Tag: Fender Standard Jazz

Well I had the itch to check out some Fender Jazz basses as that I have never had one or really played one before and ended up coming home with a new bass.  As I have mentioned before I have primarily been a P-Bass player, but I got to thinking about a Jazz after falling in love with my Mustang Bass.  Essentially the Mustang got me to thinking about the narrower neck on the Jazz and how I might like it.  About this time the latest issue of Bass Player Magazine arrived at my door with, wouldn’t you know it, the cover story being “The Fender Jazz Turns 50”.  After reading the story I was even more hooked.  A few searches on the Talk Bass Forums and I was ready to go out and play some Jazz basses.  At this point I was fairly certain that the Squire Classic Vibe Jazz was the bass for me, but I also wanted to check out the Squire Vintage Modified, a Fender Standard Jazz, a Fender Deluxe Jazz and the Highway One Jazz.  I was also interested in the Geddy Lee Jazz and the American Standard Jazz but really didn’t want to spend that kind of money.

The first bass I tried was the Squire Vintage Modified.  I really liked this bass and played it for quite a while but was really turned off by the painted on block inlays.  I’m also not that big a fan of the maple fingerboard.  Next I tried the Squire Classic Vibe, a nice bass, but it just didn’t do it for me.  Plugged in it just sounded blah.  I moved on to a Fender Standard Jazz and pretty much felt the same way as the Squire, decent bass, but blah.  The last bass I tried was the Fender Jazz Deluxe and wow!  It feels nice, plays nice, and once I plugged it in I was sold.  I dialed in such sweet tones I knew I had to take her home.  Thunderous lows, bright highs and everything in between.  This bass can thump.  To top it off, it was on some sort of special deep discount sale, not sure why, maybe it had just been there a while.  All I know is I got a great deal on a great bass.

So this is my first “Mexican” Fender, and I have to say it is nice.  Black with a Tort pickguard and active “noiseless” pickups.  The fit and finish on this bass look great and the setup wasn’t bad, just took a little tweaking to get it to my liking.  My only complaint is the bridge.  It has the standard Fender bridge, which I am not a fan of at all.  The bridge saddles actually slide around a little, side to side, which seems cheap to me.  Anyway, I couldn’t deal with it so I bought a Gotoh 201 bridge.  Now this bass feels complete.  I am completely happy with her and have been really getting into the jazz neck. Man I didn’t know what I’d been missing all these years!  Don’t get me wrong, I still like my P-Bass, I’m just also learning to love the jazz.