G.A.S. Fender buy - advice

[Gervais Cote]

Please, go find one and try it first. I've had Fender 5 Pro (and Ultra) before and sold them quickly. Now in fairness, the bottom 4 strings are great and they would be a nice addition to your collection, but their "B" won't come anywhere close to a Stingray "B". Its pathetic. Sure with enough knobs, switches and sims you can make it sound good. But really..... is all that necessary when your Stingray already does that. I don't know that you need 2 of them..... but that's another story.

I also witnessed the weakness of their "B" a few times. Simply sounds wrong, at least compared to a USA Spector or a USA Lakland active 5 string jazz bass.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of Fender p and j basses and I play their 4 strings on a regular basis.

 

[Thundar]

I agree with @Gervais Cote , If you want a Fender-ish 5 string definitely look into a Lakland, although I have never played a USA Lakland, I was dead set on buying a Skyline 55-60 or DJ-5. I am so used to a 35" scale Spector/Lakland/Cirrus that all 34" B's sound and play like mush to me. Unlike other folks though, I have never found a Stingray5 that I truly liked as even their B strings, to me, sound muddy...I have owned and sold 3 of them.
OP, I love that Mystic Seafoam green that you posted, and found one to play/check out...and as you can imagine it was not set up and the B was a clunky-fart at best...BUT, I have bought several nice Fender basses over the last couple of months, and one of them is a 2017 5 string Elite Jazz, and this baby came set-up to kill! The B string is STRONG on this one, Obi-Wan! I just lucked out. I took it to my "guru" and had him put a new set of Sadowsky SS stings on it, and it just made it even better. There is something to be said for getting the neck as flat as possible and working out those witness points, for sure on a 34" scale 5'r.

 

[Muziekschuur]

I would buy maybe a squier 5 or a mexican 5 and strip it. Refinish and then build up the bass in vintage spec. But the body had to be ash....

 

[Deleted member 409773]

I would buy maybe a squier 5 or a mexican 5 and strip it. Refinish and then build up the bass in vintage spec. But the body had to be ash....

I will try monday the Fender, if I like it ok, if not I move on. But if I want a Fender I buy a Fender USA (not Squier or mexican).

@Thundar I know very well the Laklands and Cirrus basses, I owned a Cirrus 5 USA Tiger Eye years ago (between 2004-2008, Mike Porcaro specs) and I owned one Lakland too (55-02) few years ago (I don't like the feel of 35").

If I want a Fender is for the Fender tone (and passive tone, I have 5 active basses). I have someting similar in my Sandbergs, but similar is not identical, the Sandberg is Sandberg, Fender is Fender. Maybe they are in the same niche, but different animals.

 

[Yahboy]

If you wanna get the Am Pro Jazz V, highly recommend Hipshot bridge (top load instead through body ) and bass string set with tapered B string to make the B string sound/tonal evenly with the rest.

A Style Fender® Mount Bridges

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also provide material option with different weight.

I have 5 basses:
Music Man StingRay Special 5 HH Amethyst Sparkle
Music Man StingRay Special 5 HH Raspberry
Sandberg California VM2 5 MT 3TS PFF FFDA
Sandberg California II TM5 Ida Nielsen
Ibanez EHB1505MS-BIF
... and I never owned a Fender Jazz Bass. I'm looking at this bad boy and... Fender American Professional II Jazz Bass V MN MYST SFG. Maybe I don't need it?

View attachment 7051292

 

[Muziekschuur]

A modern Fender USA V is covered in a poly that doesn't breath like a nitro cellulose paint. It allso has modern pickups that not nessesarily give you that old skool vibe. Both the Squier and the Mexican Fenders have the same woods or an ash body is easily located. Leaving you enough meat on the bone to upgrade well beond the hardware found on a USA V. Essentially giving you custom shop quality. Where you can have your pickups wound old skool and have an old skool sound. And get a better passive Jazz bass sound then with a new USA.

The ash and maple together have a much lower fundamental resonance than with other woods. Especially for a passive V bass I would want ash as body wood.

Here the Fender custom shop on wood:

 

[Deleted member 409773]

I was in my local shop (Fly Music) and I tried the Fender AM Pro 5 SFG passive, it's not in the same ligue with my Sandbergs or Stingrays, sorry (no cojones, no fat body, scooped).
But, I tried the American Ultra 5 Arctic Pearl too, and boy..., that's a beautiful instrument, lovely from the first touch. The growl is in that bass and a very good B.
The only problem was that the bass is not for sale, shop owners personal instrument, and it's out of stock everywhere in EU (Thomann, Kytary, Muziker, Music Store etc.). but I have made my decision, if I buy (I don't need another bass) a Fender, the only one I want is the Utra 5 Arctic Pearl.

 

[dustinymichaels]

I've gathered that this crowd of people are probably the last group of people you want to turn to for "don't buy it" support.