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Fender Deluxe Active Jazz Bass MIM ... Good N Bad !!!

himluis1

himluis1

Sep 28, 2012
660
420
Florida
#1
I got a fender deluxe active jazz bass mim last october , i have been using it for a while n i love it , i love the knobs being able to control the tone lows n highs and it looks awesome too , but i dont know is is my amp or what but i feel that it sounds too bright sometimes !!! anybody let me know if feel the same
 
#4
I recently got a good deal on one and I love it. Run amp EQ flat and lows 75%, mids around 40%, highs 15% on bass. That is my prefered settings for low classic sound. But I love having so much tone control on hand.
 
#8
well i play @church n they have an acoustic b200 and the eq seccion its kind of confusing to me i just to own a mb200 by GK and it was just the normal bass mid n high but this acoustic have like 6 knobs on the eq side :s
 
#10
himluis1 said:
I got a fender deluxe active jazz bass mim last october , i have been using it for a while n i love it , i love the knobs being able to control the tone lows n highs and it looks awesome too , but i dont know is is my amp or what but i feel that it sounds too bright sometimes !!! anybody let me know if feel the same
Click to expand...

In the neutral position, it's definitely too bright. I had to roll off the mids & highs.
I recently put flats on & now it's balanced.

himluis1 said:
here is mine after a bridge and pickguard upgrade !!! gotoh201 n white pearl pickguard
Click to expand...

Did you replace the high mass railed bridge with another high mass railed bridge just to get the slightly narrower string spacing that the Gotoh offers? Cuz, that's the only real difference.
 
#11
to be honest i did both upgrades for the looks only !!! and the gotoh bridge gave me a little of more sustain in my opinion , also i feel more vibration on the bass for some reason but i like it like that ... $40 for the bridge and $30 for the pickguard , i think it was a good upgrade
 
#13
himluis1 said:
to be honest i did both upgrades for the looks only !!! and the gotoh bridge gave me a little of more sustain in my opinion , also i feel more vibration on the bass for some reason but i like it like that ... $40 for the bridge and $30 for the pickguard , i think it was a good upgrade
Click to expand...

I'd be willing to bet that your ears are deceiving you.
I ran a Gotoh 201 on my P for years and switched back to my bent plate. I noticed no difference, except that I can get the action much lower on the bent plate.

The bridge on the Active Deluxe looks better for build quality, too. They're the same depth & metal and the thick plate on the back of the Gotoh is hollow.

The pickguard looks cool, though.
 
#15
I have my '99 MIM Deluxe Active Bass and I LOVE IT. But a few years ago the stock pickups crapped out and had to be replaced. Got a set of the Fender SCM Noiseless pickups and they are quite amazing as well. So I would start with everything running flat, not boost or cut. EQ on your amp first, then do some tweaks on the guitar to fine tune. And they are right, too much treble, cut your highs down a little and/or move your blend knob towards the neck pickup.
 
#18
Not preamp and Ceramic Noiseless pickups, which I really liked.

But then I never played flat in my life, always thru an array of multifx (with 5ers only) pedalboard fxchain (for my many 4ers) all put in send/return after bass equalizer and head equalizer adjusted as well.

So my sound comes out from:
my (phisycal) head
my fingers
my bass neckwood and bodywood/pickups
my bass eq
my (electric) head eq
my pedalboard/fxchain

Cheers,
Wallace
 
#20
I had one, and it was a beautiful bass!
2006deluxe.jpg

One of my favorites to pick up late at night and noodle around with, unplugged. But I could never dial in my amplified sound. To me it went from bright to dull. It had a pretty good bright sound; articulate, lively, popped from the mix. But when I tried to back it off for a more bluesy sound, it seemed to lose its acoustic resonance, and go straight to bleh.
I wasn't expecting P bass sound from it, but I couldn't find a musical, rolled-off, Jazz sound either. I sold it, and I miss it for the way it sounded and felt unplugged, but I really prefer the overall sound of my Highway One passive (with Fralins).
 
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