The overall construction of this bass is exceptional, the finish is outstanding, both in general and in detail such as the areas where the tung-oil on the back of the neck joins clear polyurathane. However Fender could do so much better with their fret work, I have a 11 year old $100 Yamaha that has a better fret job than this bass.

Sound quality is, decent, although this is among the most versitale basses I have ever played, the tone seems very restained and mellow. The usual complaints about Fender noiseless pickups are true here though, don't expect much grungy Jazz bass growl. The tone tends to gravitate towards very punchy low end, regardless of pre-amp settings, setting all pots at zero basically results in a quasi-passive sound. Slap tone, at least relative to my Mexi-Jazz bass with 18v EMG pickups is very hollow. The electronics are a typical 3-band eq, though the high end knob seems to function more like a tone pot, the independent mid-range knob is great for mellowing out your tone from a growling pick based sound to finger style.

The one area where this bass really shines is with a pick, when these pickups growl, punch and absolutley scream through my Hartke 4x10 cab, crank up the mid-range and you'll have a tone to die for.

As much as I try to love Fender basses, they have had over 50 years of experience and still they produce basses with dead spots, or, in the case of my bass, a dead D string. When I first purchased the bass, the neck was filled with dead notes, but a good setup removed most of them, still tone the upper frets on the neck is somewhat lacking. As with all basses, a good setup is paramount if you care about your tone.

In the end, unless you really need two extra frets (which are very dead sounding) and a slightly lighter body, you would probably be better off finding a good used American Standard model and replacing the pickups and electronics with active EMGs or Bartolinis and a pre-amp.

While this bass may seem like a deal at $650 used, conisder that standards sell all day for less than $500, and even with the upgrades would cost around the same as this bass. Fender needs to stick with what has brought them success with their standard models, and create some new, cutting edge gear to stand alongside them, rather than waste their time with this.

Construction	90%
(Flawless Finish, Average Fret-work)
Appearance	98%
(The smaller body is anyone's guess)
Playability	100%
(Perfect	0%
Sound	90%
(Very Versitale, yet somewhat restrained)
Value	90%
(A good deal at used price)
Overall	85%
(You'd be better off with an upgraded USA Standard)