Bass players, I need an opinion.

[cheyenne]

Im thinking of "stretching" out a bit. I was looking at the Fender Jaguar bass, and came across this:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/product/Fender-Highway-One-Jazz-Bass?full_sku=103922571

Anybody have any experience with these?

Seems like a nice Jazz for the money. I even like the idea of the satin finish.

[phlemmy]

They are nice basses. I don't own one but I have played a few. The satin finish will wear off much faster than a normal finish, which is OK as far as I am concerned. If you go to GC to buy one, you can talk them down well below that $799. My old guitarist is a manager there and said you should be able to walk with it for between 650 and 700 w/o a case. Go for it!

[rictified]

Another opinion: I played one the other day and didn't think it was in the same class as an American standard J bass or P bass, (POS is actually what I thought) I'd shell out the extra 300-400 and get a good one. Fender is putting out a lot of junk in the 500-700 price range IMHO. I'm a long time Fender player BTW, played P bass for 25 years and am very used to what a good Fender feels and plays like.

[cheyenne]

Thanks Sean and Bob. Thats what I like about this forum, good honest information. I was at GC today, and although they didnt have a Jazz, they did have a Highway one P-bass. I played around with it, and hated the setup. I asked the salesman if he could have someone tweak it for me and he looked at me like I was from another planet. Welll....OK,,then.

The more I think about it, I think I'll just put some new strings on my old hybrid P/J and order that new Mapleglo 4003 with all the cool features.

[phlemmy]

I played the P at GC today too and hated it, but I don't really like any P basses in general. I played a jazz and it felt fine.

[rictified]

I forgot to mention my P bass (68) had a J (66) neck on it, I like the "A" Jazz necks much better than the "C" P necks. I almost bought a 65 P bass with an original Precision A neck (same neck as the old J basses) on it a few years ago at a guitar show, went home with the seller's number to think about, decided to buy it, called him and found out that it had sold ten minutes after I had left. Was a rare bass with that neck. P basses have a very nice full sound though.

[loendmaestro]

I always thought the the Highway 1 series felt cheap. The finish on the body always turned me off & the neck on the one I played was almost painful. If you're patient you can find affordable American P/J basses on eBay that are a much better deal IMHO.

[teeder]

Bob, That P-bass with the A neck would have been sweet! My '65 J has the nicest neck I've ever felt (along with Jeffrey's 4005)!

[rictified]

Kevin, yeah I really regret selling that bass, was an original Candy Apple Red also which were pretty uncommon back then too. I love the old J necks. I just bought a new Gibson Thunderbird and the neck reminds me of an old J neck, it's a really nice bass, I kind of wish it had single coils in it though, but it does sound good, nice and fat with Chromes on it.

[teeder]

I played a T-bird a few weeks ago. I really liked the neck! Didn't get a chance to play through an amp though.

[icabod]

I'm extremely happy with a mim 60's reissue jazz, and I used to have a 62, plus a couple of 70's, but I also used to have a couple of 68 ric 4001's,doh, but the jazz is good....R

[rictified]

I was pleasantly surprised with the Thunderbird, very easy bass to play, it has a 34.5 inch scale too so the strings are nice and taut. The neck felt really long at first and I kept missing the first few frets.

[shinynewtoy]

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