Hey guys I thought I'd start a new thread dedicated to this new passive 5 string as I just picked one up and wanted to give a thorough review.
Let me start by saying if you haven't read Ed Friedland's review or the BP review as well as taken a look at the Fender website you should. Fender claims to have made some significant changes, new bridge, different finish, better QC and more quality woods. You can be the judge of how significant these changes are.
I will say that the craftmanship of these basses seems to be better then past Fenders I have encountered. No sprouting frets, loose neck pockets any of the things that many have found with prior Fenders, going through a pile of Fenders to find one good one. I do have to say, with typical Guitar Center fashion the bass was not well set up, the string height was really high, a little to much relief in the neck and the intonation wasn't perfect. I asked to do my own setup right there in the shop and spent the good part of an hour getting it exactly how I wanted it and the guys were accomodating. Why GC doesn't do this with all their instruments is another topic for a different day.
What really intruged me about this instrument are a few specs that I have been looking for and that is most importantly a passive five string, 34" scale, a fairly low neck radius (i.e traditional round neck) and of course a single coil JJ set up.
Being a USA Lakland JO 4 string owner for a long time and a 1 bass kind of guy. I have allot to overcome, most importantly the quatersawn neck, maple dot inlays, neck finish and Fralin pick ups. It's my opinion that these positively improve the feel, playability and sound. Of course also the asthetics that come along with those features. And the fact that a brand new instrument very rarely sounds as good as one that get's played for hours everyday for many years.
I can say after doing my own set up I believe I walked out of the store today with a bass that sounds and feels very good, not quite my USA JO but a nice bass that will cover me when I need to pull out a 5 string. I will put it through it's paces at home, on gigs and probably lay down some tracks on protools to A/B with my existing recordings done with the JO. I will temporarily promote her to my number one bass in the hopes I can really find out what she can do and if I will in fact keep her around for the long term.
I will report back as I put some time in on her. I'd love to hear the thoughts from others who went out and purchased a New American Standard. I'd be especially interested in comments from those who have experience with other high end Jazz clones.
All the best,
Pete
Let me start by saying if you haven't read Ed Friedland's review or the BP review as well as taken a look at the Fender website you should. Fender claims to have made some significant changes, new bridge, different finish, better QC and more quality woods. You can be the judge of how significant these changes are.
I will say that the craftmanship of these basses seems to be better then past Fenders I have encountered. No sprouting frets, loose neck pockets any of the things that many have found with prior Fenders, going through a pile of Fenders to find one good one. I do have to say, with typical Guitar Center fashion the bass was not well set up, the string height was really high, a little to much relief in the neck and the intonation wasn't perfect. I asked to do my own setup right there in the shop and spent the good part of an hour getting it exactly how I wanted it and the guys were accomodating. Why GC doesn't do this with all their instruments is another topic for a different day.
What really intruged me about this instrument are a few specs that I have been looking for and that is most importantly a passive five string, 34" scale, a fairly low neck radius (i.e traditional round neck) and of course a single coil JJ set up.
Being a USA Lakland JO 4 string owner for a long time and a 1 bass kind of guy. I have allot to overcome, most importantly the quatersawn neck, maple dot inlays, neck finish and Fralin pick ups. It's my opinion that these positively improve the feel, playability and sound. Of course also the asthetics that come along with those features. And the fact that a brand new instrument very rarely sounds as good as one that get's played for hours everyday for many years.
I can say after doing my own set up I believe I walked out of the store today with a bass that sounds and feels very good, not quite my USA JO but a nice bass that will cover me when I need to pull out a 5 string. I will put it through it's paces at home, on gigs and probably lay down some tracks on protools to A/B with my existing recordings done with the JO. I will temporarily promote her to my number one bass in the hopes I can really find out what she can do and if I will in fact keep her around for the long term.
I will report back as I put some time in on her. I'd love to hear the thoughts from others who went out and purchased a New American Standard. I'd be especially interested in comments from those who have experience with other high end Jazz clones.
All the best,
Pete
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