Fender American Vintage 63 Reissue Precision Bass

features, its got 4 strings init?

sounds better trhat an argos special.

anythings better than an agos special init.

well this one stays in tune.

no opinion.

been playing loads,
funky low ball busting grove,
-hope ot really fits dude.

I just recently purchased a 2001 model Fender Custom Shop '62 Vintage Precision bass reissue in ice blue metallic with a rosewood fretboard...that was a mouthful, onto the features. First off, this thing was a steal...I paid $870 plus shipping and retail is $1300. Standard four-string precision bass, split precision pickups, one volume knob, one tone knob, vintage style bridge. Came with vintage style bridge and pickup covers if you want to use them but no holes drilled in the body for those that don't. I have only been playing bass for about a year and I'm really not that good but since I intend to continue playing, and hopefully in a band, I knew I wanted the good stuff and I tried all kinds of diffent things. I didn't want a Fender at first because, you know how it is, "Everybody else has a ..." but once I started trying things out I knew that it had to be a Fender. You have to look close for the differences b/t these and the current American Standards, but they are there and from all I've heard these are extremely accurate reproductions. The first thing I noticed was the finish...gorgeous, nitrocellulose, which is supposed to sort of blend with the wood later on. I'd wanted the Ice Blue Metallic finish since Fender first came out with it a year ago and I have to say it as everything I dreamed it would be. Absolutely beautiful, in fact to the point that it almost seems a shame to take it out and subject it to the outside world. But, if you wanna make an omelet...as for any other features, I'm not much of a gadget nut and this one has all it needs.

Sound is great. I usually mess around with punk, surf and rockabilly. This bass is great for everything. Turn the tone knob up you get all the punch you could want, turn it down for a warmer, brighter sound, and of course changing strings changes everything but I haven't messed around too much in that department. Some people say that Fenders aren't necessarily supposed to be "versatile" or "every-guitars", but take a look at the P Bass' references and let all doubt be cleansed from your mind. This thing will do anything and has a history of doing so. In short, I like it. I don't record or gig, so I really can't rate it for that but I've played it through a number of amps. My practice amp sounds horrible and staticy, but I noticed a huge difference after playing my Ibanez Gio through it and then plugging in the Fender. The pickups are also noiseless, another blessing. For surf and rockabilly I turn the tone back to sound less punchy, for punk I turn it up about halfway because I'm not a fan of real intense punch. I also think it's worth mentioning that the dry, unplugged sound on this bass is much warmer and louder than any other dry electric bass I've ever plucked on. I can't honestly say I'm a coneseur of bass sounds or even that my ear is all that discriminating, but I know good when I hear it. Overall, it's great.

Buying sight unseen is nerve-wracking because you don't know exactly what you're getting before it's paid for and been shipped to you...but this was another area in which this bass did not disappoint. I was worried about the action...first off because action on guitars seems to be alot like having a stick shift/manual transmission in an automobile (even though they're all the same, they're not really all EXACTLY the same, and sometimes you can get one that sucks) and because my bass was coming from Texas to Georgia I was worried about climate change. But when I took it out of the case and touched the action I knew I'd lucked out. The action is easily one of the finest I've felt, even on all the different bass' I've picked up in various music shops I'm really pleased with this one. I don't know if this was the factory setup or a setup from the place I ordered it from but it couldn't be better. No buzz at any of the frets at all and it's nice and easy. Also the frets on the vintage reissues are a little thinner than the new standards, which makes for easier playing at the top of the neck for those of us with small hands. For the finish, see my first entry...I also think the reissue is actually a little lighter than the standard Americans. Other than that, the only real flaw I picked up on was that the holes drilled the pickgaurd for the pick up cover (not in the body itself, just the pickgaurd, which is easy to replace) were slightly misaligned so that the gaurd could not be mounted without redrilling the holes or buying a new pickgaurd. Other than that, perfect.

I couldn't really say...I've only had it two weeks, but the damn thing feels solid like a tank, and also the weight of the thing is reassuring...to me that implies sturdiness. I don't see this thing falling apart on me any time in the next century. It will probably outlive me barring any freak accidents or acts of god.

Haven't had to deal with them. I doubt I'll have to.

Overall I couldn't be happier and I probably should've check into it more before buying the bass sight unseen but I got lucky. If it were lost I'd bash my head repeatedly against the wall for losing it and if it were stolen I'd go on a kill crazy rampage until until it was found. Or I'd buy another one...yeah, I'd probably buy another one, but I'd want to go on a kill crazy rampage. There's nothing not to like about this bass and I'm expecting years of good use out of it.

Brand-new 2001 Fender American Vintage series '62 reissue Precision Bass. I decided to buy this bass after playing an actual '64 P-bass at a vintage guitar store; I was blown away at how nicely the '64 played, how comfortable the neck was, etc. Unfortunately it cost $5000. I had read that the American Vintage series Fenders are very accurate reissues, so I decided to take a leap of faith and order the '62 reissue P-bass. Sure enough, it's a superb instrument and is essentially identical to how I imagine that '64 must have been when it was new. Same neck shape, nitrocellulose lacquer finish, even has the metal shield underneath the pickguard just like early-'60s Fenders. Also comes with a brown-vinyl-covered vintage-style hardshell case with orange plush lining.

As far as features go, well, it's a P-bass. Single pickup, volume, tone. That's it. But that's all I need.

I've been playing Jazz basses ever since I started playing about 13 years ago, but in the past year or two I've gotten more and more into the sound of a P-bass. This one certainly doesn't disappoint. The '62 vintage pickup sounds a little fuller than the pickup in my Japanese '50s-reissue P-bass, and the rosewood fingerboard and plastic pickguard give the bass a warmer, slightly less edgy tone than the maple board and anodized-aluminum guard on the '50s reissue. This makes for a very versatile bass -- it sounds great for aggressive postpunk/indie rock, which is what my band plays, especially through an all-tube amp. Sounds equally great through my Mesa/Boogie Bass 400+ head and 2x15 cabinet live, and my '67 Fender Bassman head and 4x12 cabinet for recording.

Fenders are usually something of a mixed bag when it comes to factory setup, but this one was outstanding. Action was very low and played smooth as butter. Finish is gorgeous.

I've now owned the bass for a month, played two shows and many practices with it, and I'll need to make a slight truss rod adjustment when I change the strings, but this is to be expected (environmental conditions here in Vermont are very different from those in California where the bass was manufactured and set up).

One thing that's kind of nice about the way Fender ships this bass -- it comes with the chrome bridge/pickup covers, but they're not installed, and no holes have been drilled. So for those that don't want to use the covers, there are no unsightly holes drilled in the body. And for those who do want to use the covers (I'm using the bridge cover only, looks cool), installation is simple -- just mark the spot and drill two small pilot holes with a Dremel, then screw the cover on.

The bass itself is solid and feels like it could take a lot of abuse. The nitrocellulose lacquer finish is very soft, though. There are already lots of scratches on the back of the bass from my belt buckle (despite having a t-shirt between the bass and the belt buckle!). But that's part and parcel of a nitrocellulose lacquer finish -- this bass will fairly quickly have a lot of character. I don't at all consider this to be a bad thing.

Hardware is robust and bulletproof. This bass stays in tune very well (as does every other Fender I've ever played).

Haven't dealt with Fender directly. I will say this though -- when I ordered the bass at the beginning of December, my dealer was told by Fender that they were out of stock on the particular color I ordered (black, which is apparently the most popular color for the '62 reissue) and would be doing a production run in January (ie, as I'm writing this). Lo and behold, a week later my bass showed up. I don't know if Fender discovered an extra black one in the warehouse or if they got a hold of it through a distributor they had already shipped it to, and I don't really care. All I can say is that for me it was an extremely delightful early Christmas present.

I've been playing for roughly 13 years and have owned an '89 American Standard Jazz bass since I bought it new in 1990; that's always been my main bass and by far my favorite (I also own a Japanese '50s-reissue P-bass and a Japanese fretless Jazz bass). That '89 Jazz bass, after years of my playing it, has a great broken-in feel, sounds wonderful, and has strong sentimental value for me. But if I suddenly became destitute and had to sell all my basses except one, the one I'd keep would be the '62 reissue P-bass. Why? Because that bass feels like it was made just for me. It's a bass that I feel I can play for the rest of my life, and it'll always be mine, and in 30 years it'll be as wonderful and as much of a classic as that vintage '64 P-bass that inspired me to buy it in the first place -- except it will have been mine the entire time. In the space of a month, it's become my most prized possession.

I purchased my Fiesta Red American Vintage Series '62 Precision Bass direct from the UK importers Arbiter in June 2000 after reading that Fender were going to re-launch the Vintage Series by using the correct nitrocellulose paint finish, the correct placing on the headstock of the Fender decal, and they claimed to be overall more historically accurate in the detailing of the instrument than they had been previously. The new Series ie: year 2000 and after instruments, are Fenders best effort yet in capturing the detail and feel of an origional early 60's Precision Bass. The neck, compared with an American Standard Precision, feels wider across the rosewood fret board but thiner around the back, the small vintage frets are polished and rounded over giving a played in feel, the bass comes with the correct no name reverse gear, 'elephant ear' tuning machines and the extra strap button on the reverse of the headstock. The body has the correct 'rounded edge' contour, and in the Fiesta Red finish comes with an off-white pickguard, Sunburst and White finished Precision's are fitted with a tortoise shell pickguard, Fender have even gone to the trouble of providing the pickguard shield which is fitted under the pickguard. With only a tone and volume pot the sound control is simple, the Bass has four vintage threaded bridge saddles and a single split Precison pickup. The Chrome bridge and pickup covers are provided but not fitted, the plastic thumbrest is . The Bass comes in a brown Tolex case which is full of the usual Fender goodies such as cleaning cloth,lead, strap and owners manual etc.

The Bass has that classic Precision bite with the tone full on, pull back on the tone and you get the 'Motown thump', this makes this Bass a recording engineers dream. I think that with this instrument more than most, the tone is dictated more by your choice of strings than by adjusting the tone on the instument.

The American Vintage Series have that little bit more attention to detail given to them and this shows as soon as you take the Bass out of the case and plug in, if you stick with the factory fitted strings then the Bass is ready to go straight out of the case.

The Precision has a proven track record so reliability is not an issue here, the whole point of the Vintage Reissue Series is to get as near to the origional instrument as is possible and so the first thing that you notice on the old original instruments is that the finish is usually pretty worn after only a few years of gigging, the same applies here the Nitrocellulose finish is easily damaged by belt buckles, an agressive 'pick' action etc. which will all add 'character' to the Bass. My only problem with the Bass is that people who buy the Vintage Series instrument as opposed to a Precision Standard will be after a bit more Historical accuracy ie: clay dot markers as opposed to the plastic ones here, the old rubber string mute if provided would be a nice touch and the chrome pickup cover is the wrong type for the era that the '62 Precision is trying to copy, in the 60's the cover was a lot less rounded than the cover provided with the reissue, a celluloid pickguard would also be nice but would add too much to the cost, thiese however, are minor faults on what is an excellent Bass.

Arbiter in the UK are the sole importers for Fender musical instruments and I have had nothing but trouble from them . In the past I have been told of a six week delivery date for an instrument only to have to wait ten months...they have averaged six months late on all seven instruments that I have ordered throught them, so be prepared for a long wait if you have to order in the UK !

This is the nearest that you are going to get to the original at a fraction of the cost, A fantastic instrument but I wish Fender would give us clay dots on the American Vintage Series.