with lots of superficial scratches but I don’t think it is any more fragile than other finishes. Another common mod you might want to do is to change the standard bridge for something a bit chunkier. It is quite difficult to find one in the smoked chrome finish. Gotoh do one but be warned, if you have one of the models with the controls mounted through the body, rather than on a standard J bass metal plate, the top is carved (convex). In order to mount the standard bridge level, the top has a very shallow indent for the bridge. This route is not big enough to accommodate the larger base plate of the Gotoh (or any other) higher mass bridge. You therefore end up with the choice of enlarging the indent, or putting a spacer in so the new bridge will sit level. I gave it to a Luthier to sort out and he went for the spacer so as not to do a non-reversible modification. This required the neck to be shimmed to compensate for the slightly higher bridge. It all worked out very well but it wasn’t as straight forward as your average Fender bridge upgrade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueMoon Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 Not much more to add to the comments above. Hum from the bridge pup was the reason I swapped out the pup's to Dimarzio pj's. I have creme ones, which also look cool with DR Black Beauties. Otherwise, a nice light and resonant (basswood) body and super fast neck. The body dings up pretty fast and the black ones are fingerprint magnets! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 I had one until recently, I liked it, even with the stock pickups, although I can see why people think they were a bit weak, although not noisy. I tried it with black beuties too, although I didn't like the feel of the strings, but the colour was great! Great neck on them and would have used it a lot more if it had just had another string! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyTravis Posted November 18, 2021 Author Share Posted November 18, 2021 Wonder if they sound better in blue… 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geek99 Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 You should buy it in blue and yellow … Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyTravis Posted November 18, 2021 Author Share Posted November 18, 2021 Just now, Geek99 said: You should buy it in blue and yellow … And sell it within a week 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDaddy Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 I like the non-export model 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geek99 Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 20 minutes ago, AndyTravis said: And sell it within a week 😉 You could hang on to the yellow one for a bit and make it into double digits 🏆 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elfrasho Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 i had a non export model for years. Great bass, although the original jazz pickup was really weedy. I regret selling mine. I mean, i really regret... so much so i asked the guy if i could buy it back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 (edited) I'm still kicking myself that I dithered over, and missed out on, the blue Precision one a few years ago. The only time I've seen Dave the grumpy Canadian YouTube guitar bloke truly happy was playing his red Aerodyne P. Edited November 18, 2021 by Maude 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 2 minutes ago, Maude said: I'm still kicking myself that I dithered over, and missed out on, the blue Precision one a few years ago. It's local and I will get it 😉. The only time I've seen Dave the grumpy Canadian YouTube guitar bloke truly happy was playing his red Aerodyne P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 What is happening? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueMoon Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 I keep seeing double. Should I get my eyes checked? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyTravis Posted November 27, 2021 Author Share Posted November 27, 2021 Ah well. Decision made. Fender vintage noiseless bridge pickup…done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyTravis Posted December 8, 2021 Author Share Posted December 8, 2021 The friend (me) got his (my) bass today… ah. It’s very blue. plays well, decent weight. changed the knobs, changed the pickup. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyTravis Posted December 8, 2021 Author Share Posted December 8, 2021 (edited) So, here it is… subtle mods, but silent operation and no awful chrome knobs. Edited December 8, 2021 by AndyTravis 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roonjuice Posted December 9, 2021 Share Posted December 9, 2021 U wanna sell the chrome knobs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyTravis Posted December 9, 2021 Author Share Posted December 9, 2021 8 minutes ago, roonjuice said: U wanna sell the chrome knobs? Yup. they’re really not for me. send me a message with what you’re thinking 👍🏼 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmo Valdemar Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 On 08/12/2021 at 23:05, AndyTravis said: So, here it is… subtle mods, but silent operation and no awful chrome knobs. Oh mate, I like those chrome knobs! It looks a bit less George Jetson now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyTravis Posted December 11, 2021 Author Share Posted December 11, 2021 On 10/12/2021 at 14:05, Cosmo Valdemar said: Oh mate, I like those chrome knobs! It looks a bit less George Jetson now. I’ve put them up for sale 😂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bridgehouse Posted December 11, 2021 Share Posted December 11, 2021 16 minutes ago, AndyTravis said: I’ve put them up for sale 😂 What? The new basses? This does not surprise me. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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