Fender Custom Shop Jazz compared to Fender American Deluxe Jazz

[martybernal]

I have the Fender custom shop classic IV jazz bass. I am interested in anyone that may have experience with this bass and has had or played a Fender American deluxe with the N3 pickups. The Fender deluxe's ability to switch from active to passive with the same bass is appealing to me. Just wanting to see what the opinions are here.

Thanks.

Marty

[honest abe]

Having owned both Id say that in terms of playability, fit, finish, and overall quality the new 2010 deluxe jazz is very close to a 2006 custom classic 5 ive owned. I will say that the custom noiseless pickups have a little more mid bark than the new N3's. The N3's sound very similar to the SCN's they replaced with slightly extended highs and tighter lows. The Deluxe preamp is much improved however. It sounds more neutral than either the classic's or the previous deluxe. Neither of the stock pickups sound great to me. I ended up selling the classic for that reason and my new deluxe sports some joe barden blade style pickups. The passive option is nice but I think that it would yield better results with true single coils. I also own a 2010 deluxe precision and find the passive option much more useful especially when going full pbass pickup with the tone all the way down for that classic rock sound.