NBD: Fender Jaco Pastorius

[teh-slb]

Very beautiful and thanks for the exhaustive info. Enjoy it!

 

[ROOTSnFIFTHS]

Good luck with this great bass. I have owned one for almost 10 years. Dots are on the fret on mine.
This bass is truly one of the best made instruments I have ever owned. The neck is just magical.
Lacquer finish is quite fragile so watch that. I have adjusted my truss rod without taking off the neck using a flat head screwdriver, turning in very small segments. Tuners are fine to me.

 

[luciens]

Good luck with this great bass. I have owned one for almost 10 years. Dots are on the fret on mine.
This bass is truly one of the best made instruments I have ever owned. The neck is just magical.
Lacquer finish is quite fragile so watch that. I have adjusted my truss rod without taking off the neck using a flat head screwdriver, turning in very small segments. Tuners are fine to me.

Yeah, I've already discovered the fragility of the finish... Don't ask me how I discovered that.... Oh well, now it's just another ol' used bass. On its way to its own relic'ing....

Otherwise, yeah the more I play it, the more I just love it. It's literally like having a real 1962 Jazz Bass but defretted correctly and built with modern quality control... . Apart from the usual neck dive and the sticky tuners, I haven't found anything yet that I dislike about it.

Especially the fingerboard and neck. It took me a while to set it up but I've been able to get the action very low and supple over the whole neck. And even the nut is cut correctly so I haven't had to get out the nut files on it.

So it's a winner so far. I even appreciate the lines; I haven't played in a long time so I'm kind of starting over. The lines are really helping me along....

L

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

Hi all,
My new Jaco came in this am. When I was researching this bass, there were some FAQ's about it that I couldn't find straight answers for. So, I thought I'd try to give some straight answers about the questions I had, now that I actually have one here. Just in case other folks were looking for definitive answers on the same questions. This is a brand new 2020 model, so this info is current as of that years model.

Q: does the fingerboard actually have a finish on it?
- Yes, the fingerboard does have a hard finish on it as stated on fender-dot-com. It's a very thin finish, not a thick slab of epoxy like the custom shop version. So (fortunately) it is not just bare wood. Tryng to show it here in this pic... :
View attachment 3745775

Q: Fingerboard radius?
- Yes, it does appear to have a 12" radius, not a vintage 9.5" or 7.5" radius as is sometimes reported.

Q: Where are the side dots located?
- The side dots are located between the "frets", just like on a fretted bass. They are not on the "frets" as is sometimes reported

View attachment 3745778

Q: Truss rod type?
- It has the vintage style truss rod with the flathead-screw face on it located at the heel of the neck. So, to adjust the relief, you WILL have to loosen the neck screws and tilt the neck out of the pocket to get to the rod. Do NOT try to adjust it with the neck installed and seated. You WILL tear up the finish and possibly the truss rod face. Mine has a little too much relief from the factory so I'll have to do this on mine too:

View attachment 3745781

Q: accessories in the case?
- Brand new, you also get a pickguard, thumb rest, and both a pickup and bridge cover and the screws. You also get a cord and a cheap strap which is a nice touch. The screw holes for these accessories are NOT drilled/tapped on the bass. If you want to install the pickguard, etc., you WILL have to drill/tap the screw holes yourself. I don't plan to do this on mine, though.

Q: any problems?
- Only the usual neck dive typical of the Jazz bass, due to the old-style Fender (reverse) tuners.

Q: good points?
View attachment 3745772
Mine looks to be very well made and assembled, nice tight neck/body joint and I don't see any QC issues with mine so far. There's no "ski jump" in this particular neck fortunately, which is a common problem with Fender necks. Hopefully it won't develop one. The 12" radius is a godsend. I don't know why anyone would ever want a Jazz bass neck with a shorter one than that. This was probably reason #2 I chose this one over the Tony Franklin, which has a 9.5", so this is a good feature to buy this bass for.
The nut also appears to be cut correctly. I don't know if the dealer cut it for me or it's like this from the factory though. Either way, the height is close enough to just play it as-is.

I don't have an amp yet to hear how it actually sounds, but I suspect it's going to sound like a fretless Fender Jazz bass....

L

As for side line fret dots, they are always in the middle, fretless or not, besides - Jaco bass was defretted from 62' fretted j-bass.

There are multiple different versions of the Jaco Artist. The old ones, like @ROOTSnFIFTHS owns, had the dots on the fretlines. I owned one from the same era. I remember my radius was closer to 12" than a 9.5" but mine had an epoxy job from HG Thor. You can adjust the truss rod easily without removing the neck. Just be careful and use a flathead that doesn't hit the body. I never removed the neck to adjust my rod.

Also, all my Jaco Jazz basses had neck dive on the lap but none on a strap. I assumed it was due to the thick slab of epoxy adding weight but I'm not sure.

 

[luciens]

Mine's actually not too bad on the strap. If they had a swamp ash body option it'd probably be even better. But then that'd probably take away from the period aspect of it, since I think Alder was all Fender was using in those days, correct?

L

 

[Jim Carr]

Congrats on a cool new bass!

Be very careful when you "loosen the neck screws and tilt the neck out of the pocket to get to the rod"!!!
If you do this, you run a very high chance of cracking the finish around the neck pocket.

IME, simply angling a large flat blade screw driver will work to adjust the truss rod.

I realize you don't have a pick guard, so perhaps use some blue tape to protect the area? If all else fails, LIFT the neck out.

Do not tilt the neck in the pocket!

Play the heck out of that beauty.

...

Q: Truss rod type?
- It has the vintage style truss rod with the flathead-screw face on it located at the heel of the neck. So, to adjust the relief, you WILL have to loosen the neck screws and tilt the neck out of the pocket to get to the rod. Do NOT try to adjust it with the neck installed and seated. You WILL tear up the finish and possibly the truss rod face. Mine has a little too much relief from the factory so I'll have to do this on mine too...

 

[luciens]

That's not where I put my first ding in the finish, but I think you're absolutely right. The last vintage truss rod I dealt with before this one was on a real vintage fender where the neck pocket had mile wide gaps in it.

I noticed this one was incredibly tight when I was tilting it out, because it's actually made right . Kind of made me nervous. So I'm going to take your advice next I need to adjust the rod....

L

 

[Jim Carr]

That's not where I put my first ding in the finish, but I think you're absolutely right. The last vintage truss rod I dealt with before this one was on a real vintage fender where the neck pocket had mile wide gaps in it.

I noticed this one was incredibly tight when I was tilting it out, because it's actually made right . Kind of made me nervous. So I'm going to take your advice next I need to adjust the rod....

L

The neck heel flairs out on all Fender P and Jazz basses. Loose or tight, if you tilt the neck back in the pocket, the wider part comes into contact with the narrower pocket edges, and CRACK!
Don't ask me how I know....

 

[luciens]

PS: Fender has a vid where they show the tilt method; this was how I was shown to do it a number of years ago. My jaco was tight just like the one shown in the video, though. Go to about 4:00:



Listen to that "crack!". Kind of makes your hair stand on end doesn't it LOL. But that's how they say to do it still (again I think you're completely right tho).

L

 

[JRA]

So it's a winner so far.

congratulations on your new instrument!

 

[nilorius]

There are multiple different versions of the Jaco Artist. The old ones, like @ROOTSnFIFTHS owns, had the dots on the fretlines. I owned one from the same era. I remember my radius was closer to 12" than a 9.5" but mine had an epoxy job from HG Thor. You can adjust the truss rod easily without removing the neck. Just be careful and use a flathead that doesn't hit the body. I never removed the neck to adjust my rod.

Also, all my Jaco Jazz basses had neck dive on the lap but none on a strap. I assumed it was due to the thick slab of epoxy adding weight but I'm not sure.

Yeah, you are right. I own 1995 made Jaco tribute and side dots are right on lines, but why ? I also own an original different Ibanez GWB1005 fretless where side dots are in the midle of the frets.

 

[JohnnyRango]

well it is a C shape and im =wondering the advantages to a 12" radius? i dont understand the radius issue really that well, i jsut dont want a baseball bat U shape, that much i know, but what radius does for playability i dont know, hope someone here can explain it and thanks ahead of time to anyone who can!