Fender Geddy Lee Signature Series

this bass is awesome one of my best buds has this bass it feels really good to play i would recommend this bass to more advanced players because it is not a very good bass to start with overall fantastic bass

I bought this bass for $500 after haggling from the seller's set price of $700. The bass was filthy and disgusting; the strings on it had what looked like mold on it. Took it home anyways. Spent four hours cleaning every spot on the bass, including the fret wires, pickup poles, bridge assembly, etc. When I was done, it looked immaculate. A few dings here and there but whatever. I am very pleased with my efforts in revitalizing this bass.

I actually had three Geddys before this current one. All were CIJs

First one was good and nothing much to say about it. I sold it for financial reasons.

Second one had terrible filing on the BadAss II bridge. Strings were consequently out of position, making it look really bad. They didn't line up over their respective pickup pole pieces which sucked. Neck was very very difficult to maintain; truss rod may have been stripped a little. Hard to say.

Third one had bad fret wear on the first five frets. It wasn't bad enough that I couldn't do intonation or that I heard bad fret buzz, but it just felt bad. It DID affect setup though; I could not get the strings not to buzz when I was near the octave frets. Replaced the pickups with CS60s because the packaging promised more low end with more growl. So I thought, "Why not?" So I put them in and wow. I was blown away with the pickups. Unfortunately, again, for financial reasons and I was into a Precision Bass GAS then, I sold it with the CS60s for $600 and regretted it.

The current one I have is my fourth one. And it'll be my last. It made its public debut at the Vancouver TalkBass GTG on January 31, 2015. Everyone commented on how growly it was without effects. I even managed to cause natural distortion through a buddy's amp setup. I've been working hard to replicate Mr. Lee's technique and apparently I have. Still a lot more to go to nail that flamenco style, but I am glad I am making progress.

As said, the pickups sounded thin. The other three had enough low end. I swapped out the pickups for Custom Shop 60s and strung them up with Mr Lee's favourite Rotosound Swings. Can't be happier now.

"So much has been written in the other 44 reviews that it is hard for me to find a reason for even writing this review . The best that I can come up with is to mention the mods that I have made to mine and a little bit about how the bass feels/sounds.

The first thing that struck me when I picked up this bass and gave it a twang, was that it had a deeper than expected (acoustic) bass tone. I usually associate '70s JBs with ash/maple and a fairly 'brittle' acoustic tone/feel (albeit very funky ). Although I didn't realise until after I'd bought it, this GL sig bass actually has an alder body. The net result seems to be that it has a 'warmer' feel, so that if you fret the low F and pluck hard with your finger, you really feel the vibrations running deep into the body of the bass. My experience with (much heavier, 1970s) ash bodied Fenders, is that you get more initial attack and a bit of 'clang' when you do this, but the note itself isn't quite as deep and smooth. All fairly subjective stuff, I grant you, but I immediately had a good feeling about how this Japanese bass was going to sound when amplified .

Plugged in, it delivers what I would describe as a 'slightly fleshed out' 1970s (ash/maple) Fender Jazz Bass tone. I had a 1976 Jazz (ash/maple) until recently and after it had had both pickups rewound to give a better signal, the tone from that bass was very much like this Geddy Lee bass, but without quite so much in the mid range band. The Geddy is not 'mid heavy', don't get me wrong - it has a slightly 'scooped' tone and just sounds a bit 'stronger' than my actual '70s Jazz.

Playability is, quite honestly, about as good as it gets. There's nothing to fault on mine . The action is as low as it is possible to set a bunch of bass strings, whilst still allowing them room to vibrate, and every fret plays cleanly at moderate pressure. Digging in hard causes a bit of the 'rattle', which the chief endorser of this particular model seems to revel in . The slim neck is quite deceptive too. To me, it feels wider than a normal J bass neck (it isn't), because the slimmer curve on the back is slightly reminiscent of the Fender P Bass (IMO). Either way, it's easy to adapt to ... and hard to leave behind ! Now, when I play my other two (Tokai) Jazz Basses, the necks feel like baseball bats . Oh well!

Fit and finish on this bass are just as good as anything else (Fender-based design) that I've ever had my hands on. As long as the neck pocket is tight, the frets are well finished, the hardware is screwed on straight and tight and the paintwork is smooth, what else really matters!? This is no Squier! It looks and feels like a top flight instrument to me and I have no qualms about saying that the fit and finish are, for me, just as impressive as on EBMM instruments and the Sadowsky Metro range. Maybe I've been lucky with mine though, as I understand that some early ones had issues with the paint/hardware .

On the subject of hardware, I should stress that (IMHO) there is really nothing at all wrong with any of the hardware on this instrument (at least, so far). Some reviewers here site 'lousy tuners' as an issue with their GLs - not this reviewer! I was expecting the worst, but these Fender-stamped, '70s style machine heads are tight, smooth and look very authentic. My bass is (AFAIK) a very recent one, so I wonder if the supplier has changed for these parts!? I even have a spare set of Hipshot vintage ones that I could have put on, but I won't bother - there's simply no need to!

Same goes for the pickups. Internally, they look exactly like '70s Fender Jazz pickups to me (same colour wire, similar amount of turns) and they make the bass sound (as I said earlier), very close to the original, funky '70s JB. This IS a great bass for slapping . In fact, when plugged into the Sadowsky preamp pedal, I can cop what I would swear to be a tone to rival the MV4 Metro bass that I had a couple of years ago . To MY ears though, this Fender-Sadowsky combination sounds better . If I do ever change the pickups, it'll only be to satisfy my curiosity about how others might sound.

So, pretty exuberant stuff so far .

Still, nothing is perfect and this bass is no exception (for me). For starters, I'm in (I believe) the small minority of people who believe that the Badass II bridge is not actually a way to enhance the tone of your Fender, but rather a way to rob your Fender of it's character ! I've tried them before, on several different Fenders and the result is always thus:

1. Install Badass II.
2. Marvel at how big, square and generally 'bad ass' it looks .
3. Restring bass and notice how a new, piano-like quality has crept into the attack of each note and the responsiveness has increased slightly .
4. Play it for a little longer and wonder where all the smoothness and 'twanginess', which attracted me to the Fender bass in the first place, has gone .
5. Take off Badass II bridge and reinstall original 'bent metal' one.
6. Live happily ever after .


In this case, the bass only came with the Badass II, so there was nothing to 're-install'. I went with my preferred option - the Hipshot 'Vintage' type bridge . It's ugly (I think), but it seems to retain all of the original tone, as well as allowing for quick string changes. It's probably light to, FWIW .

Second task was to strip the bass down and shield all cavities properly, using copper foil. I now do this with every single bass that I own (even those with hum-buckers), as the difference in hum reduction is incredible. Things were made easy for me on this Geddy Lee model, as it already employs star-grounding (all earth wires running to a common earthing point) and the pickups have brass grounding plates, which helps to connect the pickup cavities with the control cavity . My Geddy is now silent when it's supposed to be silent (and a raucous bitch the rest of the time ).

The next mod will be to swap out the w/b/w pickguard for a b/w/b one. Yes, I know that this is an utterly pointless exercise from a players POV, but it will make me love the look of the bass even more - black'n'maple with blocks is my favourite colour-scheme of all time. Period.

That doesn't leave much to fiddle with , apart from the strings. I've already installed a 'Marcus Miller' set of DRs. That worked !

All in all, this is a rare example of a bass which is worthy of all the hype, IMO. It's not priced anywhere near the US '75 Vintage reissue (well, here in Europe at least), but I really struggle to imagine what could possibly be 'better' about the American bass to justify the 100% increase in the price!? Perhaps it's all that extra neck wood that people are paying for !?"

Besides a tiny bit of fret spout that will be easily fixed with a fret file, the only other con as noted above is it's weight. Ive been playing 5 strings for years so it doesn't bother me. Straight neck with no high, buzzing frets.

Excellent workmanship on this 2009 model year bass. Back of the neck near the heel is stamped "Made in Japan".

This bass has THE sound if one digs 70's funky j bass. Roll back the tone knob and she smooths right out. The bass doesn't have the big low-end of an American Fender, which is a good thing for me. Just add a bit of bottom at the amp and it's all there, if needed. For slap, this bass is king - tone wise.

This j bass looks so cool with the maple neck bound with black blocks, and early seventies headstock decal. The tuners operate tight being the updated style, and have "Fender" stamped on back like Fender basses from that vintage.

In summary, a very nice jazz that can cover a lot of ground tonally, and it will do it in style.

"I am writing this in the afterglow of recieving this bass as a birthday present (which is why I don't know how much I paid for it) so this may be a little over-positive. However, the reason I got this bass for my birthday is because I have been raving about it for over a year to everyone I meet. When I first heard there was a Geddy Lee signiature out I was very excited at the prospect and the first time I played one in a shop it was like magic. It just felt *right*.

What I really love about this bass is the neck. Smooth and thin, this is the fastest bass neck I have ever played. The laquer finish just makes your hand glide over it, with far less friction than you'd get off a normal fender neck, but you can still grip on it when you need to. And for someone who doesn't have terribly strong fingers, the narrow and shallow neck is perfect for me.

The sound is wonderful, the vintage pickups can really growl and the resonance from the wood and the bridge is fantastic - the sustain just goes on forever. And wow that bridge is tough, it looks hard, it feels hard and when you play the Geddy, the strings feel like they've been set in concrete its so steady.

There really isn't anything I can fault about this bass so far. Some people might find the weight a bit much, and my strap shoulder is quite weak, so I might be complaing about it in a week, but so far this bass has blown me away."

"The feel of this bass is just amazing! After playing active basses exclusively for several years, and using a 6 string as my main axe, picking this bass up was an experience I approached with hesitation. The stock pickups were surprisingly responsive, and sound great.

The neck is just amazing - VERY fast, and very comfortable (especially transitioning from a 6-er). It's a very attractive bass to look at, and the sustain provided by the Badass-II bridge and the tone of the pickups combined with DR Black Beauties sounds wonderful. While I'll still need to use my 6 banger for some songs on gigs, this is definitely a gigging bass.

The only cons for me were the lack of a hardshell case (I picked up the Fender SKB Jazz Bass case, it's a perfect fit for it), and some slight fret sprout on the neck above the 12 fret. I think it's largely due to being older store stock (it had been hanging in the store from before the Fender price hike), and in the couple of weeks since I've had it home, the wood seems to be adjusting a bit to a point where I don't really notice it."

"I have used the GL Jazz as my main bass for almost 4 years now, and it has yet to let me down in any way.
The sound is killer: full bodied, with plenty of ass ! It cuts through anything when I need it to, but can handle deep reggae tones with the neck pup, or tackle convincing Jaco tones favoring the bridge pup. Very versatile!
My Geddy also feels beautiful. Although the neck is blasphemously skinny, I find it very comfortable. The weight is perfect! Not too heavy, but not light: it feels like a bass It balances beautifully! Also, it is very durable, and has put up with much abuse.
On the down side, the tuners are pretty lame. I ended up replacing them with hipshots, with an xtender. Highly recommend replacing the tuners!
Overall, this is a great value for the money (even with the absurd price raises). Highly recommended!"