Fender Standard Jazz MIM vs MIA specs?

[Lownote38]

What a stupid cost savings measure which shows you just how bad fender was at the time. Even more stupid was using two of the same pickups instead of RWRP so they weren’t him canceling. I got a 93 jazz bass MIM from a thrift store and “saved” it. Just looked and sure enough I routed out the back pickup cavity a bit wider. I used a dremel lol. I put some split coils in there and was quite surprised when I found the original pickups had the same polarity.

The great thing is there are many MIM based on the used market to choose from.

Even an “upgraded” MIM won’t necessarily be the equal of an American standard IMHO. There’s the posiflex graphite reinforcement in the neck for example. Also, the attention to fret detail or paint finishing/polishing may not be the same.

The “upgrades” I do like are the threaded bridge barrels and alnico pickups that were in the original design. You can get them in say a 60’s MIM bass but you pay a lot for it.

Anybody know a cheap source of threaded barrels (also for telecaster)?

All-Parts makes just the threaded barrel saddles you're looking for. You can use the original bridge plate and just put the threaded saddles on it. I do that to every Fender I get with the traditional bridge.

 

[FugaziBomb]

I have to disagree with that, I noticed a sizable difference in sound when changing from the bent piece of tin that Fender supplied with mine to the Hipshot. The sound was noticeably darker with greater sustain, I've actually put the old bridge back on a couple of times to demonstrate the difference to friends

I have 20 basses, a lot of them with aftermarket parts on them. I've recorded about 11 of them before and after doing mods to them, 3 of which were from standard Fender style bent metal bridges to Aftermarket units (Bad Ass III, Hipshot B style, and Babicz lockdown), and a fourth that I just swapped out the standard saddles for Graph Techs and I've gotta say after A/B'ing the recordings, I have yet to hear a difference. I still swap out bridges pretty frequently just to change things up aesthetically, but at this point I have no doubt that the bridge plays almost no part in the tone of a bass.

 

[Christine]

I have 20 basses, a lot of them with aftermarket parts on them. I've recorded about 11 of them before and after doing mods to them, 3 of which were from standard Fender style bent metal bridges to Aftermarket units (Bad Ass III, Hipshot B style, and Babicz lockdown), and a fourth that I just swapped out the standard saddles for Graph Techs and I've gotta say after A/B'ing the recordings, I have yet to hear a difference. I still swap out bridges pretty frequently just to change things up aesthetically, but at this point I have no doubt that the bridge plays almost no part in the tone of a bass.

Good for you

 

[FugaziBomb]

Good for you

Not always. It's an expensive hobby and it takes up a lot of room

 

[Warhawk]

I have a '99 MIM Precision with 2005 US electronics...it sounds the same with either pickups. Well, worse if I hit the S1 switch in the USA stuff. MIM pickups sound nice.

 

[Warhawk]

I have to agree that a heavier bridge will not change your tone enough to spend the money on it. If you want a bass with a heavy bridge buy a G&L. Or you could do what I did...got a heavy Fender bridge from the same 2005 US bass I got the pickups from. The bridge is actually nicer but it doesn't change the tone a bit.