JKSmith

Im an intermediate-advanced bassist, and I want a Fender bass. Unfortunately, I dont know which one I want. So, I want your opinions. I play Rock music, and I incorporate Funk, Blues, Indie, Punk, Garage and Soul into my music.

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"HATE, although an overrated concept, is just one of the basic building blocks of society, and although it does not cause PROGRESS, it does cause society to change, be it for the better or for the worse.

LOVE, on the other hand, does cause PROGRESS. Or, at least some type of MORAL MOTIVATION does. Without one of these, there would be no WARS, no REVOLUTIONS, no RISE or FALL of societies, groups or belief systems." --JK Smith

mr dave

you basically have two choices, the precision or the jazz bass. try them both. they work well for all styles. only your hands and ears can tell you whether to go with the P or the J.

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PerFeCTioNThrUSileNCe

You want the Jazz Bass with active pickups.




Plays like butter, sounds amazingly clear, even in low tunings. I think they're Mexican, not American made, but the quality is still excellent.

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ElephantSack

I learned on a Fender Jazz with passive electronics. You couldn't ask for a more comfortable feeling bass.

I will own one again someday, but what's been catching my attention lately from Fender are the Jaguar basses.

ElephantSack

You can get them Korean-made, Japan-made, Mexican-made or American-made. It's just that the American-made ones will cost you twice as much.

PerFeCTioNThrUSileNCe

^Precisely.

The bass player in my band has the Mexican made active Jazz Bass. I guess I assumed all the active ones were Mexican.

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ElephantSack

Nah. You'll know if it's American-made because it will be in the neighborhood of $1,200.

Krule Music

Dude,
Fender Precision is easier to play if you still a novice, Jazz will give you more tones and great for slapping.

Cheers!

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Hesher

Irrespective of the genres they're "suited" for, think about it like this:
Jazz: Bright, growly, loud upper mids, a lot of attack
Precision: Mellower "rounded" tone, lots of bass, more like a rumble than a growl

I just rented a 70s Jazz (a MIM with block inlays) for a month from Long and McQuade... Unfortunately it seems I am definitely a p-bass guy. I just really like the lows, and I find the high mids and treble almost annoying. I'd disagree that P-basses are necessarily easier to play, because jazz basses have a much faster and smaller neck (wouldn't mind a jazz neck on my p).

Once you've made that choice, you aren't done, you still have a lot of options, it just depends on your budget. Squier's Vintage Modified series is turning out instruments that are sometimes better quality than MIM (mexican) Fenders these days. This VM Jazz is one of the best deals on the market today: I think it's going for maybe $300-400 US. They also make an excellent P-Bass with Seymour Duncan OEM pickups for a little more: Finally the Tele bass sounds amazing too. Squier also makes a pretty interesting P-bass Special with a Jazz neck and a Jazz pickup in the bridge position to add some treble/growl.

If you can afford a "real" Fender, you can pick up a P- or J- bass Mexican-made for something like $550 new. To be honest, they don't have that many upgrades over the Squiers and have been going down in quality lately in my experience. That said, I still want a white one with a maple neck :p Aside from that, the Highway One series is a really affordable bass for what you get... A high-mass Badass II bridge, much better quality pickups and electronics and it's also American made... Plus it has a nitro finish which is matte and IMO a lot cooler than the gloss. Those will run you around $750.

What's your budget like? What kind of rig do you have?

I also recommend Talkbass.com for questions like this, it's a great forum for bass players and has just a wealth of information.

ElephantSack

I should have known you were a bass player.

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