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Post subject: Fender Highway One Precision Bass
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2013 10:41 am
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Hi all,

I'm searching Fender Highway One Precision Bass. It seems like they are not making them any more! All big fender dealers are out of stock of HW1s. So, does anybody knows anything about it?

Thanks for your reply.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Precision Bass
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2013 11:25 am
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peter.jenic wrote:
Hi all,

I'm searching Fender Highway One Precision Bass. It seems like they are not making them any more! All big fender dealers are out of stock of HW1s. So, does anybody knows anything about it?

Thanks for your reply.


Hi, welcome to the forum. Fender stopped making the Hwy. One series a couple of years ago, and replaced it with the American Special series. The Am. Spl. series runs about $200. more than the Hwy. One series did. There are a few variations from one series to the other. The Grease Bucket electronics is on the Am. Spl. No more Bad Azz ll bridge, on the Am. Spl. Best thing would be to go to BASSES on the Fender site here to get the info on the Am. Spl.

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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Precision Bass
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2013 2:15 pm
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You should be able to find one fairly easy used.

Another difference is the finish, with the Highway One being finished in nitrocellulous laquer as opposed to the polyurethane of most other modern basses.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Precision Bass
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2013 9:49 pm
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Honestly the HWY one was just okay for the money. They weren't all that good of a bass. . Okay I'm ready to hear about all the great HWY ones. :) I'm sure there were a few that were darn nice. The two I had-- a J and a P are long gone. The red finish on the J was awfull. The blue finish on the P was okay. They both had a " sound absorbed into bad wood" sound. Very flat and lifeless tone to them. Please understand I am a Fender guy for sure . All I have to go by are the basses I own and play and keep or get rid of. I just calls them as I sees them. I do this because I care if someone doesn't know both sides of the story. This is not the Ernie Ball site where only the positive is presented and everyone with a negative experience is shunned and abused in type. We can all take the good with the bad. Right? I hope I don't get reamed by the boss for naming names. :shock:


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Precision Bass
Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 6:07 am
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I agree with SV. The Highway Ones were marginally ok. Nothing special. I had a J, and a P. The nitro finish on them wore very quickly. They became a natural Road Worn bass pretty fast.

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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Precision Bass
Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 9:05 am
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stroker vance wrote:
This is not the Ernie Ball site where only the positive is presented and everyone with a negative experience is shunned and abused in type. We can all take the good with the bad. Right? I hope I don't get reamed by the boss for naming names. :shock:



Hilarious!...
and true!

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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Precision Bass
Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 12:39 pm
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Yep, the Highway One (HO) series was discontinued and replaced by the American Special series. The HO finish was thin and "satin nitro" meaning they would "relic" in use quickly. It also was said to allow the instrument to "breathe better" so the body wood could theoretically continue to cure right though the paint like the pre-CBS ones.

While the cutting and shaping was done in the USA the finishing was done in Ensenada. This 2 plant procedure was pioneered on the preceding "California Series" with trucks taking ready to finish bodies and necks from Corona to Ensenada on "Highway 1" where finishes were applied and then they were trucked back to Corona for final assembly. Both series were marked "Made in USA" although the finishes were applied in Baja California Mexico.

My main beefs with the HO basses were the "Grease Bucket" tone circuit which I really don't like much on a bass plus hardware that was more on par with MIM instruments than USA ones. Also the neck was totally different in build design on the first generation HO's with the American Standard being vastly superior. The first gen HO neck was more like a MIM neck in the internal design on the pre-2005 models.

In 2005 the HO bridge was changed to the Leo Quan BAII and some other upgrades including a redesigned graphite rod reinforced truss rod system neck upgrade and a switch to ceramic tone caps all happened. Also a fairly healthy price boost.

In 2006 the HO headstock decals changed from the original spaghetti logo to a chunkier CBS era type logo.

The "Grease Bucket" passive tone control design was one constant on the HO basses. The "Grease Bucket" passive tone circuit from the HO was carried over into both the American Special P and J. In a nutshell the "Grease Bucket" is a two band filter cutting both bass and treble with one knob leaving mids intact so you could call it a "mid pass filter." The one band treble-cut-only filter is more of a low-pass-filter and the one bassists are more familiar with because it is like the one on the American Standard or about any other USA Fender bass and also on most passive MIM Fender basses.

Now my opinion. Speaking only for myself. I think on a Strat or Tele a Grease Bucket tone circuit makes more sense than it does on a bass. I really don't like having to cut the bass to cut the treble. Many bassists "scoop the mids" on their amp, meaning they boost the bass and treble a tad over flat but cut the mids below flat. This tone control design does exactly the opposite cutting the treble and bass leaving the mids intact. I had a HO Jazz for a while and it was always causing EQ conflicts for me making it hard to get a good fat tone easily. It may just be me, but a "Grease Bucket" tone control was always fighting against what I wanted.

After the upgrades on the HO basses in '05 and the associated price hike they became a less sensible upgrade platform because if you changed much you could have just bought an American Standard for the same money in the first place and gotten the factory hard case in the deal. Buying one used today though I'd highly prefer the better neck design on the 2005 and up HO's because it is more stable.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Precision Bass
Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 2:07 pm
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Thank you all for your much needed replies. I learned myself those facts and I resign from "search and buy" quest of HO bass.
So is satin finish used on any other type of p basses except old ones?

Thanks


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Precision Bass
Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 7:48 pm
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peter.jenic wrote:
Thank you all for your much needed replies. I learned myself those facts and I resign from "search and buy" quest of HO bass.
So is satin finish used on any other type of p basses except old ones?

Thanks


The satin finish wasn't used on the vintage ones, just the HO so far as I recall. The pre-CBS nitro finish was glossy, harder and usually thicker. The problem with most modern nitro finishes like these is you don't know what the primer is. Shooting nitro over a poly primer sort of kills the breath-ability of the nitro color coat. Anytime a finish is said to be nitro my first thought is to ask what is the primer coat?


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Precision Bass
Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 3:21 am
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Thank you and sorry for my lack of knowledge. So what finish is best for breathability of an instrument? Polymere based finish sort of kills that and keeps the instrument as it is?

I would be very happy if you could tell me more about body finish.

Peter


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Precision Bass
Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 12:57 pm
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peter.jenic wrote:
Thank you and sorry for my lack of knowledge. So what finish is best for breathability of an instrument? Polymere based finish sort of kills that and keeps the instrument as it is?

I would be very happy if you could tell me more about body finish.

Peter



I'm starting to hear and see that plain wood with a sealer coat and then a stain coat is the way to go. The wood gets to breath. I would think common sense tells us if there is no poly thick stuff over the wood you can really tell what the guitars' performance soundwise is. Plain wood , thin stain and the new tuned sound chamber is supposed to be the next big thing. The sound chamber (pat. pending) is said to cause sustain like the electric sustainer that Fernandes has, I don't know if the frequencies that are amplified by the sustainer chamber will work with bass. Then again maybe since the soundwaves of bass are large - the bass sustain chamber will be larger.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Precision Bass
Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 1:06 pm
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LarryNJ wrote:
stroker vance wrote:
This is not the Ernie Ball site where only the positive is presented and everyone with a negative experience is shunned and abused in type. We can all take the good with the bad. Right? I hope I don't get reamed by the boss for naming names. :shock:



Hilarious!...
and true!




Yeah- Sterling Ball himself reamed me out for complaining about how on the 4 or 5 EBMM basses I had- the G string volume was way less than the rest of the strings volumes. That must have been a nagging problem because I heard about it from him and his devoted minions. I hope they don't read this-- they may put a " hit" out on me. :D I say "Bring it on" as I stand back with my Fender P bass and release a sonic tone blast they can see warbling thru the air towards them at the speed of sound !!! It be like- "BBBWWWWAAAARRPPPP!!!!!! then nothing but ashes after that.......
8)


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Precision Bass
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 12:48 pm
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brotherdave wrote:
peter.jenic wrote:
Thank you all for your much needed replies. I learned myself those facts and I resign from "search and buy" quest of HO bass.
So is satin finish used on any other type of p basses except old ones?

Thanks


The satin finish wasn't used on the vintage ones, just the HO so far as I recall. The pre-CBS nitro finish was glossy, harder and usually thicker. The problem with most modern nitro finishes like these is you don't know what the primer is. Shooting nitro over a poly primer sort of kills the breath-ability of the nitro color coat. Anytime a finish is said to be nitro my first thought is to ask what is the primer coat?


On that subject (and a little off topic to the OP's original) the pre-CBS Fenders used "fullerplast" as a sealer coat right? This fullerplast was a bullet-proof protective sealent for the wood correct? What I always have wondered is how does the wood 'breathe' if it has that 'sealer-before-nitro' process on those pre-CBS instruments???


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Precision Bass
Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2013 5:16 am
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I had a blue Highway One Jazz. Loved the neck. I replaced the bridge with a BA, but that particular bass sounded better with the original 60's-style grooved clanker.

I do miss that thing.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Highway One Precision Bass
Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 11:13 pm
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jazzbassjo wrote:
brotherdave wrote:
peter.jenic wrote:
Thank you all for your much needed replies. I learned myself those facts and I resign from "search and buy" quest of HO bass.
So is satin finish used on any other type of p basses except old ones?

Thanks


The satin finish wasn't used on the vintage ones, just the HO so far as I recall. The pre-CBS nitro finish was glossy, harder and usually thicker. The problem with most modern nitro finishes like these is you don't know what the primer is. Shooting nitro over a poly primer sort of kills the breath-ability of the nitro color coat. Anytime a finish is said to be nitro my first thought is to ask what is the primer coat?


On that subject (and a little off topic to the OP's original) the pre-CBS Fenders used "fullerplast" as a sealer coat right? This fullerplast was a bullet-proof protective sealent for the wood correct? What I always have wondered is how does the wood 'breathe' if it has that 'sealer-before-nitro' process on those pre-CBS instruments???


It isn't on all Pre-CBS Fenders. The Fullerplast was not used until sometime in 1963 as Leo Fender looked for ways to increase production to make the company more lucrative. It took a long time for nitro primer to dry, in fact up to a full day. The Fullerplast cut primer dry time. Fullerplast dries to touch in 15 mins and is paintable in about 1 hr. It is smooth as glass, well plastic glass. This one change reportedly shaved 20 hours off finishing a body. Fullerplast is manufactured and distributed by Van Dee. It comes in a variety of shades and is popular in furniture refinishing. Other instrument companies, notably Ibanez, use products very similar if not in fact identical to Fullerplast. If you've ever tried stripping a Fullerplast or similar plastic sealed body you know what a chore that is. Fullerplast is impervious to chemical strippers and solvents. TOUGH stuff! It is akin to a sarcophagus when it comes to breathing. Often it is very thick, much thicker than the color coat.


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