Ranking the Fender Jazzes

[dub_junkie]

The 08 MIM 60's classic Jazz I have is not far off my 08 MIA Precision for fit and finish. I havent played enough of them to say whether I got two good 'uns but I'm pleasantly surprised with both,more so the mexican.

[Emmaemme]

[quote name='YouMa' post='583560' date='Aug 28 2009, 03:08 PM']Get a Highway one they are the tits,they are american made and you get a badass bridge included...[/quote]

Aren't Highway One's made in Mexico and only assembled in the US? Or something like that?

[jchel]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='585526' date='Aug 31 2009, 12:08 AM']Let's clear this up. MIJ or CIJ refers [b]only[/b] to which factory produced the bass and does not reflect quality in any way.

The first Jap Fenders (and the incredibly sought after JV & SQ Squiers) were made by Fujigen Gakki. Fujigen was specifically chosen because of the excellent quality of their Fender copies, particularly the Greco range. Fujigen Gakki had the contract for Japanese Fenders up until 1997, and these are labelled MIJ. Subsequently production moved to Dyna Gakki & Tokai Gakki, who labelled their output as CIJ, to distinguish them from Fujigen.

Recently Fujigen has resumed production of Fenders so there are now new MIJs hitting the shops.

Jon.[/quote]
I can tell you MIJ are not manufactured anymore.
Fender Japan guitars are all CIJ there are not two different companies.
If you see MIJ advertised then they are the old export models.
These Jazz basses look reasonable enough.
[url="http://www.japanfender.com/specials.html"]http://www.japanfender.com/specials.html[/url]

[steve]

@ the op - I had an aerodyne, it had a lovely neck, the pups weren't particularly special, the prob for me was the lack of forearm contouring. It never sat right for me and was always uncomfortable so I eventually had to move it on. Shame, it looked great (red with no pickguard from ishibashi)

[MythSte]

Broadly speaking, in terms of overall quility and sound i've found american and japanese to be the ones i'd risk buying without trying. However, Ive yet to find any Fender that plays as nice as my MIM 75RI!

I had a squier vintage modified jazz for a short period, and while it looked the dogs it wasnt put together brilliantly and sounded very anemic.

[doghouse]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='585526' date='Aug 31 2009, 01:08 AM']Let's clear this up. MIJ or CIJ refers [b]only[/b] to which factory produced the bass and does not reflect quality in any way.

The first Jap Fenders (and the incredibly sought after JV & SQ Squiers) were made by Fujigen Gakki. Fujigen was specifically chosen because of the excellent quality of their Fender copies, particularly the Greco range. Fujigen Gakki had the contract for Japanese Fenders up until 1997, and these are labelled MIJ. Subsequently production moved to Dyna Gakki & Tokai Gakki, who labelled their output as CIJ, to distinguish them from Fujigen.

Recently Fujigen has resumed production of Fenders so there are now new MIJs hitting the shops.

Jon.[/quote]
spot on i have a 51 p bass mij new this year my guitarist has a cij telecaster of about 3 years old, so i checked all over the web and came to the same conclusion as you, and i must say my 51 is a great bass and is far better than a 90's mim bass i used to own.

Edited October 7, 2009 by doghouse

[markl]

I tried a jazz deluxe series MIA and MIM. Went for the MIM; felt much, much nicer was less than half the price and and came in the colour I wanted, vintage white with a red tort pickguard, only thing I've had to do (so far) is change the the bridge to a Gotoh 201.

Don't the MIMs deluxe series have American pickups etc anyway?

[whimsy23]

I've been looking at getting a Jazz... tried some out in a shop the other week, the Mexican one played way better than the US one to me! Though it didn't feel as well built if you get what I mean. Strange that.