^Yeah, the modern players are definitely nice. I've got an MP Jag, and I can't fault it.
Personally, I wish Fender made, say, an MIA version of the MP jazz. Just take the American standard and drop these pickups in it. Probably no marketing reason to do it is why they don't.
The chinese made one has some problems in the neck, mainly the truss rod. The hex cup for the adjuster is made of a really cheap, soft metal, so it won't be adjustable for too much longer (when it finally strips). And the rod itself doesn't adjust very well. Eg. turn it 1/2000th of a turn and it's too tight, 1/2000th of a turn the other way and it's too loose.
And then there's the frets of course, which always end up flying out of any fretted bass for me if I play it very much. I even investigated a custom shop version, but I don't want to play 5 large for a jazz bass, so I dropped that idea.
But these humbuckers are _the_ update the jazz bass needs. They sound not too different from the nasally single-coils, but add some heft to the tone. Sounds like you took your traditional JB and turned up the mids a bit. And the big PU faces make perfect ramps.
Even the gotoh bridge which is like $20 or something is a big upgrade from the vintage stamped metal thing. Thicker saddles so the adjusters don't strip as easily, thicker piece of metal, etc.
Oh well.
The next project I"m thinking of is flattening out the radius even more to 14". But it's already starting to run out of wood on the fingerboard, so that may involve having to put a layer of something on it to build it back up. I'm creating a monster....
LS
