Product: Fender American Standard Precision Bass Lefty
Price Paid: US $425-450
Submitted
12/24/2001
at
08:57am
by
K Badgley
Features
:
9
78, US Precision. Bought it new from Cintioli's music Phila.
paid I think $425 in '79
Not a lot of choice in '79. I had two to choose from.
Thank goodness this one is very good.
As I said, not much to choose from even today. So...I unfortuately altered it with a jazz pick-up. I say unfortunately only becuase I've messed with street value. Otherwise the EMGs are great!
Sound
:
8
I added a PJ connfiguration with EMGs. Never ever a problem.
Sounds very good, but wish I didn't screw with it today.
Play through and Ampeg SVT-4 and classic 4x10 HLF
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
Very soild well made. Rarely goes out of tune. I can tune up before a gig and hardly adjust through the show. I play Fender Flats
Reliability/Durability
:
8
Never a problem
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Don't know
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
Playing 25 years. Great bass and my only bass at this time. I'm looking at a custom shop
Product: Fender American Standard Precision Bass Lefty
Price Paid: US $600
Submitted
07/16/2000
at
06:54pm
by
John Grow
Email: johnner<at>earthlink dot net
Features
:
8
1998 American Standard Precision Bass, factory left-handed
4Strings, 20 frets, rosewood fretboard, maple neck with graphite stabilizing inserts.
Standard split-coil pickups, volume & tone controls. Passive electronics.
This is as the name implies--the American Standard P-bass. It has the string-thru-body bridge, standard Fender tuners, 34 inch scale. Nothing else new and wild about it.
Sound
:
10
As with the rest of the bass, it is that standard Fender P-bass sound heard on everything from Motown to Stax to Live at Leeds. You simply cannot go wrong with it. RIght now, I am using it with one of the new Fender Bassman amps for small stuff and an old B-15 for bigger work. This sounds perfect through all of them. Everything about it is good.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
8
I have had this bass for over a year now, and love it. Everything was set up perfectly, everything was fitted nicely on it, the action and the neck are both beyond belief. Only one flaw. Just one. The bridge, contrary to Fender's advertising, is NOT engineered for stringing through the bridge only. There is one way these get strung, and it's through the body. This is true for all the Am. Std basses, right and left. What this means is, unless you like a fat string over the saddle and what it does to the action and playability of the E string, you have to use Fender's Super Bass strings. As a 10-year Rotosound Swing user, I was just a bit put off by this. But I got used to it. Everything else about this bass eased my issues about not being able to use Rotos.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
Reliability? This is a Fender Precision bass--this is the yardstick by which the others measure *their* products. The quality on this lefty is as good as the American Standard righties. I would put it up against anything else out there. I would--and have--used this as my main bass since I got it. In fact, I'm thinking of getting another one just for the variety. An American Standard, of course! I just hope that, when Fender hauls out their new American Standards later this month, they put at least as much care into those as they did into this. And make sure you make one lefty.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I work with computers, so I have a distrust of customer service like you can't believe. So I don't know.
Overall Rating
:
10
I've been playing bass for 10 years. I've used and owned Charvels, G&Ls, Ibanezs, Rickenbackers, Music-Mans, Alembics, Arias, Fenders, Hofners, headless basses, graphite-neck basses, active, passive, all sorts. This is the best bass I have ever used. Period. I plan to buy another American Standard--either a new one, if I can find it, or a used one out there. Because I love them. I love P-basses, I love Fenders. This is both in one bass. Everyone who likes that old tone needs at least one P-bass.
