Fender Player Plus Active Jazz Bass V Review

Active Jazz V

I am very pleased with this Bass! It sounds as good as it looks!!

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Beast

I love this bass sound is very clear without sounding tiny. Finish is great, playability is excellent. Fender has something special with this bass, the way that it's voiced is perfect. Greg was great throughout the entire process. Sweetwater customer service is second to none. Don't buy anywhere else.

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Amazing

Look, the thing sounds great, it feels great, it looks great. If you're on the fence about getting it, don't be. This bass is worth the money. Fast neck, responsive, quality knobs/controls. Also, the finish- wow. It looks amazing. A nice deep forest green with the flakes. Total show-stopper. Anyway, buy the thing. You won't regret it.

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An Improved Active 5-String Jazz Bass From Fender

Fender continues to improve their version of a 5-string Jazz Bass. The fit and finish of this instrument is beyond reproach. It's simply- perfect. I never thought I would pay $ for a Mexican Fender anything, new, and new with only a gig bag, but it seems like a BARGIN compared to an American Ultra Jazz Bass V which is the next step up for an active 5-string Jazz Bass from Fender… read more for *$ MORE*. Also, I never thought I'd see a $ new American Jazz Bass that didn't come from the custom shop. Anyway, do I think the American Ultra Jazz Bass V is better? Probably. Possibly. Is the American Ultra Jazz Bass V $ better? I don't think it is. I think "Is ____ X dollars better?" is a very important question to ask.I think it is important to say that as it comes stock, it doesn't sound like a good passive 4-string Jazz Bass, but with the extra option of a low B string and tone sculpting option of active electronics, even in "passive mode". If you can adjust your expectations accordingly, you'll find this to be a very useful, nice playing and sounding bass. That said, in passive mode, these stock pickups sound quite compressed and not nearly as "three-dimensional" as good passive Jazz Bass pickups. Also, the volume in passive mode is noticeably lower than passive 4-string Jazz Basses I used for comparison purposes. Only in "active mode" do you get output from the instrument that is close to the output of passive Jazz Basses, and that means that for gigging, if you want to go back and forth between active and passive modes, you'll have to find ways to address those output discrepancies without driving the soundperson(s) crazy. Due to the way I use active basses with their tone sculpting abilities, I'll probably never play a gig with these stock pickups in passive mode, and that makes the active/passive toggle ability useless to me in about 99.9% of things I'd ever do with this bass in any situation. Fender needs to continue to work on their noiseless pickups, and out of all the features on this bass, the fact that these are noiseless pickups is the thing I cared least about when I bought the bass. The three band EQ is useful. Out of the three bands, I find the mid EQ the most powerful/dramatic. The bass EQ and the treble EQ do cut/boost, but they are not nearly as dramatic in effect as say on a Stingray 5-string. I guess that's ok. I tend to leave the EQ flat and boost/cut frequencies as-needed based on the room/environment and song. Lots of good, usable Jazz Bass tones here from warm almost-Precision Bass-like neck pickup to scooped sound with both pickups and throaty bridge pickup by itself. During gigs, I will use all three pickup settings.The low B string is pretty good in sound and response. I have to manage my expectations here like I did with the pickups. A Stingray 5 String (either American or Sterling Ray35) is my gold standard for 34-inch scale low B string responsiveness and tone. I think every Fender low B string at any and every price point feels slightly flabby and unresponsive as compared to a Stingray low B string, and that's still true here, although better than some previous Fender efforts, and much better than other previous Fender efforts. The tone of the low B isn't nearly as good, but then I'm inevitably talking about the difference between how a Stingray humbucker picks up those low frequencies versus how not only a single-coil Jazz Bass pickups up those frequencies, but also how a noiseless Jazz Bass pickup picks up those frequencies. I have to manage my expectations about the low B string on a Jazz Bass and remember it's simply NOT a Stingray, and adjust playing, articulation, attack, timing and sound, accordingly.This bass is HEAVY. It is noticeably heavy relative to my 4-string Jazz Basses and my other old Active Deluxe 5-string Jazz Bass, and it's on par for the weight of a 5-string Stingray. The weight isn't much of an issue for me, as I'm used to Stingray weight for 3 sets of music/3 hours, but for some, the weight of this specific model of bass may be a deal-breaker. I find that the weights of this new Jazz Bass on various copies offered for sale have a little variation, because... wood... but I think waiting for a 9-pound (or less) version of this bass to come off a Fender factory line is a fool's game. But who knows, you might be lucky. Every one of these copies I've seen has been 10 pounds or a bit more, even in the 11-pound territory. The only good thing about the weight, is there is no neck dive, which is a no-buy deal-breaker for any bass I own or will consider owning.The radius of the fretboard is fairly flat for easy playing up/down and across the neck. In combination with that nice higher-mass bridge, the notes acoustically respond and play nicely all over the neck, for the most part, previous mentions of the low B notwithstanding. It is an easy playing bass. The old-style block heel joint and 20 fret specifications don't bother me at all, especially given the context in which I'll use this bass 90% of the time.I'll use this new Fender Player Plus Active Jazz Bass V has my new "main bass" in a Modern Country/Country/Classic Rock band. That should be my strongest endorsement. I'll leave my Stingray 5-strings for gigs and setlists tilted more towards Rock and Pop. I'm glad I have this bass. That said, I want to be aware of, and make you aware of where I think the instrument falls short in a continuing quest for Fender to make the best 5-string Jazz Bass, however do it in a way that is not unfairly critical, in addition to saying good things about the instrument.

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Great bass

It plays amazing right out of the box the paint job is what attracted me to it and it looks even better in person I own an elite and this is right up there with it can't go wrong for the money I wish they would give a hard Schell case is the only con but very happy with this purchase would recommend.

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Better than I hoped.

This bass was exactly what I was hoping for. The rolled finger board, 18v Preamp that has a passive mode, and high mass bridge really sealed the deal. The harmonics you can pull off are unbelievable and the notes really stand out. I received compliments at the first gig on the tone and note articulation.

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Right up there with every bass I've owned

I've been playing bass since 1994. I've owned Fender American Ultra/Elites, G&L (USA), etc, and this bass sounds and feels just as high-quality, and looks amazing. The only hint that it's a Mexican-made model is the slightly-less-smooth movement of the control knobs. Seriously. That's it. And it costs $ less than my other basses. And of course, my Sweetwater Swami Ryan Sloan made… read more sure everything was perfect, start-to-finish.

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