NBD! Fender Jazz V

[Hawkeye]

I went into one of the local music shops yesterday to browse (always a dangerous proposition) and I came across this lovely Olympic White MIA Jazz 5-string. Looked like it was hanging around for a while as it was marked down to $999 Cdn.

So... I picked it up and started playing. What a nice Bass! Even response across the strings, warm vintage tone. The single coils even refuse to buzz when soloed. It has a teeny tiny bit of shop wear in the form of some miniscule dings on the back of the bass, but no biggy, otherwise it's perfect. I'm dialing in the bridge height and relief today to get it playing the way I want but it was already almost there right off the wall.

I was smitten so I bought it. I've been looking around for a while for a five-string Jazz-style bass to go with my Sadowsky RV5PJ. I ended up with an actual Fender Jazz bass. Go figure. As I already have the passive bass tones covered with my Reverend 5L this baby is likely going to get an Audere preamp upgrade. I don't want to change the sound of the bass itself because that's the main thing I like about it. I keep hearing that the Audere JZ3 is transparent and uncolored in its sound so that's my first consideration.

Fender has done themselves proud with their latest MIA bass offerings. I used to feel something close to irrational hatred for Fender five strings a few years ago, but the new MIA's are really quite well-built and have good response on the B-string for once. Why buy offshore-manufactured product when MIA is built with such quality AND at competitive prices with imports. The neck felt great as Fenders usually do and the slightly aged-looking white with tort pickguard and rosewood neck was just too old-school and cool to walk away from.

As a result my Lakland 5501-Deluxe is now up for sale. Too many basses.

[Epitaph04]

Holy crap that's nice.

[Dragan]

and what a steal!

[TorontoAlex]

Nice bass. Are you going to bring it to the GTA get-together?

[Baird6869]

I like the new MIA Fenders. Great basses for the $$$.

I was looking at Sadowsky NYC and Alleva Coppolo recently, but the Fender Deluxe 5er I picked up in a trade is just as good. Great construction, great sound, etc.

[Hawkeye]

Originally Posted by Dragan

and what a steal!

For those who don't know, Long & Mcquade is a large retail chain for musical instruments in Canada. Lots of stores, kind of like Guitar Center North. They sell Godin, Ibanez, Yamaha, Fender, Music Man, Dingwall, Ephiphone, Gibson basses. Some of their larger stores also have MTD.

While I was test-driving the Jazz, a guy walks up to me with bass case in hand and says. "That sounds nice, Check this out." He pulls out a very nice 4-string Musicman Stingray, with grayish green metallic body, Made in California, the whole bit.

I check it out and although used, it looks good, plays nice, everything works. I look at the price tag and he got it for $799!!

Used Music Man basses that I see for sale are usually in the $1,000 range or more.

For some reason this Markham, ON store is getting serious about used and demo bass pricing. Just after Christmas I picked up a Godin Freeway 5 active for $299. It MSRP's for $840 and I bought it for a bit more than a third of the new price, with the warranty! I had better stay away from that place for a while.

[CBNJ]

Nice! Wish we had more stores like that here.

[Dr. Cheese]

Both that MusicMan and Fender were sold at great price points. I used to have a white Jazz V just like the one on this thread. Those are great basses.

[garp]

Beautiful! Congrats.

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

Too many basses.

Absolute heresy.

[Baird6869]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

For some reason this Markham, ON store is getting serious about used and demo bass pricing. Just after Christmas I picked up a Godin Freeway 5 active for $299. It MSRP's for $840 and I bought it for a bit more than a third of the new price, with the warranty! I had better stay away from that place for a while.

They have a pricing policy that is a % of the last sale. So theoretically, a $1299 Fender would be bought back for $1299 less 30% (sometimes a bit more) and so one each time it is traded in. Even off employee purchased gear.

Example, I bought a mint 2 year old Gibson ES-339 guitar for $1100 a couple of years ago. Cheap as it was sold for cheap to the employee. I play a tiny bit of guitar so I wailed out on it a bit for a few months and sold it for $1750. If I traded it in to them, I would have got $800. Just their pricing model. Works out well sometimes for buyers.

The Markham guys are pretty cool. I actually bought a Fodera from them last month. I like the Oshawa team better. Cheryl is awesome to seal with.

[Turtle71]

Beautiful Bass!

That's a really classy color/PG combo.

Congrats!!! I Love NBD.....I don't have nearly enough of them

[punkjazzben]

Classy.

[Baird6869]

Originally Posted by Turtle71

I Love NBD.....I don't have nearly enough of them

I have been downsizing.... So lately I have been having -NBD or NBD (Negative Bass Day).

My last NBD WAS a Jazz 5er though!

[jellymax]

sweet. its a keeper

[nashman]

Very nice bass at a very good price - good score man.

[Lovetoslap]

How much bro?

[Lovetoslap]

I'm very interested!!!

[Bill G.]

Beautiful!!

[SR Addict]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

For those who don't know, Long & Mcquade is a large retail chain for musical instruments in Canada.

I know this all too well. They have taken thousands and thousand of my dollars.

[Hawkeye]

Originally Posted by SR Addict

I know this all too well. They have taken thousands and thousand of my dollars.

Dastards!!