LeftyBassist.com

Hi Folks

I know that some folks have not been too excited about this bass, but I am! I just got a NOS Fender Deluxe Jazz Bass with the SCN Noiseless pickups. The preamp is powered by 2 9 volt batteries, and not a single 9V as the earlier ones. I alluded to it in a thread I started regarding p-basses. Found this one when I was in Arizona on business, but could not pull the trigger on it at that time, even though the price was good ($1000). My wife knew I really, really liked it (more than a Musicman Sterling and Hofner Club that I had been eyeing), and she ended up getting it for me for Christmas. It just got here yesterday, and I have not put it down.

The bass came in a G&G Vintage Tolex case (I thought this came with an SKB case, but the shop was not completely sure it had the case for it anymore). Please let me know. The usual case candy was in the case.

I don't really care, as the case is a beautiful one anyone, and obviously serves its function. The bass come well set up by the shop, which I was surprised by because I thought the change in climate from Arizona to Washington DC would mess with the wood, but it appears as if that has not happened yet. I played this for about an hour last night, and liked the tone, weight, etc. The quality control is obvious. I think it goes without saying, but this is a huge step up from my Squier P-bass special. I will be changing the pickguard of this thing to a white pearloid pickguard, but other than that, will leave it pure stock. Anyhow, wanted to share what is good news to me with the folks on this forum.

Nice! I'm Jealous

Congratulations!

Ok, here are the links to talkbass thread in which I posted pictures of my squier p-bass and my Fender deluxe j-bass. My id is the same on talk bass, velalv.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthrea ... st10197590

Very nice bass. whereabouts did Arizona did you find this? I'm curious as i live in the metro Phoenix area.

I found it at Milano's music in Mesa. I used to live in AZ before moving to the Washington DC area, and do what I normally do if I am traveling with some time on my hands: call stores to see if they have any lefties that are worth making time out to go try.

It had just been sitting there forever, and they made it very clear they wanted to move it. I think they had it advertised at $1950.

Congratulations I hope it brings you years of enjoyment!

Looks great, congrats!

Hey Velalv, congrats! I just bought the same identical bass. I found it on eBay and was brand new with the knob cover like you have with the layout and plastic still needing to be peeled off the pickgaurd and the plastic battery cover. I think it sounds great. No noise at all and super solid. Yeh I know there different schools of thought with passive compared to the active but whatever you like. I think mine is pretty nice build quality and for the most part Fenders have always felt like a mistake of wooden pieces haphazardly screwed together but the deluxe totally changed my mind about Fender. I happen to like the greenish pickgaurd that’s stock. Mine was $817 including shipping to Pa from Ca but no case and no case candy. I just put some DR Marcus Millers on mine and it sounds fantastic.

Well then, congrats are in order for you as well! That awesome. The interesting thing about the active electronics here is that I don't think they are anywhere near as hot as other active jazz derived basses, or to project a hi-fi sound. For example, I found the Ken Smith Design basses to have extremely hot pickups, and to have a very hi-fi tone. That was a real turn off for me. I found them to have a very "modern" tone, but I really wanted something in between. I think the Fender does that. I agree with you on the build quality of this as well.

I have to admit, I was more comfortable spending serious coin because I got to try this out. I am glad that Ebay worked for you on this purchase. Happy bassing!!

Congrats to both of you for sure... these are totally underrated basses, IMO... I was literally |THIS| close to buying one before I stumbled on my beloved Seafoam Green Custom Shop Jazz.

It's too bad they barely sold, because I was REALLY hoping for a 5'er to come from Fender eventually, but... since nobody really bought them, it will definitely not happen.

In fact... I heard through the grapevine that the lefty deluxe series of basses was a test to see what kind of interest lefties had in higher-ended basses with more modern features, and I guess it was an abysmal failure... so I guess we're stuck with either Squiers or MIM, MIJ, and MIA Fender "Standard" basses with passive electronics and rosewood fingerboards forever.

Yeah, I just talked to a dealer who said that he had heard essentially the same thing. It made me sad, because it would be nice to have options as well. I still have rarely put the thing down.

I think the timing was poor on Fender's part for these basses. Everyone wanted an American Standard Jazz bass for a while, if Fender had put it out first I expect the reception to the Deluxe Jazz would have been much better. I get the impression that it isn't that people disliked the Deluxe Jazz so much as it just wasn't the bass they wanted at the time.

I don't know if it was a timing thing at all. My guitarist has one of those basses (2000 model), and I've borrowed it a few times, and it just doesn't do anything for me. A lefty friend of mine bought one just like the one the OP got (2006 model), and he was equally disappointed with his, eventually selling it on ebay earlier this year. To me, the tone lacks the character of a Jazz bass, and that's why I don't have one.

From the discussions I had with lefties at the time of the Deluxe Jazz's original release, a more traditional jazz bass was the preferred choice at the time.

So I guess, sadly, this little experiment only validated Fender's excuse all along - that lefties don't sell enough to justify making them. I never personally tried one of these, but I do remember many discussions on other forums about how many people thought the preamp sucked and the fretwork was rough. Perhaps the newer ones had much improved preamps?

The Hot Rod P came out around the same time as well, and I don't believe that was a best seller either.

HI PJ:

The one I got is a newer preamp, and the fretwork is good on this one. The 1999-2004 had a 9v powered preamp, the 2004-2008 models had an 18v preamp, which I think sounded pretty good. To my ears, the guitar still keeps the jazz bass growl, even with the preamp set with the bass boost and turned up all the way up, and treble cut, and the neck pup soloed. It sounded like a p-bass with a j flavor, much more so than a passive j-bass with the neck pup soloed. (which I really liked).

Objectively speaking (as much as is possible with matters of tone and these things), I would also say that the treble on the preamp is nothing to write home about. You are not going to getting the strong, sizzling highs that perhaps you can get out of other basses with preamps. For example, when you turn up the treble on the Stingray, the average listener can appreciate the difference easily, even if they cannot identify what sounds different per se.

The treble signal coming out of my jazz bass preamp won't reach those kind of sizzling highs. It gives me enough for a great slap tone, especially when I solo to bridge pick up, but it won't match the trebs on a stingray, or a MM sterling for that matter (which I spent a lot of time trying out before getting this).

I really don't care about the lack of strong highs because I don't like adding a lot of highs into my music anyway. I tend to come from the school of thought that believes that "the bass is meant to play the low end, if you want to play the higher notes, get a guitar". Furthermore, I don't need it for the music I play. Of course, it may be different for other folks, I just wanted to point this out, hopefully in a thoughtful manner.

The only thing that I was disappointed with is that there is no passive/active toggle, especially because the newer deluxes have the passive/active toggle. Of course, I knew that when I first played it, and I still got it anyhow (and have been really enjoying playing this). I don't think I will be desiring a vintage sounding passive jazz bass, partially because the deluxe gets pretty close to that sound in the first place, and partially because I don't play enough to merit getting a large collection of basses. The only other bass on my GAS list would be an acoustic bass, after that, I think I am all set with basses. If I had to get a vintage sounding passive jbass, I probably would just get an MIM or the Squier vintage vibe bass, but this one will probably be my main player.

The pickups are different too. My 1999 Jazz Bass Deluxe had some Noiseless Vintage Pickups which were probably the main reason why the bass seemed to lack character as Danomite64 said. I eventually replaced them by Lindy Frailins, my favorite pickups (I tried 8 different sets before settling). Your bass has the Samarium Cobalt pickups which are better than the Noiseless. However, my bass' fretwork is excellent.