The Company Line
I’ve written about several Fenders over the years in Bass Gear Magazine, and this history is very well known. In particular, the Fender Precision Bass® is arguably the electric bass standard that all others may be judged by at the most fundamental level. Remaining relatively unchanged for over 60 years in its current form, while still being a popular industry standard, its reputation will probably never meet its match. Then you have the Jazz Bass®, whose reputation, longevity, and success are not far behind. So how do you improve upon practical perfection? You don’t go vertical in terms of basic design innovation, so you might as well go horizontal and vary against the theme with new models to more directly serve specific markets.
That brings us to the Fender American Professional® bass line, faithfully represented here by the Precision Bass V® and Fretless Jazz Bass®. The American Professional series was available in December of 2016, but officially launched at the 2017 NAMM show. It’s essentially the successor to the American Standard® series, and builds upon the features of that line. The line consists of 92 guitars and basses and differs from the American Standard series in a number of ways. The most notable of these are shown below in the table. Justin Norvell, Executive Vice President, Fender Products, wants preserve the “sacred” core of their instruments in an “authentic” way, while modernizing at the same time. It’s a balancing act. Fender has done this by focusing their changes to be based on the most typical kinds of modifications professionals in the industry would do to their own instruments post-purchase … kinda’ like taking a vintage car and souping up the drivetrain and maybe few other things. It’s still based on an authentic feel and character, just done better. Fender released early American Professional models to artists as a litmus test, and the feedback was so positive they knew the line was going to be a winner.
| American Standard | American Professional | |
|---|---|---|
| Bridge | American Standard 2 Point | Am. Std. 2 pt. with Pop-In Arm |
| Case | Molded Case | Elite Molded Case |
| Frets | Medium Jumbo | Narrow-Tall |
| Nut | Synthetic Bone | Genuine Bone |
| Pickups | Custom Shop | New V-Mod/New Tim Shaw |
| Tuners | American Standard | New Fluted-Shaft |
The features they have in common are the small classic headstock, the staggered modern tuners, a 9.5” fingerboard radius, a Bi-Flex Dual Adjust truss rod, a 4-bolt Micro-Tilt neck joint, and 2-4 piece body construction. They both also come with the new Elite ATA grade molded case with a TSA-accepted locking center latch.
Details
Precision V
The “Antique Olive” painted body is made of alder, with a maple neck and fingerboard. While the neck profile is based on the 1963 P Bass, the neck is different from a maple/maple neck in those days in that it’s not a one-piece neck (no separate fingerboard) with the walnut “skunk” stripe (a result of truss rod installation). Instead, the neck is built as if it had a rosewood fingerboard, having a “slab” type maple fingerboard glued onto the maple neck after routing for, and installing, the truss rod. This also eliminates that walnut “dot” on the headstock past the nut. It sports 20 nicely dressed “narrow-tall” frets, Posiflex™ graphite rods for neck reinforcement, black plastic dots, a genuine bone nut, and is held on by the usual four bolts and Fender Corona badged neck plate. The back of the neck is satin, but the headstock and fingerboard are gloss. While the satin also differs from a 1963 neck, I definitely prefer the satin to a gloss finish.
The bridge is their HiMass™ Vintage bridge “for increased sustain,” offering top-side or thru-body stringing options. The pickup is their Michael Bump-designed “V-Mod split-coil Precision Bass pickup.” Here’s what Fender has to say about this pickup:
“V-Mod Precision Bass pickups are modified versions of our classic vintage pickup designs. Packed with the fundamental Fender bass sound you know and love, these split-coil pickups use alnico 5 magnets on the treble side and alnico 2 on the bass side to deliver classic tone with all the vintage warmth and crisp, clear sound that made Fender a legend.”
It has a three-ply mint green pickguard, with the usual volume and tone controls for a passive P-bass. Standard cone-shaped strap buttons, chrome barrel knobs, and their new “fluted shaft” tuners close out the hardware on this bass. It came standard with the Fender NPS roundwound set, gauges .045 to .125.
I do wish they had just a few more appearance options for each model. For example, the Sunburst and Olympic White models both come only with rosewood fingerboards, while the Antique Olive and Black models come only with Maple. Personally, I’m a fan of Sunburst and Maple, but that’s not an option. The four-string model, however, has many more options. Fender has been steadily introducing new finish options, though, so stay tuned.
Fretless Jazz
This bass has alder body with the popular and classic Sunburst finish. For the neck, unlike the American Professional Precision – which is modeled after a vintage profile – this neck is the “Slim modern “C”-shaped” profile. It’s a maple neck with a rosewood fretless fingerboard, having 20 lighter-colored inlaid lines where the frets would normally go. The face of the fingerboard has no other inlays, but the side dot markers are still there. It also has the Posiflex graphite rods, and is held on by four bolts and the Fender Corona chrome plate. The headstock is gloss finish, but the neck is satin, and the fingerboard is oiled rosewood. The nut is genuine bone, and the headstock features the new fluted shaft tuners.
This bass also has the new “V-Mod” pickups, except these are single-coil J-bass pickups, though still using Alnico 2 for the bass side and Alnico 5 magnets for the treble side, just like the P-bass’ version. It also has the HiMass™ Vintage bridge, a three-ply mint green pickguard, standard cone strap buttons, and vintage-style black plastic knobs. Two volume controls, and one tone control with the usual smaller knob. This bass came with Fender flatwound nickel strings, gauges .045” to .105”.
Fit and finish
Both of these basses are very well constructed. The fret level and dress are great on the P, and the J has a nice flat smooth board that can take a nice low setup. The controls were smooth and predictable, I could find no flaws at all in the finish on either bass, including all the chrome and machining, and the tuners were precise and easy to use.
On the gig
Precision V
This bass sounds just like Fender intended. It’s an incremental improvement over what was already a great P-bass. The narrow-tall frets feel great, should slightly improve intonation, but also seemed to make tremolo/vibrato easier for me. The new pickup sounds more even from low to high, which on a P-bass, is a nice improvement. I’ve always wondered why the “Z” of the pickup wasn’t the other way around, so you’d get more roundness to the thinner strings, and more edge/definition to the lower strings. The problem with changing that is that it also changes the P-bass tone we’ve all grown to love as it is. So instead, the mix of magnets evens the tone out nicely. It controls the low end while adding clarity to the low strings, and keeps the high strings full and bright. The satin neck is great, feels fast, and the vintage profile is a joy to play on. I tend to run these basses wide open. Sometimes I back the tone off, but mostly I run them wide open and just let the earthy girth of the P-bass do its magic. It sits perfectly between the snare and bass drums, filling out the low end in the honest way only a P-bass can do it. It balances just fine on the strap, and at 8.6 pounds, doesn’t hurt to hold for a full gig.
Fretless Jazz
Yep, feels and sounds like a passive fretless J-bass with flats should sound. It’s got all the growl and grease on the bridge pickup, and all the nice round tonal landscape a Jazz Bass’ neck pickup should have. The improvements on the new pickups are not earth-shattering compared to other premium pickups Fender has made, but they do sound different, and in a good way. To my ears – much like the P-bass above – they sound more balanced and clear. I tend to run these more or less like Jaco did for the most part. I roll the tone back, and roll the neck pickup back, so I have that nice round foundation of the neck pickup to complete the sound, but the burp and growl of the bridge pickup comes through on top, giving me clarity, definition, and a bit more edge to that famous fretless “mwah” sound. The neck profile feels great, too. It’s very easy to move around on and very comfortable. The satin finish also makes movement nice and smooth. The strings are a little bit too stiff for my personal tastes, but they sounded find, and were nice and smooth on those fretless slides we all love to do. Other players may prefer the feel of these strings, I’m sure. The bass balances on the shoulder like any J-bass should, and also at 8.6 pounds (I weighed it twice to make sure), it’s easy to play all night.
The Bottom Line
I’m a fan of both these basses. Instead of making them both march to the same tune, style-wise – such as both vintage-ish, or both modern-ish – they chose to model each one after the most popular flavor of each instrument based on player feedback. They focused on the most practical and functional foundation. No active electronics, no figured woods – and in some cases, even limited options for color/wood combos. However, each one does a fantastic job of representing what made each bass famous over the years. You could say these are the finest no-frills basses Fender has ever made, and as such, a particularly great value. 
Precision V In-hand
| Features: | 3 |
| Tonal Flexibility: | 3 |
| Ease of Use: | 4 |
| Aesthetics: | 4 |
| Ergonomics: | 4 |
| Tone: | 4 |
| Value: | 5 |
In-hand Score 3.86average
TONE-O-METER:
This bass nails the earthy P tone all the way, with all the chest-punching authority of any of its ancestors. The playability is excellent, and fires on all cylinders. I definitely recommend it.
Fretless Jazz In-hand
| Features: | 3 |
| Tonal Flexibility: | 3 |
| Ease of Use: | 4 |
| Aesthetics: | 4 |
| Ergonomics: | 4 |
| Tone: | 4 |
| Value: | 5 |
In-hand Score 3.86average
TONE-O-METER:
This bass faithfully represents the classic J-bass fretless sound all the way. It’s got all the popular tones and sounds that made the fretless J-bass a classic. A fat neck pickup, and a growly bridge pickup, with an easy to play neck make this bass a winner.
