Fender Select Precision bass

AFAIK the only difference between Fender's Select series and their AmStds is the fancy top cap.

 

Material and build quality is supposed to be better, too. I love this one and found a rare 2011 P/J deluxe model earlier this year. It's fantastic.

 

The Select also has a separate figured maple fingerboard, specially wound pickup and a stealth A-string retainer.
The top is not as rounded on the edge as the Am. Std., and I ended up selling mine because it was not nearly as comfy on the forearm as my Am. Std. is.
I should have kept it - the sound was phenomenal. Bright, crisp, punchy and tight.
Special case too, along with a medallion on the rear of the peghead, and comes standard with Schaller straplocks.

 

Interesting about the pickup. Do you know what is that's special about how it's wound?

BTW - My GF has one of their Select Strats. It's a really nice guitar. But it sounds and plays very much like some of her other AmStd Strats. Definitely supermodel pretty though. The attention to those little fit & finish details is definitely better. But nothing she or I thought really set it all that much apart (sound and feel-wise) from some other instruments in her collection. However, she's extremely fussy when it comes to buying another guitar so everything she owns is vetted nine ways to Sunday. So I guess you could say that all of her guitars are "select" - by HER! She'll think nothing of going to four or five different places and trying out ten or more Strats at each before she'll (sometimes) buy one. Sales people definitely earn their commissions when she's out shopping.

 

i played an MIA Standard jbass at GC. i also tried a Custom Shop jbass and a Select jbass. i liked the Select, so there is something real happening there. they were all nicely set-up, but the tone & playability of the Select was very nice.

 

Per my Fender magazine, it says is that the Select Series have their own pickups unique to the Select Series, wound to enhance the tonal properties of each model. Probably just a few extra windings.
It sounded vintage to me, but
with a little extra output.
They really do sound quite nice.

 

Cool! Next time I run into one I'm definitely going to have to make a point of trying it out. Thx!

 

Don't they also have a compound radius and contoured neck heel?

 

They are between American Deluxe and Custom Shop. I have one still unplayed,and going to buy a used one next week. Incredible basses.

 

Select also has a quarter sawn neck.

I am not sure it is worth the extra $$$, particularly given the select p is still passive.

I have seen one - you can hardly tell it is a select. Not much different to the MIA.

 

Compound radius for sure. Don't know about the other thing.

 

And the quarter sawn neck, and the compound radius, and the pickups. On mine, the body edges are more "squared" than the AS. It is still one of the nicest P basses I have ever owned.

 

All that and the tv logo. Wow!

 

you have an unplayed bass and you are already buying another one? Time to get GAS treatment, stat.

 

I've owned both. I decided to stay with the American Standard for the following reasons:

The Select's finish chipped too easily. Yeah yeah, that's what lacquer finishes do. That's why I traded in all of my lacquer-finished basses.

The Select's pickups are definitely unique. Do they sound better than the American Standard? No, just different. I asked the factory what made the Select's pickups unique. They said "the pickups are voiced specifically for the Select model's unique wood." Huh, what? Right. They should have just said "because voodoo."

The Select has the same bridge and tuners as the American Standard.

The Select's neck has a compound radius (which didn't do a thing for me) and a flame maple fingerboard. I prefer rosewood.

You can buy the stealth A-string retainer on the open market. I added it to my American Standard.

Bottom line - the Select's features didn't really do anything for me. The 2012-present American Standard is the best built Fender bass to date. It's a tank that gets the job done. I think the Selects were some kind of marketing test.

You can't go wrong with either model.

 

I have a Select. Not sure what's different about the pickups, but it really does sound different than my other USA P-Basses. Very "piano-like" with the tone knob turned up, I'd say. It's a very high quality instrument. I happen to have a pretty outrageously flamey bass; they vary in terms of the amount of flame. The finish definitely is vulnerable to chipping. Lightweight and well balanced, with a super comfortable neck.

 

That seam in the wood used in the top is always so obvious to me, it's distracting. Personally, I couldn't get past that. But that's just my personal brand of of OCD talking.