NBD - Fender Player Series Jazz!

[JakobT]

Haven't bought a bass for a couple of years, so today I treated myself to a new Player Series Jazz. I've felt for a little while that I wanted a one in my collection. It's my very first Jazz, and I'm looking forward to getting to know it. It looks and plays great out of the box, and the build quality is very nice, coming quite close to my American Standard P-bass. I'm not a huge fan of Fender's white pickguards, though, so a black replacement is on its way. I'll put it through its paces tonight, and post an update a little further down the line.

 

[Slaphound]

Nice bass. Enjoy it. The black Pickguard will absolutely pick that baby UP!

 

[bassist4dalord]

Congratulations! The Player Series is an excellent line. Enjoy it in good health!

 

[Briton]

Lovely!..........I have a P Bass Player and I cannot knock it as it plays and sounds just as good as my MIA. I too removed the white pickguard from my Jazz MIA and replaced it with 3 ply black as it looks better.

 

[Lennys]

I have the fretless player jazz and find the stock pickups which have been upgraded to alnico to be much better than I expected. Enjoy new toy!

 

[Hevy T]

I have 3 Player Jazz basses and they are great. Also have a mim STD in black and maple which is also great

 

[JakobT]

I have the fretless player jazz and find the stock pickups which have been upgraded to alnico to be much better than I expected. Enjoy new toy!

The pickups were a pleasant surprise - all the more so as I expected them to be good to begin with. The neck is also very comfortable, I was a little uncertain if I would like the narrow nut, but I needen’t have worried. The whole bass has a reassuringly solid feel to it, even the setup was good, with nice, low action. This bass has everything I need, and nothing I don’t.

 

[SJan3]

Haven't bought a bass for a couple of years, so today I treated myself to a new Player Series Jazz. I've felt for a little while that I wanted a one in my collection. It's my very first Jazz, and I'm looking forward to getting to know it. It looks and plays great out of the box, and the build quality is very nice, coming quite close to my American Standard P-bass. I'm not a huge fan of Fender's white pickguards, though, so a black replacement is on its way. I'll put it through its paces tonight, and post an update a little further down the line.

View attachment 3835263

Looks great! And, FWIW, I like the pickguard! Makes the maple neck pop. Enjoy your new bass.

 

[SJan3]

Looks great! And, FWIW, I like the pickguard! Makes the maple neck pop. Enjoy your new bass.

 

[JZQuantum]

I'm not a huge fan of Fender's white pickguards, though, so a black replacement is on its way.

Black bass + black guard + maple neck = golden combination.

 

[Peteyboy]

Congrats on the sweet player! I have a few pickguards for all my basses. Staves off the GAS. I always say it's like a wig on the wife.

But then, I'm divorced...

 

[Music Man Dan]

Congrats on the sweet player! I have a few pickguards for all my basses. Staves off the GAS. I always say it's like a wig on the wife.

But then, I'm divorced...

You made me laugh, Peteyboy!! Thanks...I needed that!

 

[P Cheen]

Happy NBD! Last winter me and my wife went on a trip to the Portland, Oregon area and stumbled upon Five Star Guitars in nearby Beaverton. Among the nice selection of Fender basses they had, believe it or not, the Player Jazz was the best playing. The moment we got back home I KNEW right away to sell some guitar-related gear to make room for a Jazz bass.

 

[JakobT]

Happy NBD! Last winter me and my wife went on a trip to the Portland, Oregon area and stumbled upon Five Star Guitars in nearby Beaverton. Among the nice selection of Fender basses they had, believe it or not, the Player Jazz was the best playing. The moment we got back home I KNEW right away to sell some guitar-related gear to make room for a Jazz bass.

I really like the tone of the J, more than I thought I would. And it plays really well. Fender managed to improve their MIM line significantly with the Player series.

 

[Drzejzi]

Congrats I went with the white one. It sounds great. In mine I added a little piece of thick paper between the pickup and it's cover to hide the coils in the cover a little bit more. Now I don't hit the coils with the strings. I'm still irritated, that the E string is not exactly placed between the coils, but it does not affect the sound. It is just my OCD On the pictures of other Player Jazz Basses I saw, that this is common.

 

[JakobT]

UPDATE:
Well, that didn’t last. I hadn’t noticed it initially, but it gradually became clear that the neck had a dead spot, at the 4th fret of the E string. It wasn’t as bad as some of the dead spots I’ve heard about, but the string sounded decidedly duller at that fret, with greatly reduced sustain.

I read up on the problem and possible fixes, and asked my luthier about it as well. It seems that there isn't really much to be done if it's an actual dead spot (and not a bad string or something similar), so yesterday I took it back to the store to have them check it out. The store tech agreed with me that it was, in fact, a dead spot, so back to Fender it went. Unfortunately, Fender no longer has a Scandinavian prescence, so the bass has to be shipped to the UK. That means a wait for at least two to three weeks.

I'll post an update when I hear back from Fender.

 

[bhendrix]

Bummer! Hopefully they respond quickly and get you taken care of. I bought a player jazz shortly after they were first released. No dead spots that I could find, but had trouble with the stock bridge saddles. The screws holding the saddles in place appeared to be stripped and wouldn't hold the strings in place. This affected the G string mostly and D string to a certain degree. So after a bit of playing, always had to readjust. Thought about using "lock tite" on the threads to hold in place, but opted to just get a new bridge. Put a hipshot kickass on it and was golden! Got a great deal on CIJ Geddy Lee soon after and ended up selling the player jazz. The CIJ Geddy by far the best Jazz bass I've ever played!

Good luck getting a speedy resolution!

 

[BigBluez]

I'm toying with one of these... any updates?

 

[HMZ]

I have always changed out my white pickguards on my Fenders but after many years and my wife’s suggestion, I put the white pickguard back on my MIA black P bass with maple neck.

 

[JakobT]

I'm toying with one of these... any updates?

Yes, indeed. Things have moved more slowly because of the pandemic, but my music store ordered in another bass for me, and an extra one just in case. Went down to collect it last week, but having been once bitten, as it were, I was determined to go over it very closely before taking it home.

In the store I played all the notes on the fretboard several times - and found another dead spot. On the A-string this time, and not quite as bad as the previous one, but bad enough. They then gave me the second bass to try out - same deal. This was surprising, and not a little disheartening.

But then I had a sudden inspiration. They also had a couple of other Jazz basses in, but in sunburst and with pau ferro fretboards, so I checked out one of those. No dead spots. I then tried out the other - no dead spots there either. So the three basses I tried with maple fretboards had dead spot issues, and the two with pau ferro did not. I don’t mind pau ferro fretboards in the least - I just thought I’d try maple for a change. So I ordered a black Player Jazz with pau ferro fretboard, hoping the third time will be the charm. It should arrive early next week - I’ll report back then.