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Fender american special p bass

#21
I have one and love it! It is my main go to bass. I love the thinner neck as I have smaller hands, I also like the grease bucket tone knob, with other precision basses that I’ve owned in the past I never used the tone control, on this bass I use it quite often to dial in some subtle tone changes.

Quick story about how I got mine. I wasn’t looking for a new bass but was killing some time in a music store, played it and thought it sounded great. That sent me on a quest to buy a new precision, I made a pledge that price, model or make did not matter. Over the next few months I played probably close to 40 precisions and eventually came back to that original American special that I had played.
 

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#22
thedukeofno said:
Jazz neck meaning 1.5” nut width? Is that true?
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justjake said:
no jazz neck on these , 1.625 = b neck same as standard P bass. wonderful basses for the cash.
up graded mine with a new bridge and custom shop pick up , tuning pegs and of course a tort guard.
now my number 1 over my standard American P's. lighter and just more comfortable to me.
ymmv.
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Well... don't know what bass you have, but my American Special has a jazz neck on it. Or a neck that's much smaller at the nut than a standard P.

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/bass/fender-american-special-precision-bass

Says neck width is 1-5/8" at the nut.
 
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#25
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#27
thedukeofno said:
I wouldn’t consider 1-5/8” (1.625, 41mm) to be a jazz neck. I thought a p-neck was 1.625, but believe they went larger as well...
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I don't know precise measurements of Ps and Js (outside of what was listed on the MF page), but I know my P feels just like my jazz to me. And my other Ps didn't. It's a big part of why I bought it, and why I like it so much.
 
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#29
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#30
Joe Nerve said:
I don't know precise measurements of Ps and Js (outside of what was listed on the MF page), but I know my P feels just like my jazz to me. And my other Ps didn't. It's a big part of why I bought it, and why I like it so much.
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50s and 60s P basses had a 1.75" width nut, as well as AVRI's, MIM Classic 50s/60s, and American Originals. That might be what you're thinking of.
 
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#33
It’s a P bass neck at 1 5/8 and yes the satin finish is pretty awesome on mine. I’ve had mine for about 4 years and it’s been pretty rock solid. Only a couple minor tweaks of the truss rod when the weather changes. I left the stock pickup in mine and think it sounds like a pretty killer P bass. Lightweight and my timers hold tune just fine. I don’t think theirs a need for unnecessary upgrades unless you just want to. I paid 900 for mine I believe. It’s my favorite bass so it was worth it to me.
 
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#34
MtManiac said:
Jazz necks are 1.5", P bass necks are 1-11/16" (1.6875"). 11/16 is right around 5/8. It's a P bass neck.
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Then either I'm nuts, or the GC Honey Blonde Specials are different. The former may very well apply, but I've owned Ps with much thicker necks than this one that I held onto.
 
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#35
I may be wrong but I’m pretty sure it’s a p bass neck. Just a really comfortable one. The neck is the selling point for me. So easy to play but my aerodyne p bass has a jazz profile neck on it and is wayyyy slimmer in comparison. I don’t split hairs over what’s a jazz or p neck though. I play a bass first and like what’s comfortable to me. I usually lean towards that grey area being some really skinny jazz necks are to small and some of those p necks feel like I’m playing a tree stump.
 
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#36
MtManiac said:
It does - it would be cool if they included a push/pull switch for that, like the S1 switch from a few years ago, except enabling/defeating the Greasebucket circuit.
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On my j bass special it has the grease bucket tone but no switch for it like you mentioned.Not sure if the other models have that, never saw it mentioned before. still a great deal though to be honest.
 
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