I stumbled upon a...er....boner bass the other day at one of my local music shops. I asked the kid behind the counter what aftermarket body was on the Jazz neck. He looked at his computer and told me it was an all stock US Jazz, at which point I wrote him off as a liar or an inept moron. Wow. What a sacreligious travesty of a bastard child idea. Was it 'Swap workers with Cort' week at Fender when they came up with this?
I have one. Its a great playing, comfortable, good sounding Jazz Bass. I bought mine new in 1993 and is in midnight blue.
Here's a picture with it taken around 2001. It's on the far right side:
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The advantages:
-Longer horn means its got better balance, shifts the body's playing position in a good way.
-Deeper cut out on the short horn means better upper fret access.
-One of Fender's first Graphite reinforced necks. Mine is very very stable and needs very little adjustment.
-DBX tone control...is actually pretty cool on a Jazz bass. Its center detented, from 0-5 it works like a regular tone knob. Above that it decreases the resistance of the tone control and brightens/adds presence.
Similar to how people felt when the 08 Fender basses came out and everyone gave acclaim for the increased build quality, the same was true for these. The hardware, electronics, fit and finish was a step (or more) above what Fender had been offering in the mid to late 80's. Mine had no discernible finish or fit problems and still, nearly 20 years later has no flaws that I haven't put on it.
