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Fender Gold Foil Bass….***

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#43
satantango said:
I only know one person who picked one up and he didn't even keep it a week. I feel like the mexican shop has been having a real bad time with basses because I'm 0 for 2 in recent years, and Fender seems to be going out of their way to hide country of manufacture on these ones, probably because of the frankly ridiculous pricetag for a no frills mexican fender.

My mexican telecaster on the other hand is basically flawless. not sure what's up with their bass side.
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What's crazier is the replacement MIM necks, especially the roasted maple ones, are absolutely stellar. Perfect fret work and finish. I love the two I have and I have friends who have had great experience with theirs. I guess things start to fall apart once the hardware and wiring goes on LOL
 
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#44
SulzerType2 said:
Any info on who makes the pickups for these? It looks similar to some pickups Roswell manufacture, using a pickup frame copied from Rickenbacker Higain pickups.
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WSC Music is a Fender supplier , their Roswell Pickups division list Fender as clients.

What's weird though is any of the Roswell Gold Foils would have been wide enough, their string spacing is 53mm for pole pieces and 59mm for the blade.

Roswell Gold Foil.jpg
 
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#45
Abyssus Sonum said:
I just checked out the stock pictures at the Fender website, and also at sweetwater; and even there it is quite obvious that the string spacing is simply too wide for this pickup. Too bad.

But all negatives aside, how does she sound?
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TkFNB6v.png


Someone from my discord channel snagged a few captures from examples at sweetwater. Only one seems ok. The basses sound really nice... on the A-G strings.... E string is terrible. I wasn't planning on releasing a review video on these for a bit, but I think it may come out sooner.
 
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#46
kodiakblair said:
WSC Music is a Fender supplier , their Roswell Pickups division list Fender as clients.

What's weird though is any of the Roswell Gold Foils would have been wide enough, their string spacing is 53mm for pole pieces and 59mm for the blade.

View attachment 4958430
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That pickup looks more like a vintage goldfoil and would surface mount, which would be easier to fit with the pickguard.
 
#52
roogbass said:
It's Just a bad one.
I returned it.
The shop ordered 2 new ones, so I can choose or my money back.
The fret ends were very sharp too.
Quite heavy too.
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I saw the ads for these limited edition gold foil line instruments. But I feel like what's the point? Why get a single coil Pbass just for the gold foil thing then you could go get a normal Pbass that is probably way better. So why did you choose this? I am very curious. Btw my fender from 2014 is holding up very well, no QC issues ever, maybe fender is slipping or maybe it was just a bad day or this one slipped through the cracks.
 
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#53
Matthew Morter said:
I saw the ads for these limited edition gold foil line instruments. But I feel like what's the point? Why get a single coil Pbass just for the gold foil thing then you could go get a normal Pbass that is probably way better. So why did you choose this? I am very curious. Btw my fender from 2014 is holding up very well, no QC issues ever, maybe fender is slipping or maybe it was just a bad day or this one slipped through the cracks.
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When I heard the demos I noticed it sounds a bit different than a P or the front pup of a Jazz.
So I thought I'd give it a try.
 
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#54
roogbass said:
When I heard the demos I noticed it sounds a bit different than a P or the front pup of a Jazz.
So I thought I'd give it a try.
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Ah okay, I thought it was for aesthetic reasons, and while I do care for aesthetics I think performance and sound are the most important. I really hope you get a good one if you go for the exchange. Let's hope this was a one off mistake!
 
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#55
roogbass said:
I owned far over a hundred basses and set them up myself.
Only electronics I leave to others.

The neck in the bass was straight in the pocket.
Shifting the strings would put the G string to close to the edge.
My OCD would kill me ;-)
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Yeah, on yours in particular, it appears they managed to somehow botched the lateral location of the pickup opening on the guard and the corresponding routed cavity in the body (if there is any) while everything else--the neck in pocket, bridge, string alignment, even the outside perimeter cut of the pickguard and its mounted location, in relation to body--looks perfect.
 
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#57
Matt Liebenau said:
I don't know about the ones Fender's using but the vintage gold foils I have are some of the few pickups I've used that don't sense strings well once they're off the edge of the pickup. That said, it looks like the neck just needs to be shifted to the treble side a bit. Pretty common with bolt neck instruments. It probably just moved a little in shipping.

Loosen (don't remove) the neck screws. Shift the neck and tighten the screws back down. It's sometimes necessary to hold the neck and body in position while you tighten the screws which can seem like a three handed operation but it's doable. Don't crank down on the neck screws. They just need to be a bit past snug.
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Disagree. The strings on that bass are perfectly aligned with the neck. Repositioning the neck would cause the strings to be biased toward the treble side, with the G string on the edge of the neck, and possibly even over the edge of the neck.

If that bass were to be made usable, the neck shift you propose would need to be accompanied by repositioning the bridge. Way too much needed work for a brand new bass. The easiest fix would be to get a pickguard with the pickup in the proper position. I'd return it and let Fender figure it out.
 
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