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Fender jazz bass American vs MIM vs MIJ (video)


guitarbank
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You'd have to have the ears of a bat to tell the difference.

But I can tell the difference in this video for some reason?


[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=w0SbaT0UbPM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=w0SbaT0UbPM[/url]


Maybe somebody with a physchology degree can explain.

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WIth good headphones I can tell the difference relatively easily, and I don't have particularly special ears. I suspect the decent headphones makes the difference. The USA basses in the vid have a lot more character going on in the upper mids and treble, with the associated more bite that comes with it.

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There were definitely differences.... but I couldn't really say which ones I preferred! To be trulu objective you would have to listen without looking at which bass it was - and judge purely from the tone.

Just out of interest, is the pickup positioning identical on all those basses? Maybe its down to the body colours and neck woods - but some of them looked to be more like 70s spacing, with the bridge pickup closer to the bridge...

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To me very slight differences but my vote goes to the MIM as to me I liked the tone of it.

I think all this will come down to the tone that you prefer be it the CIJ, MIM or USA.

Was there a difference in playability between each one i.e. action, fret-ware, pickup hight, neck width.......that could change the tone?

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That's an excellent video - nice one.

Interesting to read the subsequent posts about what people preferred.

To my ears the CIJ was the least pleasing (that surprised me) & the 2007 ash bodied / maple necked US model definitely sounded the best.

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There is a difference for sure when listening with headphones - however, in the context of a band, it would be minor indeed. In this AB comparison, it's quite obvious though. For me, the order would be:

USA
Japan
USA maple neck
MIM

I liked the CIJ quite a bit finger style, but slapped and with a pick it sounded a bit dull. The maple neck was too bright for me, however with a slight roll off of the tone pot it might be a great sounding bass.

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I have a Fender jazz bass frettless USA 2012 (p.u. castom shop)

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]For me the order is:[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Japan[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]USA [/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]USA maple neck[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]MIM[/font][/color]
....................................
Ciao!

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  • 1 year later...

[quote name='guitarbank' timestamp='1426163983' post='2715074']
Fretboard comparison
Maple VS rosewood

[url="https://youtu.be/cYhzjrRxAFU"]https://youtu.be/cYhzjrRxAFU[/url]
[/quote]

These videos are fantastic! Great job guys :)
The rosewood sounds so much better in this video but for some reason it's the opposite when I play myself. Got 3 Fenders, all with maple boards!

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Really useful videos and honestly there was no standout winner for me - I own a Japanese jazz so was rooting for that one but the others each had their own character that worked better in some styles.

One complaint though - I almost never want to use my Jazz with the tone control all the way off. Especially for slap, it takes all the zing right out. I can understand rolling it back a little when slapping or picking. If you want a sub/dub-type sound then maybe, but you're probably not using a Jazz for that anyway, are you?

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