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Fender Aerodyne Club!

#2,521
Templar said:
I'd rather have the football plate then the notoriously unreliable barrel jack. That it partially covers the binding seems to be really stretching for something (anything!) to not like about the bass.
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What can I say? I was an art student for many years, so aesthetics play a big part in how I see and interact with the world around me. That being said…yeah, it's only a minor point. The jack plate may be wildly incongruous, but it's not something that would be visible all the time, maybe in photographs or upon close inspection. If, and that's really stretching the concept of "if", I were to get one of the black models, I'd probably replace the chrome jack plate with a black one to blend in a bit better. Easy-breezy…no fuss, no muss. ;)

Looks-wise, this is the first bass I've seen with a pearl guard that doesn't look like a pimp's bass (no offense to pimps). Looks pretty nice, actually. If it had a matching headstock it'd be perfect! What's the street price?
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Oh, yeah! If I had one (again, a big "if"), I would be incredibly tempted to mount an Aerodyne neck on it. Come to think about it, I'd probably go all-out and give it Jazz style knobs and a black/cream/black, black pearloid or black abalone pickguard.
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As for it's street price, it looks like the price varies between $1,250 to $1,400USD, depending on which color one gets. Having bought a bass from Ishibashi once before, it's possible their Value Added Tax (VAT) may not apply to overseas purchases. The retailer would know for sure, but if that's the case, it would end up shaving a little bit off the shipping costs. Once the final price is worked out, I would expect to be paying about as much as an American-made Fender.
 
#2,523
Since the Aerodyne body is a bit curved (like the Spector NS curve but a lot subtler), would you ‘Dyne experts say that the pickups are closer to the strings than a regular flat-top Jazz?
I’m ready to pull the trigger on an EMG PJX set but afraid the output might be way too hot because A.) active pickups and B.) the pickups would sit closer to the strings by virtue of the body construction.

Hope that made sense.
 
#2,525
P Cheen said:
Since the Aerodyne body is a bit curved (like the Spector NS curve but a lot subtler), would you ‘Dyne experts say that the pickups are closer to the strings than a regular flat-top Jazz?
I’m ready to pull the trigger on an EMG PJX set but afraid the output might be way too hot because A.) active pickups and B.) the pickups would sit closer to the strings by virtue of the body construction.

Hope that made sense.
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The shape of the Aerodyne is nowhere near as extreme of a curve as a Spector NS, feels comfortably like a jazz with pretty normal pickup heights. If anything, the bridge on most (if not all?) Aerodynes sits a tad lower than a standard jazz, so the strings may actually be a bit closer to the pickups because of that rather than the body curve. The P pickup in my non-export is pretty low, almost flush with the pickguard, to balance out volume levels with the J at the bridge.
 
#2,526
Interspace Station said:
The shape of the Aerodyne is nowhere near as extreme of a curve as a Spector NS, feels comfortably like a jazz with pretty normal pickup heights. If anything, the bridge on most (if not all?) Aerodynes sits a tad lower than a standard jazz, so the strings may actually be a bit closer to the pickups because of that rather than the body curve. The P pickup in my non-export is pretty low, almost flush with the pickguard, to balance out volume levels with the J at the bridge.
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I apologize for that, I just couldn’t think of another similarly-shaped guitar or bass. Anyway, yes, my non-export also came in the same state with the P pickups almost being flush with the pickguard and still is louder than the J pickup.
I’m just worried about this imbalance with an EMG set.

I’ve owned a couple PJs in the past, and I don’t think the disparity between the 2 pickups has ever been this pronounced.
 
#2,527
P Cheen said:
I apologize for that, I just couldn’t think of another similarly-shaped guitar or bass. Anyway, yes, my non-export also came in the same state with the P pickups almost being flush with the pickguard and still is louder than the J pickup.
I’m just worried about this imbalance with an EMG set.

I’ve owned a couple PJs in the past, and I don’t think the disparity between the 2 pickups has ever been this pronounced.
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No apologies needed, sorry if that sounded more aggressive than intended! Funny you and I seem to be in the same spaces on TB (Spector and Aerodyne yes!), and being new to Spectors myself it just seemed like a somewhat drastic comparison lol!

Not sure how an active set will balance out compared to the stock pups in the Aero, but as @hypercarrots mentioned, it may be you need those EMGs closer to the strings anyway. Pretty sure that won't be difficult to accomplish. Good luck if you go for it, I'd be curious to hear how that turns out!
 
#2,528
Interspace Station said:
No apologies needed, sorry if that sounded more aggressive than intended! Funny you and I seem to be in the same spaces on TB (Spector and Aerodyne yes!), and being new to Spectors myself it just seemed like a somewhat drastic comparison lol!

Not sure how an active set will balance out compared to the stock pups in the Aero, but as @hypercarrots mentioned, it may be you need those EMGs closer to the strings anyway. Pretty sure that won't be difficult to accomplish. Good luck if you go for it, I'd be curious to hear how that turns out!
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Yeah! Unfortunately I sold my Spector NS Pulse but I definitely plan to get a Euro4 of some sort as my next Spector. Hopefully next year. I was just remembering how much gain I had to cut on my amp to accommodate the Spector but then I remember the Aerodyne will not have a TonePump! Haha.
 
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#2,530
hypercarrots said:
that would be cool to put a tone pump in it though
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There was one that popped up on the TB Classifieds. Based solely upon the good press TonePumps and Spectors get on the forum, I thought about grabbing it for my newest Projekt. Someone grabbed it before I could think much about it, though. That, and I'm probably gonna go with a simple, 2-band active preamp with passive tone control anyway.
 
#2,531
P Cheen said:
Since the Aerodyne body is a bit curved (like the Spector NS curve but a lot subtler), would you ‘Dyne experts say that the pickups are closer to the strings than a regular flat-top Jazz?
I’m ready to pull the trigger on an EMG PJX set but afraid the output might be way too hot because A.) active pickups and B.) the pickups would sit closer to the strings by virtue of the body construction.

Hope that made sense.
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The pickup heights are adjustable so it really shouldn’t be an issue. l put the (passive) EMG Geezer Butlers in my Dyne and it was a definite upgrade. There’s always a sweet spot with any pickup height. l try to dial it in to get it as hot as I can without too much distortion/wobbliness to the output.

The bridge/string/neck alignment is all along the same height or peak of the curve. l haven’t found the Aerodyne to be any harder or easier to adjust the pickup heights than my J or any other basses I have owned. l expect you’ll have no difficulty with this.
 
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#2,539
NoSlapForYou said:
Well, there are also a bunch of rare colors not shown there. I'm just trying to get the four most common colors. And I have the darker gunmetal, btw.
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Just a little FYI, I have an upgraded, Dolphin Grey Aerodyne that I'll likely be parting with sometime in the future. I'll be sure to post a note about it if/when I post it in the Classifieds.
 
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