New Fender Player II Modified range launched

[sPiKi]

Some interesting features and good colours, but £999? Good value?

 

https://uk.fender.com/products/player-ii-modified-active-jazz-bass?variant=50790143557919

 

 

 

Edited 22 hours ago by sPiKi

[gjones]

Well, a John East pre amp would cost about £200 to upgrade your standard Player II, so £999 isn't so bad considering, I suppose..

 

 

[HeadlessBassist]

Okay, so these are replacing the Player Plus I presume? (Really liked the graduated paint schemes on Player Plus.)

 

Btw, the guy who did the Precision Player Modified video was very annoying and playing out of time.

 

As for the girl in the Player Modified Jazz video, please bring back Annie Clements, Fender.

 

 

[asingardenof]

This range will be competing with Sire and the Sadowsky MetroExpress range primarily, and I'm not sure what these bring to the table to make them stand out other than being a more recognisable brand to muggles.

[neepheid]

4 minutes ago, asingardenof said:

This range will be competing with Sire and the Sadowsky MetroExpress range primarily, and I'm not sure what these bring to the table to make them stand out other than being a more recognisable brand to muggles.

 

I'm thinking similar - first the rolled edges, now the preamp, it smacks of playing catchup to me.

[Terry M.]

They've gone from a 12" radius on the Player Plus models to 9.5" on these which will save them some money on production as it's now shared with other models. The Player Plus already had the rolled fingerboard edges so from what I can see it's just the passive tone control that's new (and the aforementioned radius). I only recently acquired  a used Player Plus Jazz V with a modified Sadowsky onboard pre and it's not going anywhere in favour of this new one. Flatter fretboard radius has always been a plus to me for added playability. Oh and the Player Plus V Jazz has my preferred 19mm string spacing as standard. No thanks Fender I'm good for now.

Edited 16 hours ago by Terry M.

[Sean]

Fender innovation at its peak.

[basshead56]

The Dusk purple and Harvest Green Metallic look cool on the Jazz but hardly anything spectacularly different.

Fender seem to think a preamp and a different/extra pickup equate to revolutionary.

 

Would've been much cooler with a Meteora or Rascal or something a bit bolder than the traditional fare of the last 40 odd years.

[crazycloud]

More meh from Fender.

Based on my recent purchases from Cort, and having owned and played many Fenders of various vintages and construction location, I'd have the Cort GB series (FSO-ish) any day for lots less pesos. Haven't tried a Sire, but likely the same would apply; I'd buy the SIre blind, and returns are harder for change of mind here, over the Fender every time, MIA, MIJ, MIM, MII or MIC.

Edited 5 hours ago by crazycloud

[Lozz196]

I really liked the colour of the butterscotch one in the vid, looks much better than in the photos. Agree there`s not much here that`s new, but maybe Fender are reacting to what people have said they prefer, they mentioned a redesigned/better preamp for example. 

[Alanko]

18 hours ago, HeadlessBassist said:

Btw, the guy who did the Precision Player Modified video was very annoying and playing out of time.

Weird that he talks about the empowerment of modifying instruments yourself, when this is a pre-modified instrument. He talks a lot if rubbish in general, however. Adding a J pickup to a bass gives you more midrange?!

 

Agree with the idea that Fender have been shown up slightly by the spec Sire can deliver for less money.

[Terry M.]

1 minute ago, Alanko said:

Weird that he talks about the empowerment of modifying instruments yourself, when this is a pre-modified instrument. He talks a lot if rubbish in general, however. Adding a J pickup to a bass gives you more midrange?!

 

Agree with the idea that Fender have been shown up slightly by the spec Sire can deliver for less money.

I was also wondering about this. How is talking about modifying a brand new bass effective marketing? Made little if any sense to me. I've never been more grateful for the 2nd hand market. Fender are charging quite a lot of money for that passive tone circuit.