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Jaguar vs Geddy Lee

#21
Geddy blocks were real inlays for the first few years. Then they changed to painted on.

NOW, they are back to real inlays. And, the last time I checked, Best Buy (yes, Best Buy) was selling brand new Geddys for $800.
 
#24
parsons said:
the pickups on the Jaguar ARE NOT the same as the pickups that come on the Geddy. Geddys use Fenders American Vintage pickups (so says the back of the package that I bought, and all the Geddys Ive played had them) while the Jag uses a very cheap looking set. But dont be fooled, the Jag pickups are very usable. In fact, I bought that set of "Geddy" pickups to put into my Jag. installed them and they sounded like complete poop.
Click to expand...

According to Fender's website, they had the exact same pups when the CIJ Jag was still available.
 
#27
Rockmusician said:
I wouldn't buy either. I don't like the painted block inlays of the Geddy and I'm not a fan of Jaguar. In my opinion, there are better alternatives for the money. Ibanez has some great basses that offer versatility at reasonable prices. I've owned several Fenders. All have been American made. I have only kept my 1970's Jazz and P Basses. I also own an Alembic and Ibanez.
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Well the inlays are painted but it still looks great with the high gloss finish. The Geddy is made in Japan not in America, and the Geddy's price far form too high regarding the quality!! And it is a signature model, for me it is worth 100$ extra, no problems! ;)
 
#29
Have played both and have to say that I like the versitility of the Jaguar.
I only currently own one Fender and it's actually a Custom Shop Strat... but that aside, if I was to ever get another Fender bass, it'd be a Jaguar.
I mainly work in studio and can tell you that there is a LOT of tonal range you can pull out of the Jag. An interesting side note... Most of the bass lines for Nine Inch Nails the past few years have been done in studio with a Jaguar (and the guitar parts with the Jag guitar).
You can do a lot with it. The Geddy, although a great bass, doesn't have that active/passive appeal that the Jaguar does. Plus, I actually dig the switches. Very retro. And very simple if you ask me. I played another active/passive J bass recently that used a push/pull pot. Which is a little worrysome if you hit that knob and it pops in (thus changing the bass from active to passive or visa-versa) while you're playing it. The volume/output difference and tonal difference is quite noticable.
So to make a long story short, but you wanted a thoughtful response so I tried to comply... I'd say 1000% Jaguar.
 
#34
Owned both

The neck profiles are similiar but the Jaguar neck has the truss rod on the headstock so you don't have to take the neck off like you do the Geddy

Thats about the only + for the Jag over the Geddy. They both have the same crappy tuners, so thats a draw.

The Geddy has better pickups and and the Badass II bridge. The bridge and pups on the Jaguar don't impress me for a bass in that price range. I wasn't thrilled with the nosiy preamp but lots of folks love the Jag. I ended up using the neck on a Jazz and selling the loaded Jag body.

Honestly and I don't know why.....the Geddy I had was the best Jazz Bass I ever owned. It just felt good and sounded right. Looks amazing too.

I really prefer the 70's spacing on any Jazz.

Give the Classic 70's a try also....best MIM Jazz bass I ever tried. The necks are beefier than the Geddy or Jag, but you may like that....and the inlays are real.
 
#35
Lots of discussions regarding the inlays. Nice detail, but doesn't seems to me like the most important detail, certainly when it does nothing regarding the sound.
I guess for the ones who need/want lots of sound possibilities the Jag will be the best.
Even though I vote for the Geddy, I find the Jag to be a very nice retro bass!!
I know "Ibanez has some great basses that offer versatility at reasonable prices" as Rockmusician mention. I owned an Ibanez SR400, and it was very nice. Good thin neck, and like all Ibanez very good value for the money. But in some sense, comparing an Ibanez to a Geddy Jazz is like comparing a Ferrari to a Honda NSX. They have the same performance, but the Ferrari have lots of heritage, while the hi-tech NSX is somewhat modern and cold.
 
#36
Duke21 said:
Lots of discussions regarding the inlays. Nice detail, but doesn't seems to me like the most important detail, certainly when it does nothing regarding the sound.
.
Click to expand...
This is true. I had heard a bunch of claims about the inlays on the Squier being fake, but I had pretty much decided on the VM Jazz anyway, and I had ordered one BEFORE I e-mailed Fender to ask. In the long run it didn't really matter whether they were real or not. It was nice to hear it confirmed that they were, though. Whether or not the inlays on Geddy are real or not probably doesn't really matter, I don't know. It would be preferable if they were real, though.
 
#38
it'll come down to personal preference in the end, ultimately you should try both if you can. I've played both, not extensively, but here and there... and I much prefer the Geddy over the Jag. The issue for me is the Jag's controls, and the noisy preamp. Sure, the jag controls are plenty versatile, and allow for a lot of options outside the realm of "jazz bass" territory... but they also completely miss the point of the jazz bass controls in that you can't blend or mix down one of the pickups while both pups are on. At least if I'm remembering correctly. Personally I never play a jazz bass with either pickup solo'd, and I find the sound of both pickups on full to be unusably scooped sounding. I know a lot of folks are into that tone, so great for them, but it makes the Jaguar useless in my hands, despite all the fancy preamp controls the lack of a mid knob means there's no great way to mimic my preferred tones (neck on full, bridge at 8; neck at 8, bridge on full). And, as I said, that preamp is pretty dang noisy. Other than that, the construction feels pretty similar with those glossy CIJ necks, though all the extra controls on the jag feel a little chintzy to me.

At the end of the day, if you want a jazz bass I'd get the Geddy (or any of the other billion varieties of jazz basses... Lakland makes a great affordable one btw), and if you want something quite different sounding that happens to look really cool, I'd go for the Jag. All IMHO, of course.
 

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