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Geddy Finally Came Home!
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
After a ridiculously long layaway, I finally took my American Geddy Lee Fender Jazz home. It is great, but the fact I have to take the neck off to adjust the neck (just like a vintage Seventies Jazz,) is a pain in the butt because it could use a little tweak. Still, I am very happy because I have wanted a Seventies style Jazz since the actually Seventies. I will never forget when Bootsy’s RubberBand opened for Parliament, and Bootsy had a pretty white Jazz because his original Space Bass had been stolen. I remember War’s original bassist, B.B. Dickerson, on stage with Jazz, and I remember the guy from Spain in Heatwave who had a Seventies Jazz too. Ironically, the one time I saw Larry Graham, he had an Alembic.Of course, the greatest bassist of my generation, Marcus Miller, rocked a Seventies Jazz, and his Fender is his number one till this day. The funny thing is that I always loved the Geddy Lee Signature Jazz much more than the Marcus Miller. I almost bought a CIJ Geddy about fifteen years ago. That said, I am a pretty big Geddy Lee fan too. I would like to unload my Music Man SUB5, but I may keep it since no one is biting in the classifieds. My Geddy is my four and my Pedulla and my Carvin are my fives.
Congrats Doc! Your new bass looks great and it sounds like a real '70s fender jazz bass. Cheers!
Congrats! She’s sounds great!
I love heel adjust necks, it keeps MOST morons from attempting to adjust the neck...
I have ONE Pbass with a headstock adjust, and I think that is the main reason I hate it.
I love heel adjust necks, it keeps MOST morons from attempting to adjust the neck...
I have ONE Pbass with a headstock adjust, and I think that is the main reason I hate it.
Thanks, I finally got the bass I wanted as a teen.
After a ridiculously long layaway, I finally took my American Geddy Lee Fender Jazz home. It is great, but the fact I have to take the neck off to adjust the neck (just like a vintage Seventies Jazz,) is a pain in the butt because it could use a little tweak. Still, I am very happy because I have wanted a Seventies style Jazz since the actually Seventies. I will never forget when Bootsy’s RubberBand opened for Parliament, and Bootsy had a pretty white Jazz because his original Space Bass had been stolen. I remember War’s original bassist, B.B. Dickerson, on stage with Jazz, and I remember the guy from Spain in Heatwave who had a Seventies Jazz too. Ironically, the one time I saw Larry Graham, he had an Alembic.
Congrats! I love my Geddy. For the truss rod access, I just routed out the pick guard a bit so I can get a flat truss key in there without removing the neck, or screws.
I really dislike it when they reproduce the design flaws. That is one thing I like about MusicMan, they include design tweaks in the reissues. Easy access to the truss rod is one of those must-haves.
That bass sounds and looks great. I tried an American Geddy once and it was really nice. The 70's pickup positions is the best slap sound in my opinion. Congratulations!
Damn. I was hoping from the title that this was going to be a thread about Geddy playing a Rickenbacker again.
Welcome to the club, although I haven't joined the one here, they are amazing basses. I love my Precisions but the Geddy will be the only Jazz I'll ever own.
Congrats, Doc ! Funny you should mention B.B Dickerson I was just playing some in my music room. Ay yi yi. Enjoy it !
I have two Geddy Lees. A 2008 and 2016. They are both amazing. I have a custom Parts J bass that I put 2019 Geddy Lee pickups in. Well they are called American Vintage in the specs but I really like them even in my parts J with 60s spacing.
I agree that a revised reissue instead of an exact reissue would be better, but as I said, Fender really leans nostalgia as part of its brand. As a motorcycle rider, Fender reminds me of Harley-Davidson in how it markets nostalgia. In both cases, the old designs are simple, but they do work.
Congrats on getting the Geddy home. Hopefully after you've spent some time with it, it's everything you ever wanted out of it. 
Congratulations!
I’ve only had the chance to play a MIJ Geddy. How does your MIA compare? I though the MIJ I tried was already pretty impressive. I can only imagine how great yours sounds and plays.
You don’t need to completely remove the neck or strings. I never do. You just need to loosen the strings till they’re slack and secure them with a capo, back the screws about half way out, and then tilt the base of the neck out of its pocket to get at the screw head. True it takes a little more work than it should require. But it only takes a few minutes each time.
And once you get a little experience with your individual neck you can usually nail the truss adjustment in one or two tries.
The American has a standard size Jazz neck, not the super tiny one on the CIJ/MIM versions. It had old fashioned reverse tuners as too. It just feels super solid, but it is quite light compared to my Carvin, maybe 9 lbs. It is just a really nice Seventies Jazz Bass.
I found it to be easy the first time I did it.You don’t need to completely remove the neck ir strings. I never do. You just need to loosen the strings till they’re slack and secure them with a capo, back the screws about half way out, and then tilt the base of the neck out of its pocket to get at the screw head. True it takes a little more work than it should require. But it only takes a few minutes each time.
And once you get a little experience with your individual neck you can usually nail the truss adjustment in one or two tries.
Congrats. They’re sweet basses.
I’d love a USA one someday, but the CIJ I have is fantastic. Hopefully if they’re anything like the CIJ ones it shouldn’t need truss rod adjustments very often, mine hasn’t been adjusted in like 3 years.
I’d love a USA one someday, but the CIJ I have is fantastic. Hopefully if they’re anything like the CIJ ones it shouldn’t need truss rod adjustments very often, mine hasn’t been adjusted in like 3 years.
Thx Doc! Sounds good to me. I cut my electric bass teeth on my cousin’s JB back in 1970. And although I’ve moved “away aways” from JBs over the years, I still have a soft spot in my heart for that most versatile of Fender bass designs. So much so that I’ve almost always had at least one JB of some flavor in my assemblage which mainly consisted of a JB and something else.
Right now I’m down to a surprisingly nice Squier CV 60s model (the Aztec Silver one) which I’ve just recently started thinking of replacing with something else later this year. So this thread comes at a great time. Because I hadn’t thought of making a Geddy part of my tryout list. Funny too considering my prog rock background.
I think I’m starting to enter into the distant marches of the foothills of my eventual dotage sometimes.
