Well, I thought it only fair to weigh in on the bass that brought me out of "retirement", as it had been forever since I bought any gear. (that thread can be found here). So here's my review of the Squier CV 60s Jazz in Daphne Blue after a week of playing it...
So in summary, I bought the bass because I am a sucker for that color and the CV series has always been pretty decent instruments IME. I figured it was going to need some work to sound decent so I kept my hopes in check, assuming I was going to need a new set of pickups, another neck, and DEFINITELY a new pickguard (sorry, tort and daphne blue don't look good together IMO). Well below is the review, so this is my experience after spending a little under a week with her...
First Impressions:
So taking her outta the package I can't say I noticed any issues with fit or finish. Color looks great, and while the "tort" pickguard looks kinda cheap and grody, at this price point I was expecting that. Neck was gloss coated on the back (
) and tinted a "vintage" color. I've had a bass with the Indian Laurel fretboards before and was underwhelmed then...that has not changed. I am going to give it a coat of lemon oil to try and revive it, but it's not a good look when wood looks dry and starved right outta the box....just sayin.
Normal bent metal bridge, tuners seem basic and are pretty sturdy, and the pickups looked pretty standard as well. One thing I noticed was the action was pretty high. Aside from all this, the color looked nice and the frets themselves seemed to be good, no real sprout or anything.
Feel and Playability:
This is going to be done in two parts, when I first got it and then after a basic setup:
Pre-Setup)
Wow! Umm I've played worse for sure, but the relief on this was pretty bad. The saddles were super high as well, I was assuming to try and counteract the neck being wonky or some frets being uneven. It felt pretty taxing to play, not to mention the strings were kinda "sticky" but fresh D'Addarios (who are we kidding, that's what these "Fender" strings are now) are typically like that. I had a family member drop it off, so I was just testing to make sure it worked. I went and tried to play it again later that night and was, almost having to reassure myself it would feel better after the mods. On the upside the bass was pretty light, but some people don't care for that.
Post-Setup)
I had some extra time a little later in the week and decided to give it a basic setup. No calipers or rulers with mm measurements on it, just eyeballing and going on feel. So first I tried saddle adjustment and that got it a LITTLE better, but still buzz city. After loosening the strings considerably, I did a quarter turn clockwise on the truss rod. I gave it a good hour with no full string tension to let it settle. When I came back and tuned the strings up some, It was waaaay better. After about 15 minutes tweaking string height at the saddles, I had a FAR more playable bass. Now I actually wanted to pick it up and play! The gloss neck is still a pain, but the Indian Laurel fingerboard wasn't quite as unbearable since the strings were such a breeze to fret now. Got the strings closer to the pickups as well, which I'll cover next...
Tone:
Same as the previous, we'll do pre and post setup...
Pre-Setup)
Played it through my Ampeg PF20T w/ Ampeg PF115LF and most everything set flat. Usually this amp and cab could make darn near ANYTHING sound good, but the Jazz was just kinda "Meh..." to be honest. Wasn't bad, just wasn't blowing my hair back at all. The slap tone sounded good, and I switched between favoring neck and then favoring bridge pickup, noticed some difference but overall the whole thing was pretty blah. Adjusted the EQ some, adding a little more gain and it sounded ok. I was again reminding myself that I'll be throwing in some DiMarzio Model Js or perhaps Fender Custom Shop 60's pickups, and THEN the bass would sound good. In one more test, I plugged it into my Zoom B3N using a bassman setting I like on darn near any bass I own. Through my mixing headphones, it sounded a little better, but not a "adding this one to my 'audition bass' list" by any means. This was still a beater that looked nice and scratched an aesthetic itch for me.
Post-Setup)
So after the setup feeling good, I plugged in again, with the same strings and amp settings...Well I can say that it definitely helped a lot. The strings were closer to the pickups and that did a lot for this jazz bass. In addition to feeling better, it seemed like changing volume combos for the pickups lent you different sounds instead of just having to tweak to find something that sounded decent, seemed the tone was more of variety than necessity when you made changes. Had a lot more bite and I could worry less about dialing amp sounds. Usually I'm worried about the lady below my apartment coming up to bitch about me playing, but that night (ok, it was like 8:30-9pm so it wasn't THAT late) I didn't care. Jammed out some old tunes along with my PC and was having a blast. It still sounded good, even without the amp hardly cranked at all. I'm actually writing off changing those pickups now, I like them a lot!!
Features:
It's a jazz bass, pure and simple. It's a no-frills approach and has a neat retro paintjob which I really dig. I still feel like the tort guard on the daphne blue was a pretty stupid idea, but w/e...a replacement white one shouldn't set me back too much. Since I don't have to change the pickups that means I have more side cash to get a good pickguard replacement. Everything else feels like standard, sturdy fit and finish. Paintjob is nice and smooth without any chipping or little bumps. Neck, while that gross gloss coating, is still nicely shaped and the fretwork is good. That Indian Laurel is not my favorite fretboard wood (I prefer maple, but even rosewood beat this stuff), but it's tolerable for now. A maple fretboard option, like with the CV 70's Jazz, would have been nice to have. A more neutral pickguard would have been great too...but I'll stop complaining about that. This doesn't feel too off from a MiM Fender Jazz if it had the same specs as this bass. After a decent setup, this thing is pretty turnkey...and awful fun to play!
Value:
And this part is a little divisive for some people who still remember the mid $200's VM series and how many of those were GREAT instruments. While those had some irregular sizing on pickguards and other parts, these CVs have been pretty dead-on when it comes to fitting standard Fender parts on them. For people that like to mod or swap old parts onto these, that's actually a pretty big deal. Considering you're saving a couple hundred bucks going with one of these, if it's got most of what you are looking for, these are a good deal. If you like to trick out basses yourself, these are fantastic. I got mine at about $349 which is still pretty good for a solid jazz bass. All in all I'd say it's a solid deal if a basic jazz is what you're looking for and don't want to roll the dice on a Squier Affinity Jazz.
Conclusion:
Well aside from the neck (which will probably get swapped with another bass's maple neck/board) this is a great bass once it's had a decent setup. There is a set of Labella Deep Talkin' Flats destined for this one, but this past couple of days brought me to a conundrum...I am wondering about getting another one (in 3TS of course)! I used to think my Ibanez SR300e was great and a Jazz Bass replacement, but it...just doesn't compare to these tonally and the pickups aren't easy to replace as it's an odd configuration. Don't get me wrong, they are good basses, but I'd like a rounds and a flats version of both these basses. This is ALSO coming from a guy who is mostly about P-basses and also REALLY likes P/Js! Idk, the Jazz is pretty cool and I'm really digging the tone on this one. All in all, it's a solid buy after a little elbow grease!
(...and a new pickguard)
So in summary, I bought the bass because I am a sucker for that color and the CV series has always been pretty decent instruments IME. I figured it was going to need some work to sound decent so I kept my hopes in check, assuming I was going to need a new set of pickups, another neck, and DEFINITELY a new pickguard (sorry, tort and daphne blue don't look good together IMO). Well below is the review, so this is my experience after spending a little under a week with her...
First Impressions:
So taking her outta the package I can't say I noticed any issues with fit or finish. Color looks great, and while the "tort" pickguard looks kinda cheap and grody, at this price point I was expecting that. Neck was gloss coated on the back (
) and tinted a "vintage" color. I've had a bass with the Indian Laurel fretboards before and was underwhelmed then...that has not changed. I am going to give it a coat of lemon oil to try and revive it, but it's not a good look when wood looks dry and starved right outta the box....just sayin.Normal bent metal bridge, tuners seem basic and are pretty sturdy, and the pickups looked pretty standard as well. One thing I noticed was the action was pretty high. Aside from all this, the color looked nice and the frets themselves seemed to be good, no real sprout or anything.
Feel and Playability:
This is going to be done in two parts, when I first got it and then after a basic setup:
Pre-Setup)
Wow! Umm I've played worse for sure, but the relief on this was pretty bad. The saddles were super high as well, I was assuming to try and counteract the neck being wonky or some frets being uneven. It felt pretty taxing to play, not to mention the strings were kinda "sticky" but fresh D'Addarios (who are we kidding, that's what these "Fender" strings are now) are typically like that. I had a family member drop it off, so I was just testing to make sure it worked. I went and tried to play it again later that night and was, almost having to reassure myself it would feel better after the mods. On the upside the bass was pretty light, but some people don't care for that.
Post-Setup)
I had some extra time a little later in the week and decided to give it a basic setup. No calipers or rulers with mm measurements on it, just eyeballing and going on feel. So first I tried saddle adjustment and that got it a LITTLE better, but still buzz city. After loosening the strings considerably, I did a quarter turn clockwise on the truss rod. I gave it a good hour with no full string tension to let it settle. When I came back and tuned the strings up some, It was waaaay better. After about 15 minutes tweaking string height at the saddles, I had a FAR more playable bass. Now I actually wanted to pick it up and play! The gloss neck is still a pain, but the Indian Laurel fingerboard wasn't quite as unbearable since the strings were such a breeze to fret now. Got the strings closer to the pickups as well, which I'll cover next...
Tone:
Same as the previous, we'll do pre and post setup...
Pre-Setup)
Played it through my Ampeg PF20T w/ Ampeg PF115LF and most everything set flat. Usually this amp and cab could make darn near ANYTHING sound good, but the Jazz was just kinda "Meh..." to be honest. Wasn't bad, just wasn't blowing my hair back at all. The slap tone sounded good, and I switched between favoring neck and then favoring bridge pickup, noticed some difference but overall the whole thing was pretty blah. Adjusted the EQ some, adding a little more gain and it sounded ok. I was again reminding myself that I'll be throwing in some DiMarzio Model Js or perhaps Fender Custom Shop 60's pickups, and THEN the bass would sound good. In one more test, I plugged it into my Zoom B3N using a bassman setting I like on darn near any bass I own. Through my mixing headphones, it sounded a little better, but not a "adding this one to my 'audition bass' list" by any means. This was still a beater that looked nice and scratched an aesthetic itch for me.
Post-Setup)
So after the setup feeling good, I plugged in again, with the same strings and amp settings...Well I can say that it definitely helped a lot. The strings were closer to the pickups and that did a lot for this jazz bass. In addition to feeling better, it seemed like changing volume combos for the pickups lent you different sounds instead of just having to tweak to find something that sounded decent, seemed the tone was more of variety than necessity when you made changes. Had a lot more bite and I could worry less about dialing amp sounds. Usually I'm worried about the lady below my apartment coming up to bitch about me playing, but that night (ok, it was like 8:30-9pm so it wasn't THAT late) I didn't care. Jammed out some old tunes along with my PC and was having a blast. It still sounded good, even without the amp hardly cranked at all. I'm actually writing off changing those pickups now, I like them a lot!!
Features:
It's a jazz bass, pure and simple. It's a no-frills approach and has a neat retro paintjob which I really dig. I still feel like the tort guard on the daphne blue was a pretty stupid idea, but w/e...a replacement white one shouldn't set me back too much. Since I don't have to change the pickups that means I have more side cash to get a good pickguard replacement. Everything else feels like standard, sturdy fit and finish. Paintjob is nice and smooth without any chipping or little bumps. Neck, while that gross gloss coating, is still nicely shaped and the fretwork is good. That Indian Laurel is not my favorite fretboard wood (I prefer maple, but even rosewood beat this stuff), but it's tolerable for now. A maple fretboard option, like with the CV 70's Jazz, would have been nice to have. A more neutral pickguard would have been great too...but I'll stop complaining about that. This doesn't feel too off from a MiM Fender Jazz if it had the same specs as this bass. After a decent setup, this thing is pretty turnkey...and awful fun to play!
Value:
And this part is a little divisive for some people who still remember the mid $200's VM series and how many of those were GREAT instruments. While those had some irregular sizing on pickguards and other parts, these CVs have been pretty dead-on when it comes to fitting standard Fender parts on them. For people that like to mod or swap old parts onto these, that's actually a pretty big deal. Considering you're saving a couple hundred bucks going with one of these, if it's got most of what you are looking for, these are a good deal. If you like to trick out basses yourself, these are fantastic. I got mine at about $349 which is still pretty good for a solid jazz bass. All in all I'd say it's a solid deal if a basic jazz is what you're looking for and don't want to roll the dice on a Squier Affinity Jazz.
Conclusion:
Well aside from the neck (which will probably get swapped with another bass's maple neck/board) this is a great bass once it's had a decent setup. There is a set of Labella Deep Talkin' Flats destined for this one, but this past couple of days brought me to a conundrum...I am wondering about getting another one (in 3TS of course)! I used to think my Ibanez SR300e was great and a Jazz Bass replacement, but it...just doesn't compare to these tonally and the pickups aren't easy to replace as it's an odd configuration. Don't get me wrong, they are good basses, but I'd like a rounds and a flats version of both these basses. This is ALSO coming from a guy who is mostly about P-basses and also REALLY likes P/Js! Idk, the Jazz is pretty cool and I'm really digging the tone on this one. All in all, it's a solid buy after a little elbow grease!
(...and a new pickguard)
Happy NBD!!! 
