Bass Gear Review

Reviewer	E. Telford
Manufacturer	Fender
Model	American Standard Precision Bass (1997) (Left-handed)
Price	$700 new, with hard case

Neck Type	Maple with graphite reinforcements; bolt-on
Fingerboard	Rosewood, fretted (20 medium size frets)
Body Type	2-piece alder
Finish	Body: Urethane, black with white pickguard; Neck: Satin
Pickup(s)	One Fender American Vintage 62 P-style humbucker, passive with A
	lnico
	magnets; replaced with Seymour Duncan Basslines Quarter Pound
	for
	P-Bass pickup (passive with Alnico magnets)
Controls	Volume; treble tone (passive cut only)

This is an outstanding bass guitar and an even more outstanding value. The feel of the bass is wonderful, although the neck tends to dive a bit due to the heavy tuners. The construction is superb, although I did have to drill out the through-body E-string hole because the E string bridge hole was not correctly aligned with the through-body hole. The satin finish on the neck makes for easy playability (much smoother, for example, than the urethane neck finish on my Fender 1991 Japanese J bass). No dead spots at all, as far as I can tell. The strings-through-body bridge adds tremendous tonal clarity, and the bass has an excellent acoustic tone. The sustain on all notes is just awesome. While the stock pickups sound good, the Seymour Duncan sounds even better, adding depth to lower tones and a fine balance across all strings and notes. Played through a Boss EQ (slight boost of 50 and 120 HZ and significant cut of 500 and 800 HZ), an SWR SM-400S, and a Hartke 410XL and a homemade 1x15 with an Altec speaker, I simply was not prepared for the combination of warmth, depth and low-mid presence that resulted. I was surprised by how the tone of this bass was at once deep enough to be felt but with enough presence and clarity in the middle ranges to be heard in the mix. The bass does not have a sexy or extreme look--just your basic P-bass appearance. But if tone is your main concern, I don’t believe you can find a better bass for the price, nor, IMO, even for hundreds of dollars more. I also believe that this bass/pickup combination offers many more tonal options than people normally associate with a Precision Bass. By adjusting the tone controls on your amp, you could get very good slap tones and even classic jazz tones from this axe. I would highly recommend this bass to anyone, even to someone looking at a much more expensive model bass. I have owned other Fenders, an Alembic and a MusicMan StingRay in my time, and if I had to choose just one bass to take to the proverbial desert island, it would be this P-bass.

Construction	98%
(only because I had to drill out the E-string hole)
Playability	100%
Appearance	100%
Sound	100%
Value	100%
Overall	100%