Just got my brand new Precision (white with rosewood) and the question is: where is the midrange??? What's up with this new pickup series? The bass feels great but I don't want to deal with upgrades..... c'mon.......
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Fender American Professional Series
- Thread starter Lazarus27
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- american fender professional series
Agreed the stock pickups are lame! Fender really missed the mark with those pickups for 1500$ I expected a lot more from the pickups! The neck shape and build quality are on point though!
It looks like they just added candy apple red as a color option. Maybe some day they'll offer pick guard colors other than white (aka "mint").
Yep
Love everything about the bass but the pickup. Neck feels amazing, build quality is as good as anything out there.
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I've got the American Professional Jazz Bass - Sonic Gray with Rosewood Fingerboard, love how it plays, would have rather have had the Candy Apple Red, but I'm fine with the color. Love the way that it plays, but the pickups were a big disappointment. So, I recently swapped out the pickups with a set of Custom Shop Custom '60s Jazz Bass pickups. Love this bass now, I just wish they would have offered this combo from the start.
You know what? I was thinking to myself for couple of days that maybe, possibly I'm giving up too quickly on this bass, so decided to set it up to my likings, mostly by lowering pickups (as they were raised significantly, especially over A and D) and I must admit, that mid-range turned up and the more I play it the more I like it. Maybe after all I wasn't giving Fender well deserved credit?? Who knows, but for now I'm stopping search for replacement pickups (although Fender Custom 62 is calling my name due to old habits)......
I just got an American Professional Precision. I adjusted the pickups to the sweetest spot that also had even string volume and I must say I love these new pickups with AlNiCo V's on the treble and AlNiCo II's on the bass. Excellent tone with plenty of meaty mids. Lots of good growl on the E & A strings. Impressive attack. When you chomp a low F you can hear Heaven rejoice. Another huge plus is that it sounds like a Fender and not a Duncan or DiMarzio or Fralin ect. That's important to me. I'll never change these pickups.
Love everything about the neck shape & width, and the new 'tall narrow' frets are clean & easy players. Glad I sprung for this. I may do a full review later after I grab a few pix.
Love everything about the neck shape & width, and the new 'tall narrow' frets are clean & easy players. Glad I sprung for this. I may do a full review later after I grab a few pix.
Everyone seems to be harping on the PU not having midrange.
I have the P 5 and I find myself dialling out mids; especially when paired with my walkabout head. I find this bass actually is better suited to my mesa M3 carbine.
It's one helluva complete bass IMO;
I have the P 5 and I find myself dialling out mids; especially when paired with my walkabout head. I find this bass actually is better suited to my mesa M3 carbine.
It's one helluva complete bass IMO;
I find the pickups work well, especially in a band setting with two guitars and keys. In fact, I unloaded a bunch of gear and bought a second one. Both of mine are Precisions.
New one (crappy cell pic):
I may put a tort guard on it and I'm just deciding on strings. It will rounds just not sure which ones yet.
New one (crappy cell pic):
I may put a tort guard on it and I'm just deciding on strings. It will rounds just not sure which ones yet.
I may put a tort guard on it and I'm just deciding on strings. It will rounds just not sure which ones yet.[/QUOTE said:
Similar to mine ...
I usually don't get too excited about sunburst finishes, having played them since old testament times... But your finish has an extra zing. Specifically I like the heavy fade to black. Pickguard pops, too. Is it mint?
To be honest I had your same opinion with regard to 3TS but this one seemed to be, as you said, slightly darker than usual and good looking with that pickguard which is not exactly mint nor white ... at least this was my impression looking at the picture of the StraTosphere site from which I bought it .. so I decided to buy it and I have to say I was lucky as it is exactly as portrayed in the shop pictures ... it came fully loaded and I put an Am. Std. Jazz Bass neck onto it as I like thin necks .. I have to say now that this experiment yielded a very satisfactory result as this is a bass combining most of the features I like in a bass
If the mids on the P isn't to your liking you can adjust it. I think my P cuts through the mix perfectly. I think this new version is amazing.
I agree completely. I bought my American Pro P back at the beginning of the summer. I play once per month on the worship team at my church (4 services, 2 practices and 1 dress rehearsal per weekend). I just finished my 3rd time playing this bass today after 8 years on a Yamaha RBX. What I immediately noticed in regards to the tone of the Pro P is that it cuts through the mix way better than my Yamaha ever did. For the first time I can clearly hear every nuance of what I'm playing in my IEM's (both good and bad stuff coming from my fingers!). I have no other P to compare it to as I haven't played one since the early 2000's (Squire beginner bass).
In my opinion this new American Pro sounds phenomenal and exceeds my expectations in every way. Well worth every penny in my opinion. Even our sound guys are loving it and say it sounds much better than the Yamaha. I've not noticed any issues with the mids either. It seems powerful in all ranges. Maybe I just got a good one?
Maybe
But they are definitely excellent basses all-around. I'm just a little fussy about what I consider a good P pickup, having been spoiled by the 62 CS P I had in the first part of the millennium and the Geezer P's I've been using for the past 3 years. But pickup choice is very personal, and if it's working for you, it's working for you, and ain't nothin' wrong with that!
