2001 Standard Jazz Bass

I got a chance to visit Long&McQuade in Toronto on Saturday and played a new Mexican Fender Jazz.

The first thing I noticed is that the price went up $100 Canadian. However it seems like they've changed a few things on these basses.
1. they god rid of those ugly knobs and now the bass comes with the normal jazz bass knobs.
2. After some very close observation I noticed that there is this black stuff on top of the finish all around the bridge pickup..... SHIELDING PAINT!
3. The pickups are out of phase, or in phase, or whatever it was that the old MIM jazz pickups were not. So, when the volume of the two pickups is at the same level, the hum disappears. Also, the pickups look more like the American Jazz Bazz pickups.

Overall, the MIM Jazz has improved a lot. It doesn't hum as much, and looks a little better with the new knobs. Is it worth the extra $100 ? I'm not sure because I would still have to upgrade the pickups. Although it was possible to get rid of the hum, I did not like the sound, especially down low on the E string. The crappy bridge is still there and if you didn't like the tuning machines on the old ones, you won't like these either because they are the same.

I also got to play a MIM Zone bass. I didn't like it at all. The neck felt funny. It's the width of the jazz bass but it's a different shape and I didn't like it. The color was this funny looking green-silver. It has nice pickups and a 3-band preamp but other than that I don't think there is anything about this bass that makes it better than a MIM Jazz.

Anyway, back to my Monday morning ...

 

I think the Fender list prices went up a bit too. The Canadian dollar has fallen quite a bit in the past few months (relative to the American) so both of these add up to this $100 dollar increase. I guess.