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NBD - Olympic White P-bass, some issues.

#41
Oh and for the record....

I hit on a musical instrument store roughly an hour away from me, yesterday. I hadn't previously been to this one.

I found two Fender American Standard Precision basses that I absolutely loved. The sunburst, rosewood fretboard, tortoise shell pickguard P-Bass, more than the other one (Black, white pickguard, Maple fretboard but missing the tone knob).

I can't stop thinking about that first one, (rosewood fretboard ). I tghink I'm going to end up buying her. She's a sweet ride! But truth be told, I'd be happy to have both. Who knows, maybe is tghe Bass Buying Timing Gods are with me, I'll end up with both.

But for now, I'll focus on trying to buy up the roesewood fretboard one, before someone else does:D
 
#42
BillMason said:
I think the tuners themselves are fine, it's the placement of the machine head holes.
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I don't think so.

The pictures are not great, but the alignment of the holes seem perfect. They have to be places so that the strings leave the machine heads and go to the nut and along the neck to the bridge in a straight line. It seems like they do.
The D tuner should be in the middle, a little towards the bass side... and it seems consistent with the pictures (unfortunately all at an angle, so it's not 100% clear).

Between that, and knowing the methods of construction... my money is on the tuners being the wrong kind for this bass. It's a simpler explanation. To get the machine head holes so badly out, yet still align well etc, it requires too much effort to do right. Go with the simplest explanation.

So, if the bass plays and sounds good... I'd show it to the shop and ask them to give me the appropriate tuners. It'd take 5min to verify it's just the tuners that are wrong... and then either get the proper set from them or get one sent to you from Fender... but meanwhile you'll still have your bass.
 
#43
At first glimpse, it definitely looked like the holes were too low on the headstock. But after looking at my '08 Am. Std. Jazz, I'm not so sure. The holes for my tuners look a bit lower than I remembered them as well; but there is definitely clearance to turn the keys. Here's a couple pics if it helps you any:

IMG_0277.jpg


IMG_0278.jpg
 
#44
joelb79 said:
Totally looks to me like they were machined wrong by the supplier of the tuners. This is not typical of Fender.. and if it is.. I'm so glad that I've decided to build up warmoths at a cheaper cost for better quality instruments.
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+1

I just built a nice Warmoth PJ and I'm looking forward to putting the Warmoth logo on the headstock. This P bass should have never made it out the door. The final QC guy who does setup etc, should have seen this. What was it a Friday or a Monday inspection? Jeeeze! A new Fender PJ is around $1500. A Sadowsky or other high end Fender style instruments are between $3000 to $5000. I built my PJ for under $1000 and got what I want. Fender doesn't have many different colors available and no passive PJ. Even if you don't want to build one, most repair shops will assemble your parts for $100 - $150 assuming there is no additional routing necessary.
 
#46
Hawaii Islander said:
It looks like the tuner key shafts are too short (see Jeff K's post). My AM STD Fender P-bass V didn't have this issue. Your bass is not correct/defective and Fender should honor a warranty claim. Good luck. Let us know how things turn out.
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I'm with the Islander. I'm home now, and I've got my 2008 AS Jazz in front of me. The tuner shafts are too short. Fender fails in this case for someone not checking that the latest shipment of tuners had changed from what they had been sent for the last several years. But if no damage has been done to the wood of the headstock, the fix is easy, just replace the tuners with ones with the correct key shaft length.

Roger
 
#48
I can't believe that would leave the factory like that.

I don't have a 4-string to compare, and I was never aware that there may be a difference between the tuners on fours vs. fives, but in the pictures those tuners look the same as on my five, and placed much lower on the headstock. For reference, the shafts on mine extend out of the machine 3/8" and the top of the machine is 1/4" from the edge of the headstock.

It sucks you had to wait so long - especially since it's not right. The thing with Fender is that there's a certain time of the year when they make any specific instrument, so depending where in the cycle they are when you order, it may take a while.

I hope Fender take care of you quickly and to your satisfaction. That should be hugely embarrassing for them.
 
#52
Jason Brown said:
Looking at Jeff K's pictures above, it's obvious to me that they're different on 4-strings. I think they installed the fiver tuners on yours.
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I don't have a 5-string to compare tuners, but that makes a lot of sense. Easy enough to put 5-string tuners on a 4-string, especially if 5ers and 4-strings are assembled on the same line. Maybe this was the first 4-string after a run of 5-strings???

Roger
 
#53
Could it be a fake? Or a parts bass that didn't quite go back together right? Or an older model he put modern or new tuners on? Maybe he snapped the original neck and got one online or something?
 
#54
CORBS said:
Could it be a fake? Or a parts bass that didn't quite go back together right? Or an older model he put modern or new tuners on? Maybe he snapped the original neck and got one online or something?
Click to expand...
nonsense. that's an actual fender bass with an actual fender neck. besides, mark is known by most of us.
 
#59
Hey guys,

So I returned it to the store I got it from yesterday. It's a bit of an interesting situation, because I bought the bass from them with money I won in a local radio competition. So it's not as easy as going in there and saying "gimme my money back 'cause I'm going to buy something else somewhere else". I've never bought a bass without trying it first, and I almost always buy used, so this was not a good first experience with that.

They took it back without any hassle though, and I should hear soon what Fender plans to do to make things right.
 
#60
marklaforest said:
Hey guys,

So I returned it to the store I got it from yesterday. It's a bit of an interesting situation, because I bought the bass from them with money I won in a local radio competition. So it's not as easy as going in there and saying "gimme my money back 'cause I'm going to buy something else somewhere else". I've never bought a bass without trying it first, and I almost always buy used, so this was not a good first experience with that.

They took it back without any hassle though, and I should hear soon what Fender plans to do to make things right.
Click to expand...

I hope they don't just put the correct tuners on it and give it back to you....complete with the dents in the headstock from the wrong tuners. Good luck.

Roger
 

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