Fender Jaguar Bass

My fender jaguar bass is black with white scratch plate. Its japanese made and has looks that kill.

The sound is great. It has all the settings I need for a full bodied sound with more of a clasic style sound than a clean crisp modern bass. Unfortunately it has a hideous buzz that occurs from the lack of good shielding around the electronic circuit board in the internal components of the instrument. I have gone to great lengths to iscolate the problem and have suffered reoccuring noise. be aware that you may have to earth the shielding on the scratch plate and the insulating paint at the bottom of the internals. Also there were some problems with the soldering as some wiring was porely conected. So get a tec to check the wires.

No complains as it has the great fender feel and comfort of a great rock bass.

Just be aware of terible soldering. Even the machine solders were porely overlooked when leaving the factory. It has to be personly modified to iscolate the lake of earth and shielding

I just worked with my tec. I didnt take it back to fender as I preferd to work out the issues of the guitar with someone I trusted

Sounds great for its intended set up. Noisy and frustrating problems with the earth/shielding which is unfortunate for a respectable company like fender. If these issues were thaught out properly I am sure that i would not have to have spent many weekends with a tec figuring out these problems.

This is a 2006 model. Mine is Hot Rod red with the matching Headstock. The Body style based on the Fender Jaguar guitar


Mine came in a Box - no allen wrench, and had a lisght scuff on the lower bout/back. Not a big deal. Setup was basic and about 9/64ths to 7-64ths (@ 12th fret) with slight relief.

Here is all the boring Tech Spec Data from the website:
Model Name Jaguar?? Bass
Model Number 025-9505-(Color#)
Series Deluxe Series
Colors (506) Black,
(515) Hot Rod Red,
(Polyurethane Finish)
Body Alder
Neck 1-Piece Maple, Thin ???C??? Shape,
(Gloss Polyurethane Finish)
Fingerboard Rosewood
No. of Frets 20 Vintage Style Frets
Pickups 2 Vintage Jazz Bass?? Single-Coil Pickups
Controls Master Volume,
Master Tone,
Preamp Treble Control Wheel,
Preamp Bass Control Wheel,
Preamp On/Off Slide Switch
Pickup Switching 2-On/Off Slide Switches, One for Each Pickup,
1-Series/Parallel Slide Switch (Operates only when both pickups are on)
Bridge Standard 4-Saddle
Machine Heads Vintage Style
Hardware Chrome
Pickguard 3-Ply White
Scale Length 34??? (864 mm)
Width at Nut 1.50??? (38mm)
Unique Features Block Position Markers,
Active/Passive Preamp System,
Slim Neck Profile
Strings Super 7350M, NPS, p/n 073-7350-006,
Gauges: (.045, .065, .085, .105)
Accessories None
Case Not Included. Will Fit:
099-6173-400 Deluxe Tweed - Red Poodle Plush Interior MSRP $209.99
099-6178-422 Deluxe Brown - Gold Plush Interior MSRP $209.99
099-6172-406 Deluxe Black - Amp Logo & Orange Plush Interior MSRP $199.99
099-6172-306 Standard Black - Black Acrylic Interior MSRP $174.99
Introduced 1/2006
Notice Product Prices, Features And Specifications Are Subject To Change Without Notice

I Love the sounds you can get from this instument. I prefer the active sounds, but have no issue with getting great tone from teh passive circuit either. It fits everything I play it for, which is primarily blues and rock. It has MORE ASS and PUNCH than any other bass I have, or have ever had. Not old school gibson clank, but tremendous low and opunch, especailly through my Ampeg Cabinet (HLF410).

Here is my only negative and it will also impact Customer Service.
Upon purchase, it had a serious Buzz, more in active mode than passive. I tried it in several locations and with several rigs. I took it back to the shop where I got it and it did not replicate the buzz Noise. I took it to a room that I play weekly and it was unbearable - keeping in mind that this room has many lights on dimmers, and the other guitars with single coils always have trouble. NONE of my basses, or either of my two rigs ever gave me trouble though. I bought a Furman power conditioner and most of it went away, but I knew that this did not fix the real issue though. I caontacted fender to tell them abotu the issue - their response was short - take it to an authorized shop (Which I had done, and told them that I had).....so they were no help.

I found that the control and pickup cavities were well shielded with paint, but the shielding was not grounded. I installed a ground wire from the wall (grommet into the wood on the paint) to the chrome control plate and it all went away. It is almost dead quiet now.

I like the bass, its setup, and feel/sound.

I am disgusted with customer support.

I rate it 10, but it would have been a 2. Lets take a point off for having to do it myself though.....seem fair enough?

Set up good out of the box
minor tweak for me

Pups were good out of the box

A few sharp frets, - I fixed

Scuff -

BUZZING

Good hardware, not premium, but really good, well made, nice finish, will play passive if active battery dies, I like to take a back up, but sometimes just take extra strings.....

It seems fine.

Score of 2 out of 10

Fender Customer support it consistant. At least they answered me this time.

Not a good answer, and i would still be waiting to get it back fromt the "Authorized Fender Repair Center" if I had gone that route.

In fact, when I sent the courtesy response to tell them what I had done, and that they had apparently not read my email, suprisingly, I got no response. I am just amazed.

I have been playing bass for 3 years now, and own 5 basses, 3 of which are fenders. I own one strat, but have had 5 of them. I have been playing guitar for about 8 years, now, and spent all of that time, more in learning how to setup, build/rebuild, reconfigure instruments.

this is a nice instrument. it is full of tone-shaping features, and feels great with an absolutely thunderous low end. I would consider installing a Badass II, but it really doesn't need it.

My favorite feature besides the great fellign neck is the Phase inversion and the active circuit. It is one bad instrument.

Japanese made (2006 I believe), Three-tone sunburst finish with Tortoiseshell pickguard (beautiful!)

Lovely skinny Jazz style neck, 34inch scale, 20 frets, excellent smooth finish, tight neck join. Real Inlayed block fret markers, not just painted on.

Two stock vintage Jazz pickups, on/off switches for each one, series/parallel switch. I think the bridge pickup is slightly closer to the bridge compared to standard J-basses. Master volume, master tone knobs. Active circuit in/out, bass boost and treble boost wheels.

Standard bridge, stock open gear tuners. Also the batter cover for the active circuit is flip-top.... handy!

Also no worries if your battery dies mid-song, active circuit can be switched out.

Alder body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard.

Rating: 8, only minor criticisms; the body shape makes reaching the high few frets harder than a P or J bass. Stock bridge is a little flimsy for my liking, no blend option between pickups.

Replaced stock bridge with a badass II, and also put in a little stick-on ruber thumbrest between the pickups.

Fantastic sounds, vaguely resembles a Jazz, but has a few quirks of its own. The active circuit gives a lot of possible tonal options, especially with the series parallel boost. Great for rock, blues, jazz, funk, whatever. Not going to emulate a ricky or a stingray, it's not a fender sound, but a distinctively new fender sound.

My rock sound generally involves distortion of some sort and it handles this really well, retaining clarity where some of my other instruments would muddy up.

Clean sound is great for supporting acoustic artists too.

A little noisy with soloed pickups, or both in series, but what would you expect?

Hum-cancelling when pickups both on in parallel, very suitable for studio work, have recorded some excellent sounds so far.

I mainly use fingers and slap, and occasinally pick. It's been fine for all of these so far. The slap sound is a little middy, but this can be fixed by boosting the treble and bass.

Rating:9 Fantastic sounds, but with all the usual Fender bass limitations, not that that's necessarily a bad thing :-) Would be nice to be able to blend pickups.

Bass arrived playable, but the action was a little high. Intonation was fine.

No blemishes that I've been able to find, there was a slight rattle between a circuit board and the underside of the pickguard, but a little foam sorted that out.

The neck pocket is very tight and sturdy, the bass is well finished and looks very good when polished.

Rating: 8 Generally good, except for the minor things I had corrected, but that's to be expected when ordering from overseas.

Very well made, impressed with the Japanese craftsmanship. Standing up well to acoustic and rock gigs so far.

Tuning is pretty stable, very rarely feel the need to check it during a performance.

Strap buttons were much too small in my opinion, replaced them with dunlop strap-locks. Problem was,, with some rock gigs I move around a lot, changing the angle of the bass. When I lifted it too high, my strap would just slip off the bass and the headstock would bash me. Hard to keep your cool when this happens.

Finish is pretty strong, has resited a few minor knocks without even a dent so far.

Would gig without a backup certainly.

Never contacted Fender

I love this bass. The 3TS finish is not available in the US or UK as far as I'm aware, and last time I check, they are no longer being shipped overseas.

I bought it from Ishibashi.co.jp, very friendly, helpful people there, with frankly a better command of english than most western companies I've dealt with.

After having it setup and modified to my satisfaction this has basically become my ideal bass. I can't see myself ever selling it. If it was lost or stolen I would buy another in a heartbeat.

It also gets a lot of attention at gigs and recording sessions, most people seem to have never seen one like it before. A few have assumed that it is actually an old Vintage bass because of its styling.

Odd than Fender never made them before 2006, though to be honest, I'm pretty glad they didn't!

Pino Palladino's been seen using them live with The Who, can't really argue with that.

It's all been said, so many electronics options it is mind bogging...

Literally sounds like almost anything you want it to. Best sounding Fender I've ever played, possibly best sounding bass period... and I have played a lot. The only thing I couldn't pull out is a really "woody" semi hollow/hollow tone... Tons of meat, if you want it, or thin, if you want it. Or anything in between. Teeth or semi-toothless tone. I bought it for the sound and playability.

Finish is very nice, a small, small blenish on the neck, size of a pin head. Otherwise, flawless. Regarding the neck playabilty, sweet, nice and thin, with a narrow spacing on the lower frets, ideal for average sized hands.

Not sure on this, seems good, just bought it. All the switches make me a little nervous, but otherwise pretty typical Fender construction.

I have owned/played many basses, play professionaly... had some nicer looking (Guild Starfire), some better playing (Kubicki Factor), perhaps none better sounding though. Unexpectedly good for the money.

very cool features block inlays matching head stock. and active or passive electronics. there is alot going on with this bass but once you find your setting it is dead on.. really thin neck thats a blast to play as well

I love the sounds comeing out of this bad larry through my svt

this bass came from the factory a little poor on the set up. the a string was poping out of the nut. and the input jack a little buzzy but after a good set up this thing played it self

no problems yet

its a fender

ten on the overall rating becouse after it was set up and all figured out this bass was the perfect fit i love it

Perhaps too many features for a Bass Guitar. If you have a regular amplifier then this will help you get the best out of it but if you play through an Ampeg SVT for example then you're probably not going to use many of the alternatives on the bass itself...

The passive sound is as you would imagine close to standard Jazz Bass. The Active is much more solid & modern. I have no other active basses to compare it to being a Jazz Bass Player but I imagine the preamp is not up to the competition.

Factory set up was superb. Super low action. Intonation spot on, no buzzing or dead spots anywhere.

Neck Pocket is the tightest it could be without the intrument being made out of one peice of wood! Pups sit in their precision cut cavities superbly.

The neck is divine. Unbounded slim as you like & gorgeous finger board. Possibly the best thing about the bass & comparable to my 73 A Jazz bass neck though without the mojo. Frets are nice & block inlays are beautiful.

The cheap plastic nut is a big let down though & I will be replacing this soon.

Machine heads are crap & I'm replaicng these with US 70s heads though would have prefered the long stem'd vintage but wrong hole config.

Vintage White Body finish is beautiful. Nice creamy white. Thick gloss coat might mean that it doesn't age anymore but be interested to see how it looks in 30 years time!

Volume pot knobs are terrible so replaced them with US fender skirted knobs.

Solid as a Rock. I have gigged mine & rehearsed it to death since buying it & have had no issues whatsoever with it.

Ishibashi were a dream to deal with when buying the bass online. My friend brought it back with him from Japan so it ended up costing me a measily ??350 which has to be the best deal I have ever got on a bass & makes me feel a little sick when I think what my Vintage collection cost me!

These are pretty tarty looking basses compared to a Precision for example but the Vintage White & Black model counteract some of that. the Red one is for real bling types but I think it looks cheap & tacky. I wouldn't want to have this as my only bass. If you are looking for just one bass then buy a Precision, Jazz or a Ricky depending on what sound your into... you can't go wrong with any of them. The Jag is a nice toy to have if you can afford it...which at current prices is not out of the question for a lot of people.

made in japan and its not crap!!awsome kneck fretboard.. glossy finish on back of kneck.. shiny .. if looks could kill this bass would kill you!

i play through an orange ad200 with an ashdown 4x10cab.. this bass blows away rickys ive owned it the past. i like lots of high end with tonnes of low ass bass.. this gives it to me.. i could get any sound id ever want from this setup...

action was high.. but after 3 seconds of adjusting plays beautifully..no flaws red colour does show fingerprints like mad.. who cares tho it looks cooler than anything.

the kneck feels perfect.. im prolly gonna get a badass bridge for it and a hipshot for the estring.. other than that i cant complain..

its fender they cant be bad? can they??

ive been playing bass since 16 im 28 now..uptill now ive had rickys, percision and jazz bases, hagstrom, ernie ball, as well as a few more and this for me is the ideal bass.. i will probably get burried with it..

'06 Fender Jaguar Bass, black finish with non-matching headstock, made in Japan, new for 2006, based on the Jazz bass, passive/active and parallel/series wired. There are a lot of electronics options, but once I learned everything, I found the sound I loved very fast - the passive, series pickup option. An improvement might be a blend function for the 2 pickups, but to be honest, I don't miss it, especially if it means more than one volume knob. I also appreciate having the passive-parallel and active options if I ever need them. Also, it may sound like a small feature, but I appreciate having one master volume knob for the bass, in an easy-to-reach position... I use that a lot to fade out my bass during song endings and transition parts.

I play 95% fingerstyle and 5% pickstyle, rock/pop/dance and a little of everything else. My stage amp is an Ampeg V4-BH tube head with 4x10 and 1x15 cabinets. On stage, this bass has balls and definition and sounds great. I love the sound, and my bandmates, who are very particular, love it too. I use the series-passive option, and it has even, strong response, with all the bass, mids, and treble I want. My other primary basses are Rickenbacker 4003 and Music Man Stingrays - this bass is a nice third option, and much more versatile than either of those (although they are both great in their own right). I guess the biggest thing about this bass is that, while I have always loved the Jazz bass neck (it is heaven for my fret hand), this is the first bass with that neck that has no hum in front of tv's, computer monitors, neon signs, etc., it sounds great, and it has a ton of sound options - with active/passive and series/parallel, it's like a combo P-bass/J-bass/Stingray (plus it looks great and seems rock solid). I can't believe how versatile, good-sounding, and giggable it is for the price.

The bass had perfect action as shipped. Once I tuned it up, I checked the intonation, and it was right on. I didn't notice any construction flaws. The only things about the finish that I don't like are the glossy neck finish (it's okay, but a more satin-y (is that a word?) finish would be slightly better, and the side position dots - because of the finish and their color, they are a bit hard to see under dim stage light. Other than that, this bass is built tight and solid. Man, that Jazz neck is absolute heaven for my fret hand. Great build quality, too.

I have played 2 club gigs, 3 band rehearsals, and several personal practices with it. It looks/feels/seems bulletproof. One interesting test I gave it was to remove the battery and see if it still works (my Stingrays won't - they are active only). It did work without the battery, in passive mode, but not active. So... I won't have to worry about a battery dying stopping me in mid-song during a gig. It seems like a rock solid bass; the build quality is good.

I haven't dealt with Fender's Customer Support.

I've been playing for 12 years. I love this bass. The Jazz neck is like butter in my hands, it feels totally natural. I've been disappointed in the sound of my MIM Jazz bass - it is thin and hums in the presence of any electronics. This Jaguar bass never hums and has balls and bass to spare. I also love my Rickenbacker 4003s, and I have a love/hate relationship with my Stingrays, but this one could trump them all for gigs - it feels better and sounds great. This bass is designed specifically for players who love the Jazz neck profile and want lots of electronic options, including active/passive and parallel/series. Plus, it has a cool retro look that's not bad. For the price, it is incredible. You couldn't hardly get a MIM Jazz and replace the pickups to kill the humming for what it cost, and this one is rock solid as is.

Same as stated in previous reviews.

Lots and lots of bass. The active pickups make my dishes rattle, the passive pick ups are very full too. Very good for fast punk picking style, very good for les claypool slap style, very good for mellow and lazy bass lines.

The only thing wrong with it was upon arrival the action was very high. Everything else was perfect. Everyone who sees and plays it is amazed. The matching red headstock and body are beatiful. It sit nicely on my lap and very comfortable and easy to play when using a strap.

I'm sure it will stand the test of time. If i were to ever play a gig on bass, I wouldn't think of a back up.

never dealt with them

I'm primarily a guitar player. I've been playing around with my friend's jazz bass for a bit and decided i needed to get a bass. I'm usually very picky about the guitars I buy, but I ordered this bass right out of the '06 fender cataloge without seeing one in person. When it arrived a few weeks later, I was more than impressed. The owner of the jazz bass i've used agrees with me that this bass evokes a different kind of bass playing. I don't want/need any other bass. This one is perfect and very very sexy. If this bass were to be stolen or go missing, I would be on the phone ordering another in a heart beat.

I am an employee of a Fender-franchised music store; I got one of the first 25 red Jaguar Basses that were made. It is one of the few Japanese made instruments that are in Fender's arsenal. It is basically a suped-up Jazz Bass: 2 jazz p/u's, standard bridge, 1.50" at the nut, clover tuners, alder body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard. The controls are unique: on/off neck p/u switch, on/off bridge p/u switch, active/passive switch, bass roller knob, treble roller knob, master volume, master tone. The matching red headstock is killer!

This is one of the few active/passive basses that I like better in passive mode. It has a great, punchy, yet warm natural tone. The active electronics seem too subtle and lacking in the low and high mids. This is definately a keeper for anyone who loves slapping, also.

The Jaguar Bass came in to my store absolutely flawless. The strings were set to exact (I measured it) Fender specs w/ no hint of any fret buzz. The thick, tinted lacquer on the neck made the playing VERY nice!

The durability appears to be the same as any other mid-priced Fender. The only factor that I worry about is the electronics. The strange setup will be hard to find parts for in the future.

N/A

Since I was 12 years old (15 years ago), I have dreamed of asking Fender to make me a custom shop "Jaguar" Bass. They made my dream come true, and they did it in style!