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Post subject: Re: Any one try the New American Jazz Special?
Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 10:36 am
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hands5 wrote:
eh.....it felt kinda cheap to me and the socalled "Grease Bucket" circuit did absolutely nothing for me,however I did like the rosewood fretboard...but I wouldn't pay the $900.00 bucks that it's priced at.


While I respect your opinion, I have to wonder why as I played both the American Standard and Special side by side and found the neck better feeling on the Special but the tone was so close (with tone pot at max). I do understand the Greasebucket comment as I may try them again to compare the Greasebucket to a standard tone pot. It has been my experience when someone has paid for a higher priced instrument and others tout their lower priced instrument as being as good or better that these kind of comments are brought out by the owner of the more expensive item. I have seen it over and over again on guitar and bass forums. Here are the only things I see, the American standard has a superior heavier bridge that some like and some like the older vintage style as on the special. The other thing is the tuners are nicer on the American Standard but the ones on my special are better than the ones I had on a 1964 Fender Precision Bass (those were horrible, binding and rough to turn) as these are smooth operating and hold the tuning. The one detractor to them is they are 14:1 ratio and not 18 or 21:1. As far as the string through the body I couldn't see that made a difference in tone. This Special is a better bass than the 2004 MIA Fender Jazz I once had as far as tone goes and it had the same vintage style thinner bridge as my special with one exception the 2004 had string through the body. The finish on this bass was the same as on the American Standard I A/B'd last Summer.

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2011 Fender American Special Jazz Bass
1979 Takamine F-349
2010 Mitchell Acoustic Electric
2008 GK 700RBII amp and Avatar B115H cab
1999 Fender Ultimate Chorus amp


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Post subject: Re: Any one try the New American Jazz Special?
Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 7:28 am
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LoveThatBass wrote:
hands5 wrote:
eh.....it felt kinda cheap to me and the socalled "Grease Bucket" circuit did absolutely nothing for me,however I did like the rosewood fretboard...but I wouldn't pay the $900.00 bucks that it's priced at.


While I respect your opinion, I have to wonder why as I played both the American Standard and Special side by side and found the neck better feeling on the Special but the tone was so close (with tone pot at max). I do understand the Greasebucket comment as I may try them again to compare the Greasebucket to a standard tone pot. It has been my experience when someone has paid for a higher priced instrument and others tout their lower priced instrument as being as good or better that these kind of comments are brought out by the owner of the more expensive item. I have seen it over and over again on guitar and bass forums. Here are the only things I see, the American standard has a superior heavier bridge that some like and some like the older vintage style as on the special. The other thing is the tuners are nicer on the American Standard but the ones on my special are better than the ones I had on a 1964 Fender Precision Bass (those were horrible, binding and rough to turn) as these are smooth operating and hold the tuning. The one detractor to them is they are 14:1 ratio and not 18 or 21:1. As far as the string through the body I couldn't see that made a difference in tone. This Special is a better bass than the 2004 MIA Fender Jazz I once had as far as tone goes and it had the same vintage style thinner bridge as my special with one exception the 2004 had string through the body. The finish on this bass was the same as on the American Standard I A/B'd last Summer.
I"ll be honest with you I have a CS 64 Relic that I think isn't all that and I have an early 90's 4 string Mexican jazz that kills it as far as tone goes and my 72 Jazz....well that bass is just in a whole different leauge than those basses,but I bought an ASTD in 08,and it didn't do it for me either (because I'm not a fan of the posiflex rods...ie my MM5 doesn't get that much playing time either for that reason and the preamp is so so... but that's a different matter)....I guest the newer version of Jazz basses that Fender is putting out currently feel and sound different to me.....more of a Modern sound than Vintage and I guest that's ok for some people


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Post subject: Re: Any one try the New American Jazz Special?
Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 8:49 am
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I remember checking out some American Standard & American special Jazz basses back in May of this year (I ended up buying a 2011 American Deluxe 5 string with a natural finish)
Anyway I wasn't overly inpressed with how the Standard & Specials felt & played in the store......they were probably taken right out of the box & put on a stand ( they definately needed some adjusting....no big deal)

I thought my Japanese Geddy Lee Jazz & Marcus miller Jazz basses felt & played better off the rack compared to the standard & Special ( my Geddy & Marcus basses were bought in the same store as my Am DLX Jazz 5 string)
This is all personal preference of course & as others will tell you it's hit & miss
with regard to picking up a bass that feels good ...you can have 3 of the same model jazz basses lined up & you'll always prefer 1 bass over the others.

I've played cheap basses that feel & sound great & expensive that don't.
Now that being said ....spending the extra couple hundred bucks for the 2011 American Deluxe Jazz Bass 5 was a good investment IMO ...This bass kicks *@# & is well made & sounds amazing, I even noticed the extra sustain with the string through body feature & the Fender #8250 -5 roundwound strings that have a taper wound E & B string that come stock with this bass . Fender hit the nail on the head with this one.
But that's just my opinion.


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Post subject: Re: Any one try the New American Jazz Special?
Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 4:36 pm
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James Coderre wrote:
I remember checking out some American Standard & American special Jazz basses back in May of this year (I ended up buying a 2011 American Deluxe 5 string with a natural finish)
Anyway I wasn't overly inpressed with how the Standard & Specials felt & played in the store......they were probably taken right out of the box & put on a stand ( they definately needed some adjusting....no big deal)

I thought my Japanese Geddy Lee Jazz & Marcus miller Jazz basses felt & played better off the rack compared to the standard & Special ( my Geddy & Marcus basses were bought in the same store as my Am DLX Jazz 5 string)
This is all personal preference of course & as others will tell you it's hit & miss
with regard to picking up a bass that feels good ...you can have 3 of the same model jazz basses lined up & you'll always prefer 1 bass over the others.

I've played cheap basses that feel & sound great & expensive that don't.
Now that being said ....spending the extra couple hundred bucks for the 2011 American Deluxe Jazz Bass 5 was a good investment IMO ...This bass kicks *@# & is well made & sounds amazing, I even noticed the extra sustain with the string through body feature & the Fender #8250 -5 roundwound strings that have a taper wound E & B string that come stock with this bass . Fender hit the nail on the head with this one.
But that's just my opinion.


Thanks guys, opinions are just that opinions based on a person's inherent likes and dislikes. The basses I tried were setup nicely and hadn't be played much as they just came in and were hanging high. I tried the Geddy Lee and it is a nice bass. My comments were solely based upon the "it felt cheap" statement. That was the only thing I had issue with. Not sounding vintage or sounding modern are subjective terms. I can say there have been occasions where a particular bass or guitar was crappy feeling and tone bad mostly due to old strings and bad setup and it gave me a bad taste in my mouth so to speak then at another store the same bass or guitar was nice. It amazes me how some places like guitar center allow an instrument to just hang on the wall for months and people play the heck out of them causing strings to go dead and not get replaced. This happened on a Martin D16 for instance. I had to ask if they would replace the strings and insure settup was decent before I would even consider buying it.

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2011 Fender American Special Jazz Bass
1979 Takamine F-349
2010 Mitchell Acoustic Electric
2008 GK 700RBII amp and Avatar B115H cab
1999 Fender Ultimate Chorus amp


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Post subject: Re: Any one try the New American Jazz Special?
Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 5:28 pm
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Location: Vancouver, BC Canada
No problem ....& I agree with you regarding basses in music stores that are (hanging high as you put it) or are dirty (finger prints all over the place from not being given a quick polish from time to time) or dead strings on some basses especially used ones.

You will only get top dollar for the product you're selling if it looks tip top & sounds amazing, The music store I frequent is pretty good at keeping on top of this but there's a couple of others stores in my city that are not.


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