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Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
http://leftybassist.com./viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4172		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Frenchy-Lefty [ December 12th, 2012, 1:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-Left-Handed-American-P-Bass-with-hard-shell-case-/290829719359?pt=Guitar&hash=item43b6cd573f

Nice looking and decently priced. Those have an ash body.
Author:  pjmuck [ December 12th, 2012, 3:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
This used to be my bass. I sold it to Rick (ricktim83) back in 2008. I see he hasn't been around in a while but maybe he can weigh in on it. I'm not sure if he's the seller or not now. Nice bass in a rare finish but it just never "spoke" to me.
Author:  Frenchy-Lefty [ December 12th, 2012, 8:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
I guess PJ is not PJ type of guy! ;)
Author:  fivebass52 [ December 12th, 2012, 8:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
Why can't the seller just include the year it was made in the title or description? He's included the serial number, but I'm not that motivated to google it and find out. Amazing to me how a fair number of sellers don't include additional info pictures, etc.....
Author:  Frenchy-Lefty [ December 12th, 2012, 9:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
fivebass52 wrote:
Why can't the seller just include the year it was made in the title or description? He's included the serial number, but I'm not that motivated to google it and find out. Amazing to me how a fair number of sellers don't include additional info pictures, etc.....


Why do you care? You only play fivers don't you?
Author:  fivebass52 [ December 13th, 2012, 1:23 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
Frenchy-Lefty wrote:
fivebass52 wrote:
Why can't the seller just include the year it was made in the title or description? He's included the serial number, but I'm not that motivated to google it and find out. Amazing to me how a fair number of sellers don't include additional info pictures, etc.....


Why do you care? You only play fivers don't you?


Ouch :o - You got me on that one! :lol:
Author:  Jeroen [ December 13th, 2012, 2:52 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
Serial number indicates it was made in the year 2000: Z for Zeroes, and the first digit is a 0 which indicates the year 200-0.
That's a cool thing I think. 1999-2000 was a transitional year for USA Fenders. The American Standard series was replaced by the American Series, which was a leap forward in terms of quality, attention to detail and finish. Consequently, the Hot Rodded American Standard was replaced by the Hot Rodded American P Bass. These got hand-rolled neck edges (smoother and more rounded off) with graphite rods to eliminate dead spots and create a stiffer neck. Models prior to 2000 didn't have these. Most lefty Hot Rods you find are 1999 models, so this particular one is a bit of a rarity and in my opinion the more desirable version :)

One of the more desirable finishes too, these basses were unique for Fender USA because lefty versions were offered in more colours than Fender USA has ever given us! These came not only in black, and 3-tone sunburst, as we've gotten used to, but also in white (rare!), natural, and this sunset orange version. The ash body is also something rare for Fender USA to offer us lefties. So these are actually really something special ;)

Fender USA has never been so kind to us since :P
Author:  fivebass52 [ December 13th, 2012, 4:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
Thanks for the info Jeroen... sounds like a great bass to own. Now, if it only had a 5th string! ;)
Author:  Lefty007 [ December 13th, 2012, 6:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
Those Hot Rod are overrated, IMHO. I owned one in every color they made: white, natural, orange, and black (and sunburst, maybe). Their regular price was $1050 or so, and I bought two of them together one time when Fender discontinue them: Musicians Friend were selling them for $550, brand new!

My opinion on these is that they used to run a bit heavy (for me) around 9 lb to 9.5 lb (I guess that's average to light for most people), and the fret work was terrible. Even though they used to advertise the "rolled edges" fretwork. . . B.S. . . there were done at a time when Fender had serious issues with fret jobs and/or wood seasoning - I remember almost all of them having less-than-smooth fret ends. I also had a few Jazz Deluxe from that era, and usually they all had bad fret jobs as well.

In my opinion, Fender really raised the bar with the 2008 models. Those lightweight alder bodies are really resonant and sound fantastic, and the skinny neck are nice too. These Hot Rod keep their value because they are less common, but I would rather put my money on a post-2008. Unless you must have the different color, or must have a PJ, you'd be better off with a post-2008.

IMHO.
Author:  Addison [ December 13th, 2012, 10:54 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
I just recently bought one of these... well, about 6 months ago... it's a 2000 in Sunset Orange as well.

Maybe I found a diamond in the rough, because, other than the electronics, the bass I have is pretty amazing.

As Carlos said, it weighs about 9.5 lbs (pretty much perfect for me) and does have ever so slightly rough fret edges (easy fix), but they're perfectly level and the bass sets up very, very well... at least as good as my Custom Shop.

It's also solid... across the board. It doesn't feel cheap. The fingerboard is a super dark and rich chocolaty rosewood... yummy. The body is a nice chunk of ash... probably not as resonate and open(?) as I might like it to be, but it sounds like ash... and that's what really matters.

The shittiest thing about the bass was the electronics... I read something online about how they were specially made for this bass... that the P pickup was wound hotter than the J so they'd be balanced and that the J was hum-cancelling... and, um, I'm sorry, but that's all a bunch of bullshit. As far as I can tell, it's a standard P and J pickup and they sounded pretty thin... the P pickup especially was really nasally in the mid-mids and didn't have that earthy growl that I like to hear from a solid P pickup.

The pots are also all shitty... in particularly, the tone pot is super shitty. They had to use one of those awful tiny mini-pots in order for it to fit in the cavity and they wired it lefty, so it was useless since it wasn't a reverse audio taper pot.

Anyway, I widened the cavity a little bit, replaced all the wiring with some good vintage cloth wiring, addedl CTS reverse audio taper pots wired lefty, added an oil can cap, and replaced the shitty pickups with some Duncan Antiquity II's and this bass is a friggin' monster now.

It's solid, sets up really nice and sounds fantastic... when all was said and done, it turned out to be a $1000 bass and it's worth every penny, in my opinion.
Author:  andrew [ December 13th, 2012, 11:31 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
I owned one of these and tried a few from a local store and overall was underwhelmed by them.

However, I sold a white one of these for a friend (I think someone on here got it) and it was a KILLER bass. I didn't want to sell it! But I couldn't afford it at the time and he wanted it sold, so someone does have a white one of these that's a helluva bass.

I expect like most Fenders, there's good and bad ones out there.
Author:  AustinLeftyBass [ December 13th, 2012, 2:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
fivebass52 wrote:
Why can't the seller just include the year it was made in the title or description? He's included the serial number, but I'm not that motivated to google it and find out. Amazing to me how a fair number of sellers don't include additional info pictures, etc.....


Maybe he's "not that motivated to".
Author:  Psycho Ward [ December 13th, 2012, 3:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
I have a natural finish one and I replaced the tone pot with a Tone Styler and I like it. I also had it wired with a master volume and a pan pot, the Tone Styler people talked me into that, but I may go back to two volume pots. Not a bad bass, but all I play anymore are Nash basses. I'm thinking of a big herd thinning.
Author:  andrew [ December 13th, 2012, 5:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
Psycho Ward wrote:
Not a bad bass, but all I play anymore are Nash basses. I'm thinking of a big herd thinning.


Whoa! That's a serious endorsement for Nash basses. Care to share some info on your Nash basses? Nash over Musicman now?
Author:  Frenchy-Lefty [ December 13th, 2012, 5:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
I did not know Nash was making lefties! I have always been interested in those, I'll check their site out.
Author:  Psycho Ward [ December 15th, 2012, 7:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
First, me liking any bass guitar is not a huge endorsement, I'm a keys and horn guy that plays some bass. I love bass guitar because it's in a totally different spectrum of what I normally do. No computers, operating systems, racks of synths, just a bass, a wire and an amp. When learning songs I always learn the bass line first to help figure out the chords and over the years I've come to love bass because of that. So for my mid life crisis ten years or so ago I bought a bass. I now have twenty four, it was an addiction.

The Nash basses are the last basses I've got into and I wish they were the first basses I got into. The play great, sound great to me and even though I'm not into the relic thing it sure worries me a lot less at blues gigs and jams. They will build you a lefty any way you want, but Bill will not send it out the door nice and shiny. They have four levels of wear, from lightly used to completely beat all to hell. I found my two Nashes, a P and a Jazz online and I'll never sell these basses!

We moved to Texas a few months ago and I only brought five basses with me, two Nash's, one Bongo, a Rob Allen Mouse 30 and a 1978 Fender P bass. I must admit, I don't really miss the rest.
Author:  andrew [ December 15th, 2012, 8:01 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
Hah, well I meant it's a serious endorsement as you're someone who has owned vintage/new/expensive instruments and can compare a Nash to a gamut of really nice basses.

Got pics of your Nash basses?
Author:  Psycho Ward [ December 16th, 2012, 8:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Fender Am Hot Rod P Bass
A couple of quick blurry shots...

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