Fender Jazz 4, Inca Silver, '97, MIA

Alder body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, Seymour Duncan Antiquity II pickups, stacked volume/tone controls and a series/parallel switch, all passive. The tone is LARGE, especially with the series wiring engaged. With flats it sounds enormous. The low end is truely unmatched among the 20+ basses I've owned. Your choice of La Bella flats or DR Lowriders. I bought this bass from SMASH a couple years ago. He did all the wiring work on it. If you have the TalkBass CD, this bass was used to record "Star Weekly". Since that recording the stacked tone controls and lightweight tuners were added. The tone really hasn't changed. The bass weights about 9 lbs. The color is Inca Silver which has been discontinued. The photos miss a slight green, almost reptilian shade that compliments the silver well. It also has a custom pickguard that looks black in the pictures but is actually "smoked" transparent. The overall condition of the bass is excellent. It plays well, sounds great and looks cool. I'm looking for something with a better slap sound. This bass does what it does really well so I hate to mess with it. I highly recommend it for anything where slap and pop is not needed. It has some growl but is mainly set up for a big old school tone - lots of lows and low mids and much deeper sounding than my P-basses. The pickups can give lots of bite and crunch but are not "glassy" at all. I've enjoyed playing it but am playing more funk now now and need something a bit more refined.

I'll offer the Hipshot lightweight tuners and matching detuner as an option since I can use them on another bass. Price is $600 with the original tuners, and $700 with the lightweights and detuner. Reinstalling the original tuners completely conceals the tiny holes (one per tuner) that were added to secure the lightweights. Trades I'd consider are 4-string basses (must have a bridge pickup, prefer natural or sunburst). I can throw in some cash for the right bass.

 

It has a rosewood board. All PMs replied to.

 

Here are a couple pictures from when SMASH sold the bass to me. The only change since then is the lightweight tuners.

 

Someone please buy this so I can buy EB's 5-string. Price drop to $650.

 

I know they're 2 different animals but this Jazz has a lot in common with a P tonally, especially in series. One reason I'm selling it is that my other bass is a P and they sound similar. The jazz cuts through live a lot better though.

Thanks for the bump Tim.

Another thing I'll mention is that '97 was a very good year for MIA fenders. My P is a '97 too. Kinda hate to break them up...

 

Thanks again Tim. I didn't like the color at first but it grew on me. It has a lot of depth to it and takes on hues from the lights etc.

Madison is a great place. Beautiful lakes and campus, lots of nice people too. I'm very lucky.

Bass is still for sale.

 

Thanks Greg. For the record the knobs are (from neck to bridge): 1) standard jazz tone knob that is nothing more than a pull/push series parallel switch; 2) stacked volume/tone for neck pickup; and 3) stacked volume/tone for bridge pickup.

Also an update on strings: In an attempt to put off buying a 5-string I put on some heavy gauge (.055 - .110) XLs on it and have tuned it DGCF. This just might work. The truss rod didn't even need tweaking and the pickups seem to like the heavier strings. Now if I can just remember where the notes are...

 

b-Ump!

 

Bump - price drop and minor edits to first post.

 

Bump for price drop. Had some other things come up so this was backburnered. $600 ($700 with lightweights) plus shipping. This price won't go any lower. I'll keep it or part it out before taking less than 6 bills for this bass.

 

Valentine's Bump!

 

The series/parallel feature is very useful. I usually play in parallel for traditional jazz bass tones but for some songs I want the big P-bass sound, which the series setting does nicely, at the flick of a switch. The Antiquity IIs in series sound bigger than any P-bass I've ever heard. Series is also good for when you realize in the middle of a song that you're not loud enough or if you want to boost for a loud section or solo. Plenty of threads on this topic too.