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Fender Standard Jazz Bass

 

Review of the Fender Standard Jazz by The Man in the Jar

The funkier sister of the Fender Precision.

Features of the Fender Standard Jazz Bass 

Tuners - Unbranded open-backed tuners with large clover knobs are easy to use and accurate. As they are uncovered you will have to carefully clean them every now and then to prevent dirt build up.

Headstock - The Jazz Bass shares the classic scroll headstock with other Fender icons such as the Precision and the Stratocaster. Here the access to the truss rod is uncovered but finished really well.

Nut - The white plastic nut is of the set-in-slot variety and is cleanly finished.

Neck - The modern C-shaped bolt-on neck is very slim and comfortable for a long scale bass. I like the way the Jazz Bass narrows more than the Precision at the nut end, it makes it more player-friendly in my view. The maple neck is finished in a smooth satin lacquer making it a comfortable playing experience.

Fretboard - The medium brown rosewood fretboard has a good tight grain. Traditional dot markers are inlaid in white in place of the usual Jazz block inlays. This gives the Jazz Standard a rather more conservative look.

Frets - The medium-heavy gauge frets are well finished and provide a positive fretting action, very important to prevent fret-rattle due to sloppy fingering.

Action - Very low straight from the box, the foreman at this particular Mexican factory was obviously well in control of final setups.

Body - The alder body is a slightly distorted, Jazzier version of the Precision which in turn is simply a larger version of the Stratocaster. As such the Jazz bass shares the same comfort contouring to front and back.

Bridge - Very simple oblong plate combining bridge and stop-tail in the same unit. Each string is carried on barrel saddle that has a single groove to ensure the string doesn't move around. Each barrel has a height adjusting Allen screw at each end and is also fully adjustable for intonation.  

Pickups - The Jazz has two single coil pickups. One sits just forward of the bridge the other is mounted midway in the scratchplate.

Controls - Each pickup has its own volume control which dispenses with the need for a pickup selector. Instead the pickups can be blended or one or the other can be muted. Turning both volume controls down mutes the instrument entirely. The third, smaller knob is a master tone control. 

Scratchplate - The three-ply white/black/white scratchplate is truncated to merge with the cool chrome plate that carries the controls. 

Strap-buttons - The are two medium-sized strap buttons, one on the bottom of the body and one on the upper horn. 

Output Jack - This sits below the controls on chromed part of the scratchplate. 

Finish - Very good throughout. The Midnight Wine colour of the review model has a really nice, almost metallic sheen that doesn't show up in the photo.

Accessories - A rather nice Fender gigbag.

 

Sound of the Fender Standard Jazz

The voice of this instrument is defined by the maple and alder used in its construction, it therefore has a light and ringing tone with a great depth that doesn't "rumble" at the lower end. I preferred running the mid pickup alone to get the most woodiness into the tone and then fine tuned that tone by blending in an element of the bridge pickup. These are classic bass tones from a classic bass design.    

 

Overall Impressions of the Fender Standard Jazz

The bass player in my first band at school had a Columbus Jazz Bass copy that made him look a whole lot cooler than he had any real right to be. And in the end that's what wins me over about the Jazz Standard - those simple "must-have" Fender bass tones are a given, but it's the looks that make this beast the killer that it is.   Jazz...   Mmmmm...   Niiiice!

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