Fender Aerodyne Bass

[tegs07]

10 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

That is a later one I think, The early ones were P/J and had a high mass bridge. The jack was flat on the front, not like the Stratocaster front mounted design introduced later.

I don’t recall them having a high mass bridge, but maybe earlier ones? Mine is from mid nineties:

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, tegs07 said:

I don’t recall them having a high mass bridge, but maybe earlier ones? Mine is from mid nineties:

 

 

Yeh, mine was exactly like that, from I think 97

[Skin Lewis]

I had one for a couple of years, a '98 JDM in gunmetal blue after playing a '62 reissue MIJ for 25 years.  The Aerodyne was ok in most respects, but I never really bonded with it.

Sorry for the TLAs.

 

 

[Chienmortbb]

On 06/06/2023 at 20:26, Skin Lewis said:

I had one for a couple of years, a '98 JDM in gunmetal blue after playing a '62 reissue MIJ for 25 years.  The Aerodyne was ok in most respects, but I never really bonded with it.

Sorry for the TLAs.

 

 

That is a nice looking bass. I love my Aerodyne, it feels special when I pull the strap over my head. I have never bonded with Jazz basses, the real one with two single coil pickups. 

[Chienmortbb]

On 06/06/2023 at 08:34, Woodinblack said:

 

Yeh, mine was exactly like that, from I think 97

They were introduced at Winter NAMM 2002 so the availability would have been 2003 on. My serial number is 2004/2005. 
 

I describe the bridge as High Mass but I suppose.I mean that  it is not a a BBOT. It looks much like. Gotoh 201 bridge. 

 

 

[Obrienp]

I had one of these. I think it was early 2000s. It didn’t have a scratch plate. As others have mentioned, the electronics were a bit weak. I replaced the pickups with a DiMarzio P/J set and better pots, etc. I also added a push/pull to give parallel/serial options when using both pickups. I replaced the original, rather cheap looking, bridge with a Gotoh in the smoke chrome to match the rest of the hardware. This is when I discovered that the top is carved and the original bridge sits in an indent to give it a flat base: the Gotoh base plate was too big to fit in the indent. I got round it but I also had to shim the neck a bit to compensate for the higher bridge height.

 

Like others have said: I loved the look of the piano black finish but it smeared and scratched easily. The binding looked great but it did dig into the forearm a bit without the usual arm carve in the top. It was light and sounded great with the DiMarzios, which made it a good gigging bass (forearm problem apart). I kind of regret selling it but that was forced by arthritis in the left hand and the belief that going short scale was the answer. I reckon they are good basses and probably better made than equivalent MIM models. Certainly worth trying if you like a P/J with a fast jazz neck.