Fender Nate Mendel Precision Bass Review

Wow! Amazing sound!

My only regret is not getting it sooner. What a great bass! Neck thickness is subjective. No complaints on my side. 5 stars!

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They were right

This year marks 30 years playing bass for me. I was heavily influenced by Nate’s bass lines in Sunny Day Real Estate and the Fire Theft, so that’s what caught my initial intrigue with this bass. My first bass was a Mexican P Bass, then added an Am Standard Jazz in 1995, which I palpated exclusively for 20 years. From there I briefly played a Music Man but didn’t care for the… read more active thing. Sold it and went back to my Jazz. When I turned 40, I decided I would add a bass a year to my collection. Bought a G&L ASAT hollowbody at 40, and a American Elite P Bass at 41. While these all all great guitars, I wanted the tone Nate influenced me with in his early years. Plus I wanted something I could beat up. Read all the reviews on this bass and I was shocked how great they were. I was conditioned to believe the Mexican made stuff was just not worth my time - especially since my 1992 MIM P bass was shoddy, to say the least. Needless to say, I pulled the trigger on this puppy. I couldn’t be more pleased with this bass. I read some notes about the initial setup being horrid, but outside of a slight saddle adjustment on my E string, it was perfect out of the box. I can already tell this will be my #1 going forward. Just don’t tell my Jazz.

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Great look. Great bass

I really like this bass. Got it because of the narrower nut width, but the relic on it is SOOO classy. Everyone thinks it is old. I changed the pickups for more vintage tone, but it's a great feeling bass and plays/sounds great. Kudos to Sweetwater for helping find the right one.

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Changed My Mind about the Pbass

I have always been frustrated by Fender. I love the way a Jazz plays and I love the way a Precision sounds. Fender doesn't make an American P bass with a Jazz neck. I thought about buying parts and putting one together and considered buying one of the Mexican made fenders and upgrading parts. To me the Nate Mendel had the perfect body; Nitro paint, badass bridge and a quarter… read more pounder. I don't live close to a guitar shop that carries this signature model so I couldn't get my hands on the neck to see if the hybrid was comfortable to play or not. I took a risk to see if this bass was everything I thought it could be. Ordered it from Sweetwater and thought if the neck was not my thing I could switch it out. When I got the bass it was better than I had hoped. The Mexican Fender shop knocked it out of the park with this bass. Set up perfectly out of the box. The bass looks and feels great. The sound is definitely rock. Reggae bassist will have to do some tweaking with the quarter pound pickup but the tone control does do quite a bit to get you a blues or Motown type sound. The risk was worth it. As good as an American Fender. I am not touching a thing. I noticed some complain about the tuners and that was one of my fears with a Mexican bass but this bass has no issues. I took it out oft the box, plugged it in and have been playing it ever since. I have owned A LOT of basses over the years. This is one I will grow old with. Way to go Fender. Thank You Sweetwater!

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My first P bass

This was my first P bass I have ever owned. I have always favored jazz basses over P basses. This bass changed my mind completely. I have owned many basses of different types and this is by far one of the best! This is now my number one go to bass!

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