I partly blame this purchase of yet another bass after watching Lowend Lobster's review on Youtube. I've been somewhat searching around for a modern jazz five string but it's typically split into two fields (classic FSO or full on rock mode). Once I saw the FGN color fade and the tone with the EMG's I was pretty much sold but again, it's nearly impossible to find one in the states, let alone actually get to play it locally.
For reference, here are @LowEndLobster videos on the FGN Dark Evolution.
After some thinking, finally made the purchase on Reverb from a Japanese music shop (there are only two shops that carry this bass). The bass arrived five days after the purchase, shipped in an FGN shipping box (single boxed). A bit worried since this bass only included the gig bag but since it was flying International Priority, the box came in extremely clean, no dents and the bass was well protected with extra foam.
Here are photos with a string change to DR Black Beauties. Yes, the Black Beauties were more for the looks than any performance reasons, personally, I usually like these but this set felt very grippy on my fingers. Not sure why. I might go back to High Beams.
These were taken outside but indoors, the blue burst is much darker and almost a black and blue fade to my eyes. The finish is very matte and reminds me of those older MIM Fenders that came in matte finish years ago (the one's with the grease bucket switch IIRC). Finish on the bass looks good, I couldn't find any CNC issues or paint problems on the main surface (more on this), and the neck as described in the review is extremely smooth.
Close up of the finish indoors with additional lighting. Yes, I haven't removed the pickguard plastic.
The neck is slightly bigger but I don't have exact measurements on the bass to compare with my other basses at home. I can say that compared back to back with a Schecter Diamond Series J5 Plus, the neck feels deeper and not as thin as the Schecter. It's still playable and I have no issues, but not being a big five string player, I'm getting used to the feel. The fretboard is maple and while it's coated with the same minimal finish, it's very bright contrasting with the darker colors of the body. Personally, I like this, as it's easier to see the frets, but some might not.
This bass also has curved frets, the idea being the 19mm bridge will slightly spread the strings away from the location on the nut, (fanning them out) so frets that follow this formation will result in better tuning. Eyeballing this from the last few frets, I could barely make out some curving but it's so minimal. It's not like a Dingwall or something.
On the rest of the construction, it's well done, the pots have metal knobs and have a positive rotation. The tuners do feel somewhat thin, maybe it's just me but the pegs look thinner, and the handle part has a thinner metal used than on my other basses. I'm going to assume it's lightweight tuners but in the spec sheet, it's not listed. The body is your normal FSO jazz shape, with good cuts, and no sharp edges. Holding the bass on a stool and chair it balances well.
Balance wise, it's not neck diving and it is heavier clocking in at 10.25lbs. It doesn't feel like a 10lbs bass since it's well balanced, their four strings come in around 9.25lbs. Maybe those tuners really are just normal heavy tuners?
The most important part is the tone and you can get an idea from LowendLobsters videos to hear his awesome playing. In my two weeks of playing this bass I felt it's a good tone and mix abilities. You have three knobs in total, 1 for the neck and 1 for the bridge volume. The final knob is tone and a coil tap (I could be mistaken on this), which does the classic jazz tone control. I'm confused on the coil tap but I believe this makes the humbucker in the bridge position use a single coil? When it's enabled, the tone becomes thinner so I never used it.
While I really enjoy playing this bass there are a few call outs. Again these are just my personal opinions.
The bass comes with EMG pickups and is active but it would have been nice to see stacked knobs and an active preamp to allow more tone control. I'm not sure on the work needed to convert this but I might swap out the tone controls at another point. Since FGN has another mighty jazz, I would have expected this version to include more options. Again it's not a deal-breaker but just something for the future.
The other issue is harder to overlook. This bass is a string through design and while changing out the strings I noticed this.
The strings are resting on the body of the bass, crushing the finish. This was present on A,D,G strings and I believe the issue may be two possible causes. The intonation was set and the bridge staddles were moved too far forward, beyond the relief of the bridge. Or this was an oversight by FGN when they chose this bridge for the bass.
I chatted with another FGN owner who saw the same body cracking and I reached out to FGN USA for an answer. FGN reported they forwarded the picture to FGN Japan and said this was unusual, then offered to help repair the issue by routing the string through the hole. Very pleased with their fast reply and it's not a major issue for me but I do wonder how this was intended to work and why they didn't notice it before.
FGN Japan did report they are now aware of this issue and going to be changing their manufacturing method going forward. This wasn't clear if it meant choosing a new bridge vendor or routing the string hole. But if this bothers you, I would wait to find out if indeed they have resolved the issue. I want to say this doesn't impact the bass and it's very hard to even see as it's in the bridge, but I'm a bit OCD.
As a note, I want to say that at this point I have not worked with FGN on repair, so I can't speak of their turn around but they didn't specify if the bass would be shipped to Japan or they have resources in the States to complete the work. I'll update as I hear back.
Feel free to DM any questions or comments. I really hope to see more FGN content on Talkbass and dealers in the States, I think this bass is still a great value but it could use for some small tuning to be an even better value. Going to give this more playing time and update this post in six months.
For reference, here are @LowEndLobster videos on the FGN Dark Evolution.
After some thinking, finally made the purchase on Reverb from a Japanese music shop (there are only two shops that carry this bass). The bass arrived five days after the purchase, shipped in an FGN shipping box (single boxed). A bit worried since this bass only included the gig bag but since it was flying International Priority, the box came in extremely clean, no dents and the bass was well protected with extra foam.
Here are photos with a string change to DR Black Beauties. Yes, the Black Beauties were more for the looks than any performance reasons, personally, I usually like these but this set felt very grippy on my fingers. Not sure why. I might go back to High Beams.
These were taken outside but indoors, the blue burst is much darker and almost a black and blue fade to my eyes. The finish is very matte and reminds me of those older MIM Fenders that came in matte finish years ago (the one's with the grease bucket switch IIRC). Finish on the bass looks good, I couldn't find any CNC issues or paint problems on the main surface (more on this), and the neck as described in the review is extremely smooth.
Close up of the finish indoors with additional lighting. Yes, I haven't removed the pickguard plastic.
The neck is slightly bigger but I don't have exact measurements on the bass to compare with my other basses at home. I can say that compared back to back with a Schecter Diamond Series J5 Plus, the neck feels deeper and not as thin as the Schecter. It's still playable and I have no issues, but not being a big five string player, I'm getting used to the feel. The fretboard is maple and while it's coated with the same minimal finish, it's very bright contrasting with the darker colors of the body. Personally, I like this, as it's easier to see the frets, but some might not.
This bass also has curved frets, the idea being the 19mm bridge will slightly spread the strings away from the location on the nut, (fanning them out) so frets that follow this formation will result in better tuning. Eyeballing this from the last few frets, I could barely make out some curving but it's so minimal. It's not like a Dingwall or something.
On the rest of the construction, it's well done, the pots have metal knobs and have a positive rotation. The tuners do feel somewhat thin, maybe it's just me but the pegs look thinner, and the handle part has a thinner metal used than on my other basses. I'm going to assume it's lightweight tuners but in the spec sheet, it's not listed. The body is your normal FSO jazz shape, with good cuts, and no sharp edges. Holding the bass on a stool and chair it balances well.
Balance wise, it's not neck diving and it is heavier clocking in at 10.25lbs. It doesn't feel like a 10lbs bass since it's well balanced, their four strings come in around 9.25lbs. Maybe those tuners really are just normal heavy tuners?
The most important part is the tone and you can get an idea from LowendLobsters videos to hear his awesome playing. In my two weeks of playing this bass I felt it's a good tone and mix abilities. You have three knobs in total, 1 for the neck and 1 for the bridge volume. The final knob is tone and a coil tap (I could be mistaken on this), which does the classic jazz tone control. I'm confused on the coil tap but I believe this makes the humbucker in the bridge position use a single coil? When it's enabled, the tone becomes thinner so I never used it.
While I really enjoy playing this bass there are a few call outs. Again these are just my personal opinions.
The bass comes with EMG pickups and is active but it would have been nice to see stacked knobs and an active preamp to allow more tone control. I'm not sure on the work needed to convert this but I might swap out the tone controls at another point. Since FGN has another mighty jazz, I would have expected this version to include more options. Again it's not a deal-breaker but just something for the future.
The other issue is harder to overlook. This bass is a string through design and while changing out the strings I noticed this.
The strings are resting on the body of the bass, crushing the finish. This was present on A,D,G strings and I believe the issue may be two possible causes. The intonation was set and the bridge staddles were moved too far forward, beyond the relief of the bridge. Or this was an oversight by FGN when they chose this bridge for the bass.
I chatted with another FGN owner who saw the same body cracking and I reached out to FGN USA for an answer. FGN reported they forwarded the picture to FGN Japan and said this was unusual, then offered to help repair the issue by routing the string through the hole. Very pleased with their fast reply and it's not a major issue for me but I do wonder how this was intended to work and why they didn't notice it before.
FGN Japan did report they are now aware of this issue and going to be changing their manufacturing method going forward. This wasn't clear if it meant choosing a new bridge vendor or routing the string hole. But if this bothers you, I would wait to find out if indeed they have resolved the issue. I want to say this doesn't impact the bass and it's very hard to even see as it's in the bridge, but I'm a bit OCD.
As a note, I want to say that at this point I have not worked with FGN on repair, so I can't speak of their turn around but they didn't specify if the bass would be shipped to Japan or they have resources in the States to complete the work. I'll update as I hear back.
Feel free to DM any questions or comments. I really hope to see more FGN content on Talkbass and dealers in the States, I think this bass is still a great value but it could use for some small tuning to be an even better value. Going to give this more playing time and update this post in six months.
