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Fender Japan PB7093US-NTM (1970 RI)
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Reviews
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Views
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Date of last review
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1
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450
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Mon September 22, 2008
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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Average Rating
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100% of reviewers
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$50,000.00
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10.0
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Description:
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Manufacturer : Fender Japan (Crafted in Japan)
Model : 1970 RI Fender Precision Bass
Product Code : PB7093US-NTM
Body : Ash
Neck : One-piece maple, oval shape, 34" scale
Fretboard : Maple, 184R
Frets : 20, Vintage Style (Jumbo)
Nut Width : 40mm
Pickups : P-Bass Vintage (U.S.A.)
Controls & Switch : 1-Vol, 1-Tone
Bridge : Vintage type but no grooves
Machine heads : Regular Type
Hardware : Chrome
Pickguard : 3-Ply Black
Finish : Natural (body and neck)
Accesories : softcase, one year warranty card, user manual in Japanese, allen wrench for bridge saddle, (non for truss-rod adjustment).
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Author
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kenjikun
Registered User
Registered: April 2008
Location: Japan
Posts: 192
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Review Date: Mon September 22, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $50,000.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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well-crafted, great set-up, excellent playability, good tone
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Cons:
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no shielding
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I bought this bass second-hand but as good as brand-new. The seller used this for a couple of months in the studio so I immediately bought it after inspecting it. It even came with a valid warranty card. Brand-new price is about 90,000 - 120,000 yen so for 50,000 yen, it was a sweet deal. Now for the review.
CONSTRUCTION AND MATERIALS
The body was made of three-piece ash glued nicely following the grains so it was like one-piece. The neck pocket was tight, really tight. Routing for the PU and control cavities was carefully done. The cavities are clean, no wood dusts BUT there was no shielding at all! No conductive paints here. The three-ply black pickguard was screwed in place without any spaces between the neck and pickups. It was very tight. The neck was made from one-piece maple and the truss-rod can be adjusted from the neck pocket. Fretboard is flatter from the nut area but gradually becomes rounded as it goes towards the body. Fretwires are vintage jumbo. The neck width at nut is 40mm as compared to 42mm in the '62 and '57 RI. Both the body and neck were finished in natural polyurethane paint without any flaws.
The tuners and bridge are standard chrome. Pickups are US vintage. The control pots have a MADE IN JAPAN stamp and the capacitor is not the typical cheap capacitor found in low-priced basses. Soldering was neat and tidy. No solder slab scattered around.
PLAYABILITY AND SOUND
When I inspected the bass, the very first thing I noticed was the very high action. I looked at the neck from the bridge towards the nut and vise-versa to see if its bowed forward. No, the neck is dead straight. So I adjusted the action by lowering the saddles. I got a really low action without string buzzes. The luthier really got it right during neck construction and fret dressing. I haven't adjusted the neck so far. The neck of this bass ROCKS! The ash body is light. Compared to my previous maple body Squier VM Jazz, this P-Bass is lightweight. No shoulder pains and no neck dives. The maple neck and ash body is very resonant. In fact I usually do "TV" practice. This is just plucking the strings without any amplification while watching on TV. I can hear the notes I play clearly. When plugged-in, the US vintage pickup really shines. It has more output than Japanese pickup. Previously I used D'Addario rounds and the sound I got was lots of highs. I had to roll-off the treble both from the bass and amp and had to boost the bass and a little mid. I didn't like the too much highs. I prefer a more mellowish, round bottom punch of real "Motown" P-Bass. Even if I roll-off the highs, I still didn't like the sound, it was muddy. So I went on and used D'Addario flats. I got the tone I want. Roll-off the highs a bit and I got that punchy tone. Boost the highs and you can get that growl, but not not too much highs. In fact even with flats, the slap sound is very similar to the '70 era slap tone usually heard on disco music. I love flats on this P-Bass!
OTHER PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS
I noticed that the chrome hardwares easily gets "cloudy" but after wiping with cloth, it will be shiny again. My other Silver series Squier P-Bass is already 15 years old but the chrome hardwares are still very shiny. Strange. The poly finish at the back of the neck may hinder fast sliding up and down the neck but I can tolerate it. Perhaps for other players, this maybe a drawback. Also there was no cavity shielding at all considering this is one high-end series among the CIJ P-bass series.
I always scratch my head why the lower-priced Indonesian Squier VM series had conductive paint shielding while this high-priced Japanese-made had none
This bass is a good value for the money. It is well-crafted with high quality woods and pickup. I will play and keep this bass in stock configurations so that 50 years from now, this will be vintage without modifications The review I gave here is purely my personal judgement based on my preferences and experience. It doesn't necessarily means you can get he same results because all basses, even if the same brand, differ from each other.
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I only play Japanese-made basses.
http://kenji-cij.blogspot.com/
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