Woody's Fender American Deluxe
V
5-string Jazz
bass
page
(with a Roland GK3b synthesizer pickup)
The serial number infers this is a 2000 US-made
Fender
American Deluxe Five-String Jazz Bass
that is dressed out after a Fender Custom Shop
Time Machine Series American
Vintage 1962 Fender Jazz Bass.
Although they didn't actually make a 5-string
JBass in 1962, I liked the look.
Fender
American Deluxe Jazz Bass V
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In 2011, I added an N-Tune onboard digital guitar tuner onto my Jazz bass. It is really nice to always have a good tuner right handy. The N-Tune tuner is not "officially" supported for active setups due to custom wiring requirements. |
![]() The tuner may stuggle some to go down to the 30.9 HZ Low-B note but, eventually, can find it. |
DATING MY FENDER JAZZ BASS
While the serial number (DZ0.....) indicates a 2000 bass,
according to Scott (Fender Customer Service,
03/28/2011)
all the parts didn't come together to be a finished guitar until July 2001.
Right after production, it was originally shipped from the Fender factory in
California to the Larry Morgan Music Company (Garland,
TX, closed 2008).
In my case, the neck serial number dates to 2000 but the actual date stamp on the base
of the neck shows April 12, 2001
On the body in the neck cavity, a black-ink "Feb" is visible (rest of
date is illegible)
Also in this same area a red-ink "Mar 28" is visible (rest of date is
illegible)
Also seen is what appears to be perhaps N9685.
Does anyone know what that
might mean?
Fender records show that it
actually "became a guitar" in July 2001.
Fender also buys assorted piece parts (volume, tone controls, wire, etc) in
bulk.
The POT (potentiometer) code on my original volume control was R1379605.
This says that the POT was produced by CTS early in 1996
during the fifth week, a full half-a-decade before
the guitar was built.
The take-a-way here is that Fender apparently produces great numbers of piece parts (necks and bodies)
and apparently stockpiles them, sometimes for long periods of time.
In this regard, the guitar's serial number and POT codes can be assumed to be
only rough estimate of when the guitar was actually produced.
In my case:
* The serial number dates to 2000,
* The neck indicates it was made April 12, 2001,
*The POT dates to 1996
but
* Fender
records conclude it all became a guitar in July 2001.
In my humble opinion, that's going to make it pretty tough on historians
someday.
It is true that I am more than a little
disappointed about this finding and
reaffirms my appreciation for such quality instruments as those made by Heritage
and Martin
(who, unfortunately, do not make electric bass guitars).
At this point, if I was ever to replace this
guitar,
I might consider a more personalized product.
Dates on my 1995 Fender Precision Bass are not at all as distressed as the Jazz Bass.
It almost appears that Fender's quality control and/or construction technologies
were challenged in 2000/2001.
In the end this guitar was apparently nothing more than a mass produced factory
product.
It does play and sound great and for that I remain grateful.
STRINGING
THE 5-string FENDER JAZZ BASS
For years I have used GHS Precision Flatwound M3050 strings on my 4-string PBass.
In 2011, I tried a set of Thomastik-Infeld (TI) Vienna JF345 strings
really expensive at us$80 from JustStrings.com
and, while these were okay,
I did replace them and again now always restring with the
GHS 5-string Precision Flatwound M3050-5 strings us$37
off eBay.
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AESTHETICS
I prefer the string and bridge covers as I
believe they enhance appearance while reducing skin-scrapes when playing.
It adds diversity to the playing-style, as well, by allowing occasional use of a pick
for some music styles
while bracing the playing hand on the center string cover.
The neck pickup cover (made for a 4-string bass) did not actually fit over the
five strings
so I raised it slightly by inserting shims between the pick guard and the metal
cover.
The 4-string bridge plate is also not wide enough to fully cover the wider
5-string bridge pickup
so I had to offset the cover slightly towards the bottom of the guitar.
This requires the bridge pickup to be slightly visible.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
http://johanpratamapowpow.blogspot.com/search?q=jazz+bass
DZ0263493 2000/2001 eB 08/11 1200
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