Proof some things need a manual; A semi-review (long)

[JPark]

So I had about an hour to kill before work this week, so I decided to stop by Long & McQuade and fiddle around with a few basses. Most of the guitars they have on the shelves around here are P-Bass and J-bass, and I have one of each. So I looked a little harder and spotted one of these.






Needless to say I had no clue what any of the switches on this beast did. I looked at the tag first and it mentioned something about Active/Passive switching. So I thought 'neat'. I found a Fender Rumble 60, plugged it into the Active port and turned it on.

And then I said WTF. The moment I turned on the amp there was a terrible electric buzzing sound, so I hit a few of the switches and one of the top ones stopped it. After that I tried playing it, only to find that switch I hit stopped signal from the bass. So I switched it back and tried playing it. And it sounded terrible.

I then proceeded to plug this thing into the passive port, and by this time figuring out the Active/Passive switch, switched it to passive. And that sounded good. Although the pots were pretty cheap or something, because it was either really heavy bass or really trebley with the tone.

I didn't like it and put it back. Maybe it was a matter of not knowing what to do with all the switches, or maybe it's one of those you need to take time to get to like. Whatever it was I decided the Jaguar was not for me.




Although I still think it looks cool, and it had a really nice neck on it.

[Mark Davis]

I had one of those it sounded awesome but the neck was so thin I could never get it to stabilize. I sent it back after 6 months Fender determined it had a defective neck and my dealer offered me a full refund or full credit on another guitar.

I got a HWY1 Jazz Bass 07 model and it just kills!

Here is the one I had it looked awesome.

http://www.marcondo.com/marcondo/Jag/index.html

Here is how the switching works

http://www.fender.com/support/diagra...259505APg4.pdf

[DustyDave]

I don't know anything about this model, but it sounds like a problem with the active electronics. They require a battery. I wonder if it didn't have a battery, or needed a new one.

[Dave Hopping]

Never played one,but they look uber-slick.Might look even better with J-bass bridge and pickup covers.

[Mark Davis]

One of the switches gives a giant boost and if its on and your at even a bedroom vol level it almost blows up the amp.

[beep.click]

Originally Posted by DustyDave

I don't know anything about this model, but it sounds like a problem with the active electronics. They require a battery. I wonder if it didn't have a battery, or needed a new one.

Two cool things about this bass:

1) Although it's active, it can also work passively. So if your battery dies, you can still use the bass.

2) It comes with an instruction sheet.

[JPark]

Originally Posted by beep.click

Two cool things about this bass:

1) Although it's active, it can also work passively. So if your battery dies, you can still use the bass.

2) It comes with an instruction sheet.

Well it's a good thing it comes with an instruction sheet, but they don't show it to you on the floor

[dr. love]

I remember a while back when these first came out that that some people had buzzing issues, I think there was some kind of ground issue that was involved and it was fixable, but can't find the info right now.

Once you figure out the switches, it has a huge range of sound available.