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NBD - Jaco Artist Signature

T

Tim1

Sep 9, 2005
4,531
3,750
New Zealand
#1
Just picked up my Jaco Artist fretless, flown all the way from the USA to little old New Zealand. First impressions are mainly positive, certainly the tone is better and more versatile than I expected after reading various reviews which naturally tended to recommend the (considerably more expensive) custom shop model over the artist. I have a set of new TI flats ready to fit, but am frankly positively surprised at the tone and feel of the flatwound Fenders that are on it. Lovely expressive voice to it, not quite the mwah that I want yet but there is room to drop the strings so not worried about that. Nut, relief and basic setup is good, with space to adjust for personal preference. The bass feels a bit heavier than my '68 Jazz but I have not weighed it yet and it is certainly not an issue. Finish is smooth, clear with no issues and the neck feels comfortable. It comes with an unfitted tort pickguard which I will not fit as I like the look of the clean body without the screw holes.
Very happy it has fretlines as my ear clearly needs them! But it would have been even better if the side dots were on the frets.
The big plus for me is definitely the tone and the variety of tone available. It is way better than I had been led to believe form reviews and Youtube clips. Through my new Ampeg V4B into a Bergantino NV115 it has that lovely clean, woody sound you expect with lots of air around it.
Finally, I am very glad that Fender did not stick a big "Jaco" inlay or signature on the front as I would have been too embarrassed to be seen with it......
 
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#3
Nice. You have a new school Jaco artist. I have an older one with the dots on the fretlines, which technically isn't correct as Jaco had a fretted bass.

I actually busted my artist out today for the first time in a while. It sounded great. I bought a relic, so I don't use the artist much. Still debating which one to keep. The relic is a much better bass, no question, but it does command a lot more money. For myself, I just do not know if the added cost is worth it, I do not play fretless primarily (as much as I would like to.) If I do keep my artist the first thing I am going to do is remove the finish on the back on the neck and give it some tung and wax. My artist is already epoxied. :)
 
#4
It also has the tightest neck pocket I have ever found on a Fender, can't slip a piece of paper down anywhere. Will get round to posting pics, bluesdog. Weight is about ten pounds, half a pound heavier than the 68 J but the difference is not really noticeable with a decent strap.
Should also add that I bought this after a friend bought an American Standard fretless earlier in the year. It too was well presented, played well but sounded a tad sterile to me. In comparison this Jaco model definitely has character/mojo and its own voice - something which IME you can wait for years to happen with some basses, and even then they might not speak to you. Don't know whether it is true of every Jaco model, but this plays and sounds better to me than other reissue Fenders I have owned other than Custom Shop models. Maybe I have just been lucky or maybe Fender really have made huge steps in quality control in the last few years and this is typical of the current crop.
 
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#5
10 lbs is highish. I have a MIJ Jaco fretless Jazz. I have heavily modded mine with an Audere pre-amp and Nordstrnd pickups. I use roundwound strings, which seems more appropriate to me. I've also epoxy'd the neck - not necessarily to copy Jaco but to keep wear of the neck down with roundwounds. I recently removed the preamp and gone back to passive; I've decided the sound was better with the preamp.

If you're looking for the Jaco tone you may also need to consider an effects pedal. But I don't think you need that one in use. Roundwounds, with the bridge PU full on with, plucking the strings by the bridge is the way to get the tone!

Davo
 
#6
Don't think I will need to worry about modding this one at all or using rounds as there is a surprising amount of top end available. If it was a squier or Japanese model I might have felt differently but honestly this bass arrived with great tone out of the box, and I do know my jazz basses. I just weighed it more accurately and it is 9.9 pounds which is quite manageable in my book - I have had Js that are heavier and are lighter.
I will fit the TI flats soon as they are my favourite strings and protecting the fretboard is not an issue . Not too worried about copping thr Jaco tone exactly, more focused on expression.
 
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