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. Â 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. Â Essentially the Mustang got me to thinking about the narrower neck on the Jazz and how I might like it. Â 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”. Â After reading the story I was even more hooked. Â A few searches on the Talk Bass Forums and I was ready to go out and play some Jazz basses. Â 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. Â 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. Â I really liked this bass and played it for quite a while but was really turned off by the painted on block inlays. Â I’m also not that big a fan of the maple fingerboard. Â Next I tried the Squire Classic Vibe, a nice bass, but it just didn’t do it for me. Â Plugged in it just sounded blah. Â I moved on to a Fender Standard Jazz and pretty much felt the same way as the Squire, decent bass, but blah. Â The last bass I tried was the Fender Jazz Deluxe and wow! Â It feels nice, plays nice, and once I plugged it in I was sold. Â I dialed in such sweet tones I knew I had to take her home. Â Thunderous lows, bright highs and everything in between. Â This bass can thump. Â 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. Â 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.
