What would you do? Fender Pro or What

The American made Fender basses and the Japanese made Fenders always hold their value better. Even though Mexican made Fenders can be exceptional and many are “go-to” basses for their owners, the pedigree isn’t quite as sought. The Roadworn (MIM?) series may be an exception.

I don’t regret buying American made Fenders. I paid $795.00 new in 2002 for an AM Standard Precision. Sold it in 2014 for $850.00. That’s after gigging it for a decade. It more than paid for itself.

Keep your tags, receipts, and if you change out any parts, keep the originals. Helps hold value & establish pedigree.

In the end, the American made Fenders are just valued more.

 

American, holds its value !

 

I would go for the American jazz play the hell out of it and if you don't abuse it you can get your money back down the road.

 

Sonic Grey with maple?
Better than two GL sigs.

 

Can you play them both? If so, get the one that speaks to you

 

900 is a good price for a pro.

 

I would buy the bass that felt good to play and sounded best to me. I'd also be looking in the classifieds for the best bass within my budget.

 

In my experience the AmPro series seem to suffer badly from a lack of QC. I had so much problems with my AmPro P-bass that it started to look like my worst bass purchase ever. Pretty bad neck/fret issues, cosmetic flaws in the woodwork + stupid things like wires lodged under the pickguard, causing it to permanently bulge outwards.

I actually ordered it specifially because the ones in the store had pretty bad fret buzz. I figured I couldn't get one as bad as those. Big mistake! I always tell others to NEVER buy Fender untested and then I make the same stupid mistake myself...

I've only tried the Pro P-basses though. The J-basses may be better for all I know but I've been extremely disappointed with MIA Fenders after the release of the Pro/Original series (don't get me started on all the problems I've had with my American Original 60s...).

Both my AmPro and AO60 has turned out ok after a LOT of work, some by myself and some by a luthier. This would be ok for a Squier Affinity but at MIA prices I don't expect to get a mod project.

In short: If you can test both, DO IT and get the one you like the most. If not I would get the MIM.

 

I’m a Precision guy, but once I tried a jazz. I ordered an American Pro Jazz in 3tsb and rosewood. It arrived and felt good. I played it for a little bit and was just suprised how boring and bland the sound was. I wasn’t impressed because it was more expensive than a lot of jazzes and brought nothing new to the table. I haven’t tried a Geddy Lee yet, but I really want to. I HAVE however, played a Flea Jazz woth the stacked knobs, it it was absolutely killer.

TLDR go Geddy lml

 

I have had both the fender American p and jazz. They weren't' the newest ones but they were pretty good. No issues with either. I did sell both though. I just got a used 2012 jazz 62 reissue that is great. I currently have a 2011 American anniversary p-bass that is rock solid. Maybe the newest ones suffer from a lack of quality control. You had a issue with the 60s original too. I have been lurking on those. What kind of issues have you been having.

 

I'd buy the one that feels best regardless of where it was made.

 

I have one of the Geddys. Also an AVRI 64 and VRI 70's. Geddy more pop in the tone mid and top end. Quality is great.

 

What would I do? Play them both with a slippery nylon strap first. Then probably buy neither and go back to a shop and hope that one of the ones there that I'd tried earlier in the week was still there.

Then probably place an order for a Gibson DC in blue and hope for the best.

 

Yes, I'm only talking about the latest American series, the Professional and Original. I absolutely loved the previous series: The last version of the American Standard was excellent and the AVRIs were possibly the best production model (non-Custom Shop) Fenders I've ever owned. But the American Pro and American Original have been massive disappointments to me.

As for my Original 60s the problems were:

-Truss rod is installed off-center inside the neck. There is a thread about this on this forum so it seems to affect an entire production run of American Original P-basses. It's absolutely shocking that nobody at Fender spotted this. Or maybe they did and made a calculation that it would be cheaper to just ship them out and hope the customers didn't notice before the warranty expired. I have no idea how this will affect the neck in the long run but I do know that I would NEVER have purchased it if I knew about it.

-The bass had lots of weird buzzing sounds. Like weird buzzing resonances where the the source of the buzz was on the headstock/nut side of the fret. Like if I fretted the 6th fret I got a loud, ugly buzzing resonance from somewhere around the 3rd fret. I got stuff like that on several frets. Basically it needed a fret job to be even remotely usable and there's still some weird resonances that I'll probably never get rid off. There's a couple of frets where I have to avoid playing sustained notes or the bass will start to make LOUD buzzing/rattling noises elsewhere from sympathetic resonances. I have never experienced anything like this in a bass before. And just to be clear: I'm not talking about loose parts that rattle. It's sympathetic vibrations that causes loud buzz/rattle at the part of the string that's between the nut at where it's fretted. How this got past QC is beyond me... I expect more at this price.

-The bass also has the worst dead spots I've seen anywhere near this price range. The whole bass just sounds very acoustically hollow and weird, kinda choked. Not too bad once it's plugged in but not quite what I expected in this price range. A considerable step down from the AVRI series. I used to own an AVRI63 (that unfortunately got smashed by air travel...) and it sounded WAY better than this American Original 60s. The pickup is the same, Pure Vintage 63, but the bass doesn't sound even remotely similar.

-The pickup was highly microphonic. This causes an INSANE resonance from the bridge cover. I've owned many Fender basses with pickup covers over the years and I've experiences slightly annoying "ping"-resonances from the pickup covers on some of them. But nothing nearly as bad as this. When I played one particular note the bridge cover would resonate loudly enough to overpower the actual note I played: Like a sonar with sustain: PIIIIING!!! It would actually sustain for the entire duration of the note I was playing. At least this problem was easily fixed by dampening the pickup cover (or removing it) but I've never heard anything like this before! I was expecting more from the Pure Vintage 63 pickup but it's just a microphonic mess.

 

Without actually touching/playing them, the MIA, since it is worth more. But I play instruments before buying them if possible, and I keep them for decades.

 

The only geddy I'd buy over any other fender is the CIJ. The new amped up MIMs with a signature on em are still just MIMs

 

Every Geddy I've tried has been great (5-6 over the years, all Japan).
I've tried 3 different Pro's, & would never buy one if I couldn't play it first.

 

And then there's of course extremely divided opinions on the V-Mod pickup in the AmPro. I actually like it a lot but only for mellow stuff and mixes with a lot of space for the bass. When given some space it can sound wonderfully clear even with the tone control lowered into blooming, pillowy sweetness. But I think it's lacking a bit of mid "cut" for dense mixes and aggressive stuff.

It's like Fender went the opposite way than most when they decided to modernize their MIA passive P-bass. Most other "modern" P-basses are more aggressive that the classic vintage P. This one is more mellow (to my ears at least).