VM versus Affinity - I'll take Affinity!

Just a (probably controversial) thread to see if anyone feels the same as I do about these instruments, not intending to be starting trouble though.

I tried a VM fretless jazz. not bad. not great though. had a tone that was distinctly different from a real (usa fender) jazz bass. I've played plenty of fretless (a few years exclusively in the 80s and 90s). I know jaco stuff inside out. I've played jaco official basses a few times and had several amazing fretless basses myself, and this isn't one of them.

I mean, it's not awful, I've played awful before.

But it's not doing the jazz thing as well as I expected, and has a rather cheap feel to the bridge (not like a good vintage fender, but like cheap thin poorly made), an odd feel to the neck, and I'm not a fan of the non-original jazz knobs (but I get it's the VM series). The bridge on this bass is unimpressive - what happened to the brass saddles of the vm precision? why does this specialty fretless jazz get the short end of the stick at teh bridge? Tuners are nice though. Nut is clearly cheapo plastic. knobs are scratchy - and I've read that of other owners of the vm fretless jazz.

NOW onto affinity - the bottom of the barrel basses.

my affinity jazz V was a nearly free CL grab ($100 with traynor amp, cord, and 2 straps (one is leather) and gig bag.

Several of you have read about that grab I made already and know how much I love this bass along side my US ebmm basses, ibanez BTBs, hagstrom 8, and former ownership of alembic series 1, japanese ibanez musician, and some other nice basses.

The affinity, after a neck shim and basic setup and new strings, looks, sounds, feels, and RESPONDS like a real usa jazz bass. it gets grindy when playing hard! I LOVE THAT! it behaves really quite authentically. it's solid. the tuners are cheap and should NOT be 5 in a row (the poor b string already broke once when I was replacing it due to the strong down angle after the nut). bridge is BETTER than on the VM imho - doesn't have any cheapness in it's feel, good old usa vintage jazz bridge. pickups are noname and superior to the duncan designed vm imho.

But the affinity is exactly right. defret one and imho it'll be miles ahead of the VM fretless jazz.

SO I STARTED LOOKING AT SPECS.

Affinity - alder body (authentic of usa fender jazz).
VM - agathis body!?!?! (crappy quality "wood").

Affinity - unspecified fender jazz v pickups.
VM - duncan designed jazz pickups. why do the affinity V pickups sound so much better? I mean, quite similar to the usa jazz I was just comparing against at my local store?

Affinity nut - artificial bone. I'm sure that's another word for white plastic LoL, but it's a nice marketing trick at least, and in practice it's a good nut without friction problems (rather like a real bone nut).
VM nut - plastic, marketed as such, and actually worked fine too. but why is the affinity one marketed as artifical bone? that sounds like it ought to be superior to the VM's marketed name of "plastic".

Affinity fingerboard - rosewood. like the USA jazz I was just comparing against (although maple is nice on a fender too imho).
VM fingerboard - that plastic fretless fake ebony stuff. ok, fair enough - it's a fretless. I think that was a smart choice actually. but that could be part of the tone thing as well maybe... but I have enough fretless experience to know that a hard fingerboard can still give a great jazz bass tone, so it can't blame the ebonal or whatever it's called for the VM's lack of true jazz bass character.

Affinity neck - straight, needed no adjustment but I did make a small rod turn as I have my preferences in setup. was stable when I got, it stable still now after my small adjustment. perfect.
VM neck - bowed too much - fretless should have zero bow. period, final. I didn't try to adjust it, but did further reading and found others with issues with the VM's neck stability. what gives?

Affinity fret fit and finish - perfect, smooth, able to be felt when needed but never sharp or in the way. maybe this was just one of hte good ones? I know it was never dressed or touched after buying from the store based on previous owner's story.
VM fret fit and finish - NA LoL.

Affinity pots - work perfectly, no scratchies, no issues, but likely cheap quality.
VM pots - scratchy, work but clearly cheap quality. should not be this bad right away. again I've read of lots of problems here, but also some folks having issues with affinity pots. even steven?

Final thought:
Affinity - used for $100 to $200
VM - used for $200 to $300

Anyone have thoughts or criticisms or ideas to share on this subject or am I just meandering on my own wavelength here? Maybe this is dumb to compare two cheap lines like this, but I believe they're made in two different countries. So sort of like two different bass companies with one parent controlling company....

 

my own affinity that was used, sitting in storage for a couple years from a teenage kid who hadn't every really played it much and it was never setup. strings were rusted when I got it. neck needed a shim. foam under pickups was dried. everything needed to be done to it took me one hour of labour, only cost was the new strings.

B string on it (it's a 5) is incredible by the way - as even and useful up the fingerboard as on my btbs, and while the b on my musicmans is great too, the b on the squire is better above the 12th fret than on either of my musicmans.

So yea, I'm absolutely blown away with the squire. very low action without uneven fret problems etc. I must have gotten a good one for sure

the vm jazz fretless was at a guy's house who has it up for sale. only one I've played, but then same goes for the affinity. so this is hardly a scientific review either way by me

I suppose what I'm most surprised about in the design is that the vm's only clear superiority over the affinity (in my 2 cases) is the choice of tuners and location on the headstock - vm is superior clearly. setup sucked on both basses - both owners clearly have never had them setup. affinity neck needed shim but actual neck setup was great - truss rod clearly works fine, proof is in the pudding, but only after shimming was that apparent. VM had bow of a couple mm around 7th fret area holding 1st and 12th (my usual approximate way to test neck and truss rod). wasn't twisted, even across board, so needed much tightening at the very least.

but the tone is what surprised me as a player - my affinity really sounds like a standard jazz bass. the vm fretless doesn't. the owner claimed to have strings on it, and they certainly weren't dead, and they were rounds. However I don't know if they were nickel or steel, they felt like hex core which I dislike these days but still shouldn't adversely alter the tone too much. I know they weren't d'addarios due to no coloured ball ends but otherwise didn't ask what the strings were.

It could be as simple as my not liking the duncan designed pickups of course, but acoustically the alder affinity is very good also - really good - and the vm was sort of dead acoustically, although that isn't always indicative of how they sound plugged in.

I suppose what this really shows is the same old thing - try your basses out first at the store or person's home who's selling them.... don't buy based on reputation or reviews alone.

I have no desire to swap pickups in my affinity though - and I'm not shy to swap pickups if I'm unhappy with tone.

I'll just be happy with my affinity I will keep my eyes open to the agathis-bodied scratchy-potted VM series. Shows that one can't dismiss something based on "agathis" or bowed neck or scratchy pots - every bass line can have a bad example!

cheers! :-D

 

cool.

here's a thought - are the pickups or wood or other contents in the affinity jazz V different from (better than) those in the affinity jazz 4?

Maybe to build the 5 strings economically they actually have to throw in good 5 string pickups versus what possibly might be 4 string cheapos?

Or does the affinity jazz IV also sound more or less like a USA jazz bass (at least in the general ballpark)?

Is the V just a better bass than the IV aside from having an additional B string?

 

my personal test against MiM jazzes:

After having read lots of "affinity is better than mim" posts since getting my affinity, which I tend to dismiss as unlikely, I took a try at the story also, my own personal shootout. the two mim jazzes (4 and 5) were great basses - my affinity was virtually identical feeling/looking/playing and had a somewhat different tone. it wasn't as bright and had more of a growl to it than the MiM jazzes. So to me, the affinity was actually closer again to my choice of USA jazz bass tones compared to the MiM. I wouldn't say the MiM was bad in any way, and probalby a pup swap would make them great. But I prefer the stock affinity V to either stock MiM jazz 4 or 5 at that store with their stock strings. I could blame strings though of course too.

However at that store I didn't have a USA to compare against I'm afraid, so my comparisons were mim to affinity at one store, USA to affinity at another store, vm individually at someon'es house.

hardly scientific.