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Fender MIA Jazz Deluxe: old vs new

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Oct 11, 2008
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#1
I just bought a 1998 fender american jazz deluxe and was wondering how the older deluxes compare to the new, particularly with electronics/pickups?

does anyone know what type of pickups are in a '98?

here are some pics :)

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#2
I have a 98 five string, and although I'm sure someone will disagree with me, I actually think the old pups are better. They're quieter and sound virtually the same to my ears otherwise.

Don't know about the pre though. Played one with a Bart pre once that I thought sounded way better than my bass or the newer ones.

As for build quality. Fenders are so hit or miss anyway, I don't think the new ones are an improvement in that regard either. Have yet to see one (out of a sample of 50 or so 08 basses) that was as good as my 98. The new ones seem just a s spotty as the old.

No idea what they called those pickups off the top of my head.
 
#5
I had a bass like the red one above only with a maple neck. That bass has John Suhr electronics that were discontinued that year. that was the last year for the 1/4 inch "slug" pups and pre. 1999 featured the Noiseless pups and I believe a different pre-amp. The 1998 DLX bass was also capless, if you look at the 1997 and under DLX basses they have a solid border around the body. This hides the cap! 18v pre-amps started around 02-03. It was said somewhere the 18v pre gave the bass more headroom out the gate but my 97CS custom classic with custom noiseless has a 9v pre that sounds just as good if not better than the 18v pre in my other DLX basses. My CS custom classic also sounds much different than the 98 DLX jazz I used to own. Btw SCN pups replaced the noiseless pups in 2004.
 
#6
Here is my old 98 DLX jazzbass
98DLXJAZZ.jpg
 
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#8
MyUsernameHere said:
I have a 98 five string, and although I'm sure someone will disagree with me, I actually think the old pups are better. They're quieter and sound virtually the same to my ears otherwise.



As for build quality. Fenders are so hit or miss anyway, I don't think the new ones are an improvement in that regard either. Have yet to see one (out of a sample of 50 or so 08 basses) that was as good as my 98. The new ones seem just a s spotty as the old.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. I have not noticed a significant difference in tone between the older USA Deluxe and 08 models. I prefer the pups that are in the older ones as I think they are quieter.

As for quality of build. I think its about equal on the older ones and the 08s. They're built pretty sturdy and you can bat baseballs around with them and have them still hold tune.
 
#12
pyrohr said:
I had a bass like the red one above only with a maple neck. That bass has John Suhr electronics that were discontinued that year. that was the last year for the 1/4 inch "slug" pups and pre. 1999 featured the Noiseless pups and I believe a different pre-amp. The 1998 DLX bass was also capless, if you look at the 1997 and under DLX basses they have a solid border around the body. This hides the cap! 18v pre-amps started around 02-03. It was said somewhere the 18v pre gave the bass more headroom out the gate but my 97CS custom classic with custom noiseless has a 9v pre that sounds just as good if not better than the 18v pre in my other DLX basses. My CS custom classic also sounds much different than the 98 DLX jazz I used to own. Btw SCN pups replaced the noiseless pups in 2004.
Click to expand...

WRONG! :eek: I had to go pull out both my '97 and '05 Deluxes, just to prove you wrong, and.... shoot - you're right! :bawl: My '97 does have a cap - both front and back. It's a beautiful bookmatched cap - but the sides are solid paint, and I pulled the back battery cover, and it wasn't clear if it was a cap or not. Looks like they painted the area solid where it meets. I did try to match the grain, and it didn't seem to match the cavity. :( I also looked at the front grain vs the back grain, and it didn't line up (pattern wise) like I would have expected. :rollno: Oh well.

Still love my '97!!! :hyper: I checked out the battery in my '05 - and was shocked they fit a stack of 9V batteries in that compartment. Would have sworn it was a single 9V in there. I was wrong again. :eyebrow:

My 2 basses sound very different to each other, but I attribute that to their differences acoustically - different fretboard and body woods. I do like the preamp in my '97. Very easy to get a great sound out of with minimal tweaking. I'll have to test out my '05 and see how different it is in comparison.

Btw - that '98 looks great. :D
 
#13
Just had a '97 American Deluxe Jazz in my studio comparing it to an '08 American Deluxe Jazz I just bought. The '97's pups were quieter and they sounded different. More round and punchier. The '08 had less of that round, punchy sound and had a more growly sound. Now some of that could have been brand new strings on the '08 and who knows how old strings on the '97. The '97 sounded great and I was a little bumming that it was both quieter and had that tone. If you played the '08 without hearing the '97 you would love the '08 - no doubt. I'm keeping the '08 - very nice instrument. But that '97 sounded really, really good. I would NOT change out '97 electronics to put in the Samarium Cobalt pups. Not based on my test of the 2 basses.I would be more likely to change the Samariums to the '97's noiseless pups that's how good they sounded. 97's are awesome!
 

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