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Highway One/American Standard Comparison

You wouldn't want to see any of my working basses then, Nitro or Poly finished!

You work them hard enough, and they'll get bumps, bruises, nicks, dings, scratches, gouges etc. and show some wear. ;)

And when I work them hard and they get those nicks dings and dents I get rid of them or my OCD kicks in and I cannot look at them without becoming physically ill.

That is why I no longer look at my 76 P since I cannot stand the scratches in it.
 
I was talking about the finish on the back of the neck, not the body.

Not sure if that's nitro on the neck or not. I kind of suspect it isn't, as it feels the same as the old American Series satin finish.

Just checked Fender specs.

"Satin Nitrocellulose Lacquer Body Finish"

That would lead me to go with my gut that the neck isn't Nitro, but the older style (non buffed out) satin poly.

Ah, okay, I've never actually compared the finish on the neck before side by side between a HW1 and MIA, guess the neck finish takes to much abuse for their "nitrocellulose" lacquer. :D

Here's mine only wear is the belt rash on the back. Finish is fine

My Yamaha RBX250 has the same kind of wear pattern, but that took more than 10 years of hard gigging by the PO to develop. :D
 
Ah, okay, I've never actually compared the finish on the neck before side by side between a HW1 and MIA, guess the neck finish takes to much abuse for their "nitrocellulose" lacquer. :D

I'd figure it's likely that seeing how the current H1 and American Standard use the same neck, it's a matter of economy to give them the same finish. Clearly the American Standard gets the extra "buff job" and the gloss headstock, and different logo, but other than that, they appear to be the same neck.
 
To be honest I like my H1 jazz better than my custom classic,the badass bridge might have something to do with it but I can also say that the H1 is chambered different (resonates better than the custom classic).Allright,go ahead, flame away.:hyper:
 
I guess you would not want a true vintage fender either since they were not string through.

The 51's were. :)

And yeah...I generally prefer the sound and response of a string through bolt-on instrument unless there's a lot of mass to the bridge or the pickups are hotter. :)

That's not to say top loaders sound horrible...just that given the choice between a top loader and strings-thru, unless there's some other factor that is drastically changing the character of the sound and feel, I'm generally going with the string-thru P or J bass.
 
The only reason I even use the "string through" option on my American Standard, is to keep the ferruls from falling out! (totaly serious)

The rest of my Fender/Fender style basses are top loaders. Much prefer the vintage style top loader bridge to any of the so called "high mass" bridges on the market. (required IMO)

If I had an H1, the first thing I would do is ditch the Badass. (required IMO part 2) :)
 
The only reason I even use the "string through" option on my American Standard, is to keep the ferruls from falling out! (totaly serious)

There's an easy fix for that. The ferrules were loose in both of my '08 Am. Stds. I pulled them out and put some glue on them; put them back in; and let them sit overnight. They've been fine ever since. Just be careful to clean it up immediately if any glue oozes out when you put them back in.

For what it's worth, I've never been able to hear any difference when switching to or from top load or through-body.
 
Having both USA P and a HW1 and a HW1 Jazz and a USA jazz here to compare - there is more difference on the P side than the J side. The body shapes all around are the same, the USA P was slightly thicker but not noticeable. The US P neck is noticeably thicker especially at the headstock. I really cannot tell the J's apart, I do remember finding a replacement pickguard for the HW1 J was tough since the standard holes don't line up. The P's sound nothing alike. That greazze bucket circuit in the HW1 cripples it - it get's a lot of high end and mid range but not a lot of low p bass thump like the USA P does. Redoing the wiring should fix that - I've got the capacitor to do it... never got around to it. The Jazz basses I cannot really compare since my USA has an Audere in it and that changes it anyway. I put antiquity II's in the HW1 and it's pretty gritty, in a Geddy Lee kinda way. On a whole, they have all bee fun as hell to play. The HW1's lead me to buy the USAs.... the HW1's are great working basses and have a lot of potential if you want upgrade them. I've never had any problems with the finish. They wear or don't wear how they are supposed to.
 
There's an easy fix for that. The ferrules were loose in both of my '08 Am. Stds. I pulled them out and put some glue on them; put them back in; and let them sit overnight. They've been fine ever since. Just be careful to clean it up immediately if any glue oozes out when you put them back in.

For what it's worth, I've never been able to hear any difference when switching to or from top load or through-body.

Yup, did that the first day I owned it. :)


Considering that the bass doesn't lead the easiest life , I figured I'd end up knocking them out and losing them. Just as easy to string through, and not worry about losing them at a show somewhere. They aren't going to fall out with the strings holding them in. :)

I've not noticed any big difference between the string through and top loading anyway.