basshead56

Not gonna lie, I'm a fan of the Sherwood Green P and Mustang. Both look gorgeous to me. I can understand the need to fill this gap from a marketing point of view, especially considering how poorly the American Performer range that preceded it appears to have sold. I found the previous Am Performer offerings kinda weedy. Limited finishes and fingerboard options, the P bass was only PJ and the headstock decals all looked awful. Very overpriced compared to the more recent Mexican offerings (my 60th Ann. Roadworn Jazz still beats the pants off a lot of other instruments that cost a heck of a lot more!!!) I reckon the Am performers were nowhere near as nice as the old Highway 1/One's or American Specials beforehand and I think that was a deliberate ploy to try and walk customers up another few hundred $$$ to the Am PRO/ PRO II lines And now we are here - 'Oh look, we've sold bugger all Performers but we need another line to fill in the ever-widening gap between Mexico and US production.' The new Vintera stuff is properly good and so is the AM PRO II range (I have 3 of em) - I take my hat off to Fender for both lines. I can see why they have gone back to re-fill this little gap. I'm not so sure about the Classic part in the title but at least it fits with the rest of the line up. The greasebucket tone circuit has it's pros and cons I guess and I like the lollipop tuner idea. Now tossing up between the new Sherwood P or an older (12-14) American Standard P in Charcoal Frost...

That SVT-AV is my dream amp!

Nor could I, writing it 🤣

Sure did. Didn't come home with a bass this time though 😆😆

Sure do, identical to the OP one above. Absolutely adore it, sadly it doesn't get out as much as it used to! But an absolute weapon of a bass! Had a red one when they first came out and used it but never really liked the sound (I was too young to appreciate the active Ray sound in those days) and moved on for yet another Precision of some kind... SUB's are perfect in every way as workhorse instruments. Prices are definitely creeping up these days, but rightly so - they are EBMM USA instruments after all and are becoming quite collectable. Would love to have one of each colour; White, Black, Graphite, Teal, Red, Blue and apparently there was a Cinnamon too? Never seen one in the wild, I thought it was the Red but apparently not)

Been a couple of years since I last updated the P Bass family pic 78 Siennaburst 78 Olympic White 77 Lake Placid blue 73 Black 21 Am Pro II Dark Night 97 Am Deluxe Trans Crimson Metallic 02 MIM Mark Hoppus mk.1

Fender Marketing dept. pitch meeting, Corona: "So, any revolutionary new bass ideas guys? We are being called lazy online due to a lack of anything other than re-hashing our two core models for the last 65 odd years." "Have we done an active PJ this year?' "We have?!" "Oh, ok." "How about something, something Vintage?" "Oh ok." "Hmm, too early for another Ultra..." "How about some signature Jazzes BUT they are for indie female players?!" "Oh, we've done that too... ok...' "Ok no wrong answers here, anything goes, let's go!!!" Crickets One guy: "How about a bass that can only be used for scoring a Tarantino soundtrack and not much else?" "Go on..." "Right, a Jazz, probably. But it's a... "Stick a P pickup in there" "Ok, a Jazz with a P pickup, but also let's make it godless, heinous and semi-fretless" "Ok guys we're on fire here, what else?" "Give it a weird paint job, a semi-expensive neck 'bucker and wonky effects, slap a Custom Shop logo on it and charge $15k for it..." ... ... * Single senior executive clapping slowly, before entire board room joins in one by one leading to a standing ovation! * "We'll bring out a MIM or Jap version, followed by a Squier Paranormal line in 6 months and charge $2k" (then discontinue it in 18 months) "We've sorted the company's earning for the next two years guys, well done!"

Went from a Jazz to being obsessed with Precisions for 15 years to Singrays and all things humbucker and then back to Jazz and super Jazzes. And just picked up another P lol

Time for an updated family photo shoot All present and correct minus my 75 Musicmaster which is on the workbench Had to do it in 2 pics as not enough floorspace 🤣🤣 Top Pic is everything Fender (P's and J's, vintage and newer). Second Pic is everyrhing else - weirdly all humbuckers too, lol.

This week, I 'ave been mostly playin'... Went round to the rehearsal space last night to drop off the new biamp cables for my GK rig and test it out, so thought I'd kill two birds with one stone, so to speak and brought the new P Bass to test out with it. To say I'm happy is an understatement 😁😁

One last (ever) pair: 21 Am PRO II FSR Jazz 21 Am PRO II Precision both in Dark night with Rosewood boards. Picked up the P bass last night - was a swap with my sunburst 06 American Standard S-1 P Bass and a couple of other little bits (so no, I didn't buy it!!!! 😋🤣🤣🤣) Had planned on stopping off at Bass Centre in Melbourne, as we had a long layover on the way back to the land down under-er (after visiting the motherland last week) but a jetlagged missus and a very tired and dangerously-bored 3yr old did not make for happy travel mates, so had to skip it in the end. Just as well because they were having a clear out on some lovely Fender goodies, including a gorgeous and long-coveted Dark Night P (which was efffffin cheap too!). There was also a brand new Adam Clayton Jazz there for a used bass price 🤤🤤🤤 But as it happened, a really cool bloke in the same neck of the woods as me happened to want to downgrade from his AM PRO II DN P Bass around the same time. Worked out a trade deal on the 06 P Bass over messenger and boom - I'm now set for life bass-wise, I didn't buy any basses like I had previously promised AND the credit card was not cut up after the holiday! We all win. Or so I told the better half! 🤣🤣 PS -yes, the plastic is coming off the Jazz this evening!

I normally don't like maple on maple neck/fingerboard combos - that thing is OBSCENELY beautiful!!! I too am on a mid-life 'straying from Precisions path', mostly stuck on Jazzes and Rays. Always had a G&L on my radar but never found one I absolutely loved. I could see me falling in love with a bass like that though! Well done! If it plays half as good as it looks it'll be an absolute monster!

Sure do! It is ABSOLUTELY ye olde business!!! Easily nicer than some Custom Shop stuff from the same peroid (the couple i've played). It juat feels like it has a hearbeat or a soul, or... something. Not sure how to put it, but it just sing! Every time I open the case I giggle 😁 Also, in terms of excellent build quality, I have to say the early 2000's American Deluxe QMT Jazzes are also INCREDIBLE! have an 03 and im afraid to pick it up because each tine I do, I cannot put it down for days at a time!!!! I have had some incredibly lovely Mexican and Japanese Fender basses over the years (including my forst Fender, a white 2002 Standard Jazz) and some absolute planks too. Though not many out of Japan. My current Roadworn 60 Anniversary Jazz in Firemist Silver is a true thing of beauty. It just feels amazing. Does have a whiff of Custom Shop about it, more so the feel than the heavy relic, but amazing instrument! The American made stuff I've experienced has been mostly great with the odd 'meh' unit and one absolute dud Jazz that could not be redeemed. Put me off Jazzes for years lol. Picked up a 98 USA Jazz in March and despite being an absolute boat anchor in weight, it is easily worth that weight in solid gold. The boomiest, smoothest Jazz Ive ever played in terms of the low end - i use it for gigs a lot.Most of the late 90's stuff I've played has been excellent. And my 2 American Pro 2's Jazzes are both spectacularly nice! A very good friend had a Pro 2 P Bass and said it just felt flat and lifeless despite endless tinkering. He returned it and bought a never Japanese Hybrid thingy in a cool lava kind of colour. I think there is a decent level of QC across the Fender group as a whole but hey, the odd Friday arvo builds do get through now and then. One of the concessions in large-scale production.

I arrived home to a package 😁 Beautifully presented and arrived lightning fast once shipped from Greece, though lead tine was a month. The steel pick made from an offcut used to make it is a very cool touch Very happy with how it looks and feels, just need to strip the bass down and get her started...