I just discovered this club! I have an early Neo Classic that came as an active bass from FGN. I LOVE the way it sounds and since I bought it used I figured someone upgraded the pups. I lifted one and could not ID it because it is totally shielded. I didn't want to rip it all up just for curiosity's sake but I am still curious. Does anybody know if the attached pic looks like a stock Neo Classic configuration? Have to say I DO like the way the shielding is applied and the bass is really resistant to noise.
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Hi Everyone,
Recently acquired this Mighty Power, and it's a blast to play. However, I'm not completely onboard with the SPB-3's. A smidge too modern for what I like. Has anyone swapped out their pickups for pickups leaning more vintage? Any other general thoughts on the subject. I will soon probably be offering up a trade here on TB.....my two pairs of SPB-3 for two pairs of Pure vintage 62's, Lollars, etc.
Recently acquired this Mighty Power, and it's a blast to play. However, I'm not completely onboard with the SPB-3's. A smidge too modern for what I like. Has anyone swapped out their pickups for pickups leaning more vintage? Any other general thoughts on the subject. I will soon probably be offering up a trade here on TB.....my two pairs of SPB-3 for two pairs of Pure vintage 62's, Lollars, etc.
I scooped up a Mighty Power (white) from Thomann today. Now I just need to wait for arrival. Though it's not a bucket list bass (for that it would need to be a standard precision configuration in the neck and a reverse P at the bridge), this is pretty close in concept.
D
$1444.00 on Thomman USA. Why are all the Basses I want coming out now? When I can't afford them. I did something wrong in a past life, or this one idk.
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D
So, I finally got a Mightly Jazz Expert, after lusting for one for a VERY long time. What a disappointment! The tone was great but the neck was unplayable.
With the neck adjusted dead straight from the 2nd fret and upwards it had a weird kink/backbow from the 1st fret and downwards.. When adjusted for normal relief the bass was 100% unplayable in the 1st fret or open strings, crazy fretbuzz even with very soft playing.
When the truss rod was adjusted to remove this backbow and make the 1st fret/open strings playable the neck had far too much relief, to the point of being unplayable (unless you think 4mm action at the 12th fret is ok).
This was not user error btw. I repair/build guitars for a living and this neck is definitely crooked. It didn't look like something that could be caused by shipping damage, but I find it hard to believe that FGN's quality control is THAT poor??? Maybe the neck has been permanently disfigured by sitting in a warehouse for too long with the neck adjusted for a backbow?? I dunno, probably just a bad piece of wood. It happens sometimes.
One (rather poor) solution here could be to level all the frets EXCEPT the 1st fret to compensate for the crooked neck. But based on some quick mearurements it looks like the frets from 2nd fret and upwards would end up being VERY low to make the 1st fret playable with normal relief. Probably to the point where I would normally have considered a re-fret. Maybe the neck is a candidate for heat/press treatment but that's not something I'm prepared to do on a brand new instrument under warranty. And besides, there's no way of knowing how this neck will behave in the future. It doesn't look very promising.
I can only assume I must have gotten a lemon. I had expected MUCH better from FGN. I have to admit I wasn't really that happy about the general "feel" of the bass either. The body was much bigger/heavier that I thought. I mean, it's ash so I expected it to be on the heavy side, but it is also considerably bigger/bulkier than a classic J-bass. The U-profile neck was also slightly on the chunky side for my taste. It wouldn't have been a problem if the rest of the bass had been great, but unfortunately it isn't. The neck also has some rather severe dead spots, and a somewhat uneven response along the neck. The large ash body made it sound HUGE unplugged, extremely resonant, but it didn't really translate much to the plugged-in tone, which was still very good, but not quite as spectacular as I had hoped based on the HUGE unplugged tone. Not that it matters much, the crooked neck makes it useless.
I guess this one is going back for a refund. I don't think a replacement will be possible. This is the white, passive model that's now discontinued and seemingly out of stock everywhere (and hardly ever in stock anywhere to begin with...). The currently manufactured version of the Mighty J is active, which isn't my thing (and again, it doesn't seem to actually be in stock anywhere...). Of course it can be re-wired passive but with instruments in this price range I expect them to be more or less perfect out of the box.
I've had MUCH better experiences with Fujigen instruments in the past. In my experience they are usually VERY good quality. I guess this one must have been a case of very poor luck.
With the neck adjusted dead straight from the 2nd fret and upwards it had a weird kink/backbow from the 1st fret and downwards.. When adjusted for normal relief the bass was 100% unplayable in the 1st fret or open strings, crazy fretbuzz even with very soft playing.
When the truss rod was adjusted to remove this backbow and make the 1st fret/open strings playable the neck had far too much relief, to the point of being unplayable (unless you think 4mm action at the 12th fret is ok).
This was not user error btw. I repair/build guitars for a living and this neck is definitely crooked. It didn't look like something that could be caused by shipping damage, but I find it hard to believe that FGN's quality control is THAT poor??? Maybe the neck has been permanently disfigured by sitting in a warehouse for too long with the neck adjusted for a backbow?? I dunno, probably just a bad piece of wood. It happens sometimes.
One (rather poor) solution here could be to level all the frets EXCEPT the 1st fret to compensate for the crooked neck. But based on some quick mearurements it looks like the frets from 2nd fret and upwards would end up being VERY low to make the 1st fret playable with normal relief. Probably to the point where I would normally have considered a re-fret. Maybe the neck is a candidate for heat/press treatment but that's not something I'm prepared to do on a brand new instrument under warranty. And besides, there's no way of knowing how this neck will behave in the future. It doesn't look very promising.
I can only assume I must have gotten a lemon. I had expected MUCH better from FGN. I have to admit I wasn't really that happy about the general "feel" of the bass either. The body was much bigger/heavier that I thought. I mean, it's ash so I expected it to be on the heavy side, but it is also considerably bigger/bulkier than a classic J-bass. The U-profile neck was also slightly on the chunky side for my taste. It wouldn't have been a problem if the rest of the bass had been great, but unfortunately it isn't. The neck also has some rather severe dead spots, and a somewhat uneven response along the neck. The large ash body made it sound HUGE unplugged, extremely resonant, but it didn't really translate much to the plugged-in tone, which was still very good, but not quite as spectacular as I had hoped based on the HUGE unplugged tone. Not that it matters much, the crooked neck makes it useless.
I guess this one is going back for a refund. I don't think a replacement will be possible. This is the white, passive model that's now discontinued and seemingly out of stock everywhere (and hardly ever in stock anywhere to begin with...). The currently manufactured version of the Mighty J is active, which isn't my thing (and again, it doesn't seem to actually be in stock anywhere...). Of course it can be re-wired passive but with instruments in this price range I expect them to be more or less perfect out of the box.
I've had MUCH better experiences with Fujigen instruments in the past. In my experience they are usually VERY good quality. I guess this one must have been a case of very poor luck.
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That sucks. That may be the first bad FGN I've heard of. Where did you get it from? Like you said, it may have been stored in poor conditions for a while. Or just a bad piece of wood that revealed itself later. I'd be surprised if it left the factory like that. Hopefully there won't be any hassle with the refund.FWIW, I've had an EMJ for a couple years now, and it's been great from day one (also a white, passive 4-string). Don't give up on them yet.
Hi everyone,
I recently acquired a FGN Mighty Jazz Dark Evolution 5 string (the black one). I originally wanted the blue one but prices are getting very high (online about 1800eu, ***!?). So i got the black EMG one in a local store for a good price, or 'normal' price @1399eu. I must say i'm very happy with it. Great tone. Love the neck. Love the 19mm string spacing. String hight is a litttle bit higher than on my other basses due to some fretbuzz and some clancy sounds (but than again, i'm kind of a purist when it come's to a clean tone: i have a background in live-audio mixing and music therapy). Anyway, it's on the heavier side, so i had to get a wider strap, but i'll manage
. Might want to change the factory strings though. Any advice on that would be appreciated. I normally go with d'addario strings on my basses, but for no specific reason whatsoever. I was also wondering if anyone strung these basses with flatwounds. I'm considering it, so any experiences or thoughts would be of interest.
Shout out to Lobster for a few great video's on these basses
I recently acquired a FGN Mighty Jazz Dark Evolution 5 string (the black one). I originally wanted the blue one but prices are getting very high (online about 1800eu, ***!?). So i got the black EMG one in a local store for a good price, or 'normal' price @1399eu. I must say i'm very happy with it. Great tone. Love the neck. Love the 19mm string spacing. String hight is a litttle bit higher than on my other basses due to some fretbuzz and some clancy sounds (but than again, i'm kind of a purist when it come's to a clean tone: i have a background in live-audio mixing and music therapy). Anyway, it's on the heavier side, so i had to get a wider strap, but i'll manage
. Might want to change the factory strings though. Any advice on that would be appreciated. I normally go with d'addario strings on my basses, but for no specific reason whatsoever. I was also wondering if anyone strung these basses with flatwounds. I'm considering it, so any experiences or thoughts would be of interest. Shout out to Lobster for a few great video's on these basses
Can I join?
New member to the forum here and proud owner of an FGN Neo Classic Jazz bass. This bass made me play better instantly.
I just had a serial-parallel switch installed which I really dig. The guitar tech advised me to change the tuners too, so those will be next.
Also thinking about swapping the pick guard from white to black.
New member to the forum here and proud owner of an FGN Neo Classic Jazz bass. This bass made me play better instantly.
I just had a serial-parallel switch installed which I really dig. The guitar tech advised me to change the tuners too, so those will be next.
Also thinking about swapping the pick guard from white to black.
I bought my FGN directly from Japan and it was sight unseen. Upon receiving the bass, it was surprising on a few things, the neck was very big (this was the five string evolution), the overall weight of the bass was more than I expected but the finish felt like a great quality bass. I personally think FGN takes the standard Fender design and tweaks it a bit but it's not for everyone.
On the neck issues, was this a new bass or pre-owned? I noticed the neck felt like there's no finish and I wonder if this makes it easier to absorb moisture or flex more on climate changes.
D
Brand new, and it had been out of stock for a very long time so it had definitely not been sitting at the dealer for a long time.
I also purchased it from a dealer (who is also an actual brick-and-mortar store) who makes a big deal out of how they inspect and set up each instrument before shipping them out.
In hindsight I wonder if it might have gotten damaged in transit because the neck relief was WAY off and I also discovered a dent at the end of the headstock. How this could have passed the inspection/setup at the store is beyond me. This particular dealer does seem to have VERY good reputation and actually do proper setups by a proper guitar tech, not just something like the laughable "xx point inspection" that Sweetwater does.
However, there was no signs of even the slightest damage anywhere on the packaging, and the bass even came with a hard case. For this to have happened during transit someone must have carefully unboxed it, slammed it into a wall and then carefully re-packaged it.
Whatever the cause, the neck was permanently "kinked" somewhere around the 1st-3rd frets, possibly from being forced into a MASSIVE backbow for too long. It was impossible to get the neck straight with any truss rod adjustments. At the straightest I could get it, there was still both a tiny bit of backbow in lower frets AND a bit of relief/bow in the middle of the neck. (At this point I should probably mention that I build and repair guitars for a living, so I know when something is off).
I ended up leveling the frets. This made the bass playable. However, to make the FRETS (rather than the neck itself) straight I had to remove quite a bit of fret height. It's ok now, but the frets are already slightly lower than I ideally want them, to the point where the bass will most likely need a full re-fret the next time the frets need to be serviced.
As for big/chunky necks (and often U-profile rather than C-profile) this seems to be the case with many MIJ Fender(ish) copies. I don't mind this as longs as the neck is straight. Which unfortunately wasn't the case with my FGN "Expert" Jazz.
Guitar center score. Went to trade in some pedals and saw this basically brand new and drop dead gorgeous Neo Classic for insanely little money. Came with a gig bag too!
Nice find! Guitar Center has a great return policy and found some cool gear, needle in the hay stack with the FGN.
Is this a traditional Jazz style bass or a slightly FGN style with a thicker neck? Upcoming review?
Hello all. I'm looking into fivers, not having had one for a few years. Now this brick&mortar store near me has a used blue Mighty Jazz Dark Evolution five string. From the photos it seems to be in good shape. €1000 including gigbag.
I'm new to the Fujigen brand. Is this a good price for this bass? Are there specific issues to watch out for? Thanks for your thoughts.
I'm new to the Fujigen brand. Is this a good price for this bass? Are there specific issues to watch out for? Thanks for your thoughts.
Welcome!
I owned this exact bass and can speak a little about it, it's a great build but the neck is very wide and take note about the nut size. One thing I would call out is this is a larger five string and feels decently heavy, The tone control wasn't very aggressive but it sounded great, I did encounter some neck dive on my version, the bass hardware I think is all steel. Neck shape is a big C, compared to other five strings, this was a more chonky neck.
There is also two versions of this bass, If I recall the version one has the truss rod adjustment at the head, the updated version uses the neck heel. Sonically I don't think any differences.
Glad it's helpful! I ended up selling my FGN as I was buying another bass, but it was a good price for the performance. I do think it's not your typical "Jazz" as it feels like a mix of basses with the neck shape. Hope you get to play it!
I would do it. I just sold my 5'er for $975 plus $110 shipping because I don't play 5. I purchased the four-string version, and I have a Mighty Power and they are keepers. Quality basses with exceptional necks.
Just did a little upgrade to my Mighty Power. The DiMarzio relentless middle pickups were a bit too aggressive for what I wanted. I used my FGN Mighty Jazz Dark Evolution at band rehearsal the other day and was so impressed with how the EMGs sat in the mix. I decided to order a pair of the EMG Classic P (active) pickups. Its setup as VVT right now, but might consider upgrading to the ABC and active tone control. The battery just barely fits under the neck pickup volume control. The pot has to be up all the way and I can only use the locking washer underneath, but it fits! Sounds great too.
FGN Mighty Jazz from rehearsal:
Here's a little video clip of the Mighty Power in action
