Woody's 2012 Fender American Deluxe Jazz Bass V 5-string guitar page with Rosewood neck

Woody's 2012 Fender American Deluxe V
5-string Jazz bass page
Equipped with a Roland GK3b synthesizer pickup

The serial number and neck information both show that this is a 2012 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





ABOVE: 21 March, 2016 GREG at Fender Customer Service (+1.800.856.9801 Option 3) stated records show the guitar was first shipped to a dealer during December, 2012			BELOW: The Fender Part Number for the pre-amp board is 0078815000 and may be available from a dealer such as http://darrenriley.com/ or https://www.allparts.com/

Click on a picture to enlarge it for closer viewing

DATING MY FENDER JAZZ BASS
The serial number (US12.....) indicates that this is a 2012 bass.
In my case, the neck serial number and the actual date stamp both confirm the unit was constructed during 2012.
On the base of the neck it reads the date of November 29, 2012.
On the body in the neck cavity, a green-ink "Nov" is visible (rest of date is illegible)
It's interesting that the neck is boldly stamped 2010.
I wonder if it was carved in 2010 and waited two years for the wood to settle before being actually used?

Fender also buys assorted piece parts (volume, tone controls, wire, etc) in bulk.
I have been unable to determine any valid dating from the volume controls (POT CODES) as we could do on older instruments.

STRINGING THE 5-string FENDER JAZZ BASS
For years I had 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 went back to the
GHS 5-string Precision Flatwound M3050-5 strings us$37 off eBay.

THE ELECTRONICS

This bass runs on two standard 9-volt batteries which are disconnected when nothing is plugged in to the 1/4 (stereo) phono jack along the bottom of the bass.

This equalizer features:
Treble Boost/Cut: +/- 10 db @ 8kHz, a shift in the cut frequency,
and about a 2dB slope per octave.
Mid Boost/Cut: +10dB, -15dB @ 500Hz, and a wide band slope.
Bass Boost/Cut: +/- 12 db @ 40 Hz, with a 4dB slope per octave.

The tonally versatile active/passive electronics on this American Deluxe bass let you engage the onboard preamp with a simple flick of the switch near the control knobs. Passive mode delivers traditional clear and powerful punch, while active mode kicks the power up a notch and engages three-band active EQ (ideal for slap and funk).

THE PICKUPS (PUPS)	03/21/16 Replacement pre-amp boards are available at: http://darrenriley.com/store/fender-american-deluxe-bass-2010-pcb-assy-0078815000/
	With state-of-the-art design and powerful sound, N3 Noiseless pickups supercharge sound by delivering the pure dynamic range and response of vintage Fender single-coil pickups with virtually no hum.

THE HEADSTOCK (Peghead)

As a 2012-series guitar
it uses the "Four Inline" style tuners on the top with the G-string tuner hanging out of the bottom..
I personally do not care for this look of the current "4+1" headstock design that began in 2002
but the guitar a great tool so I live with it.
The headstock features a special “stealth” string retainer on the A-string tuning machine, ensuring an optimal string break angle for improved performance.

THE FRETBOARD (Fingerboard)	The guitar use a dark-colored Rosewood with rich tone and sustain. Bodies were offered by either Alder which is a combination of rich wood and good weight.
THE BODY

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 4-string bridge plate was 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.
When the Roland GK3b synthesizer pickup was added I used a saber saw to trim out notches.

Click on a picture to enlarge it for closer viewing

Contact WOODY for questions or comments about this page via email.
All personal comments, pictures copyright 1996-2016 - R. Linwood (4L RANCH)
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