Just to be clear (since I somehow managed not to explicitly state this once in a 20-minute video), my criticisms of Fender regarding this bass are entirely around *assembly.* The parts - other than the pickups - are all first rate. The tuners are excellent, this bridge with the through-body string option is Fender's best, the body and neck are both perfect. It's just in that final process of putting all the pieces together (well, and the crappy pickups) where Fender falls down.
My attitude comes off pretty negative at the beginning, but after the pickup swap I am happy with the instrument. But it's probably good to keep in mind that what you get may not be perfect right out of the box. If you can get Fender's first-time customer 10% discount, that will go most of the way to covering the cost of new pickups.
Thank you for your video, it was interesting to watch. My Custom Mod Shop PJ bass I ordered for $3700 AUS came perfectly assembled, all the screws were installed correctly. Bridge setup was correct and was in tune straight from the box. I dont have any buzzing or humming fron the pickups at all runnig through my Gallien Krueger amp and cabs. It sounds incredible playing with pick, and slap and pop. I am super happy with it! :-) I got what I expected ordering a new live touring bass. Sorry you had a bad experience. But thank you for your videos!
Just to clarify, did you get a Custom Shop or a Mod Shop? I know prices shipped to Australia are higher but that sounds like a Custom Shop price, which I absolutely would expect to be top-tier, built-to-order by Fender's master luthiers, whereas the Mod Shop is assembled from stock parts.
This is exactly why i have not and most likely will not ever order from the Fender Mod shop. I've seen to many videos with bad or indifferent experiences. This is the first Bass video I've seen. I'm sorry you had such a poor experience with this purchase. Its really a downer. When you spend this amount of $$$ on a new instrument it should be a great experience not a "it is what it is" experience. Love that candy tangerine color!
Beautiful bass, gorgerous color and pickguard combination, and with those new pickups it looks even better. Sound good too. Still, what a pain having to deal with all those QC issues with an US Fender... and a Mod Shop at that!
Sounds like Fender has some personnel issues at their shop if it was hastily assembled but its final setup was decent. I imagine with all the custom shop and mod shop orders they get, theyre either understaffed or a few of the crew just didnt gaf. My 2019 Pro shipped and was in pretty good shape with the exception of sharp frets and the vmod pickups, which are probably just an inferior pickup altogether. Replaced mine with EMGs. And I agree, every instrument should have the shielding paint. I still think the mod shop is a good option for those who want more selection without going full on custom shop, its just a shame not everyone is following through with quality control. Hopefully Fender gets wise to this and sets things straight moving forward.
Cool bass. I also got rid of the terrible Ultra Jazz and bought a five-string American Professional 2 Precision. Everything is much better. By the way, the case also stinks of chemicals, Ultra had the same case, but there was no smell and the quality of the insides of the case was better.
Nice video and beautiful bass. I like the way the new pickups look as well. It sucks that you had to do so much extra modifications. I am considering buying a P Bass from the Mod shop as it is the only way to get the exact color scheme I want. As I side note, from a video creator point of view. I think you would be better served to read the script then record yourself speaking while looking directly into the camera. Most people want to feel like they are in a conversation with their favorite content creators. Even the sigh at the end of the video felt forced. Just my two cents. Good luck and keep progressing.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm still trying to work out the best way to handle scripts and being on camera (or not). I'm probably going to settle on mostly not being on-camera when speaking, but I had too much to say and not enough B-roll for this one! Since I'm pausing between sentences and cutting it together anyway, I should be able to handle memorizing one line long enough to just look straight at the camera as I'm delivering it! 😂 Maybe not though. I psych myself out.
Maybe, but he could have gotten a Squire or Mexican Fender and taken it to a repair shop to get it fully inspected and modded and fret leveled. I’ve done it and the results are excellent
My husband just ordered on on the 15th. He got the corona classic pu. I know he s. Seymour dunkin qp in case., a well as copper tape for shielding. Looks like h may need them all
Of course they are not custom made. That's Custom Shop and way more $$$$. These are assembled from the same parts they use for the American Professional II.
Before the internet, I had no idea what Fender was. I just grabbed any decent guitar and focused on the music. Life was simpler back then. Nobody really cared that much about brand names
Jeeze, you shoulda just bought an american performer pbass, it's a pj, comes with a gig bag instead of a hardcase, no stacked knobs, and you coulda replaced the electronics in that and still had cash to spare
Hmm. Paying 2k for a bass, then having to buy new pickups? I'll stick with Tobias. If I pay 2k, I can just play it for 30 years and it sounds perfect every time.
Correct me if im wrong , but from my under standing the mod shop options are just mismatched items , over stock or B stock that would not pass final inspection and are sold at a premium as a mod shop. Ive seen some ugly things on mods, even some examples on youtube owners too. So in short they dont do anything in the mod shop except assemble what they have and cant sell to small or large dealers.
I don't think that's the case. My understanding is it's just the same parts they use for the American Professional II, so it's basically equivalent to that, plus the additional body color options. I do think though, from my experience with this instrument, that they are maybe rushing the assembly and QC process on these Mod Shop instruments right now. (But yeah, kind of to your point… the Mod Shop is not the Custom Shop. They're just assembling stock parts.)
its such a shame but i've lost a lot of respect for fender and american company. i've had a lot of issue with a Xotic california, a 2k $ instrument that came with the neck pocket cut too deep. meaning that even with the saddle at the lowest, the action was still too high. i had to do a neck shim myselft with some library card. inexusable for a limited USA run on a "handmade in california" instrument. its sad to say but i've never had such issue on most of my chinese, korean instrument that cost 3 time less money. nowaday i don't even bother with usa or boutique brand. My main axe now is a cort A6 with new mk6cbc pickup and delano preamp (also serie/parallel/mid swich mod). i bought the bass for 800 euro and all the mods cost me an aditionnal 400. and that bass murder every bass i own. even the 2k one. the only thing giving away that the bass isn''t a boutique one is the flame maple top motif that's clearly not one of the best and the big "Cort" logo on the headstock. aside from that in a mix, you would think its a ken smith or peavey cirrus.
When is the market gonna stop giving Fender the benefit of the doubt? More fool us if we keep giving them our money when there are so many good quality alternatives now.
Just to be clear (since I somehow managed not to explicitly state this once in a 20-minute video), my criticisms of Fender regarding this bass are entirely around *assembly.* The parts - other than the pickups - are all first rate. The tuners are excellent, this bridge with the through-body string option is Fender's best, the body and neck are both perfect. It's just in that final process of putting all the pieces together (well, and the crappy pickups) where Fender falls down.
Was Looking at that modshop at fender, thanks for the input! I guess I will look for alternatives :)
My attitude comes off pretty negative at the beginning, but after the pickup swap I am happy with the instrument. But it's probably good to keep in mind that what you get may not be perfect right out of the box. If you can get Fender's first-time customer 10% discount, that will go most of the way to covering the cost of new pickups.
Thank you for your video, it was interesting to watch. My Custom Mod Shop PJ bass I ordered for $3700 AUS came perfectly assembled, all the screws were installed correctly. Bridge setup was correct and was in tune straight from the box. I dont have any buzzing or humming fron the pickups at all runnig through my Gallien Krueger amp and cabs. It sounds incredible playing with pick, and slap and pop. I am super happy with it! :-) I got what I expected ordering a new live touring bass. Sorry you had a bad experience. But thank you for your videos!
Just to clarify, did you get a Custom Shop or a Mod Shop? I know prices shipped to Australia are higher but that sounds like a Custom Shop price, which I absolutely would expect to be top-tier, built-to-order by Fender's master luthiers, whereas the Mod Shop is assembled from stock parts.
i feel like i'm watching a professional 100k+ subscriber youtuber right now. this is severely underrated. thank you!
This is exactly why i have not and most likely will not ever order from the Fender Mod shop. I've seen to many videos with bad or indifferent experiences. This is the first Bass video I've seen. I'm sorry you had such a poor experience with this purchase. Its really a downer. When you spend this amount of $$$ on a new instrument it should be a great experience not a "it is what it is" experience. Love that candy tangerine color!
Beautiful bass, gorgerous color and pickguard combination, and with those new pickups it looks even better. Sound good too. Still, what a pain having to deal with all those QC issues with an US Fender... and a Mod Shop at that!
Thank you for this informative and entertaining video. I learned a lot!
I'm glad you liked it!
Thanks for this. I got here because I was curious about getting a custom. Not anymore!
Sounds like Fender has some personnel issues at their shop if it was hastily assembled but its final setup was decent. I imagine with all the custom shop and mod shop orders they get, theyre either understaffed or a few of the crew just didnt gaf. My 2019 Pro shipped and was in pretty good shape with the exception of sharp frets and the vmod pickups, which are probably just an inferior pickup altogether. Replaced mine with EMGs. And I agree, every instrument should have the shielding paint. I still think the mod shop is a good option for those who want more selection without going full on custom shop, its just a shame not everyone is following through with quality control. Hopefully Fender gets wise to this and sets things straight moving forward.
Cool bass. I also got rid of the terrible Ultra Jazz and bought a five-string American Professional 2 Precision. Everything is much better. By the way, the case also stinks of chemicals, Ultra had the same case, but there was no smell and the quality of the insides of the case was better.
Being in Australia, the cost for one of these is prohibitive. This is an excellent video, thank you.
You are not the only person who said that these basses suck. I think warmoth is waaaay better
Nice video and beautiful bass. I like the way the new pickups look as well. It sucks that you had to do so much extra modifications. I am considering buying a P Bass from the Mod shop as it is the only way to get the exact color scheme I want. As I side note, from a video creator point of view. I think you would be better served to read the script then record yourself speaking while looking directly into the camera. Most people want to feel like they are in a conversation with their favorite content creators. Even the sigh at the end of the video felt forced. Just my two cents. Good luck and keep progressing.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm still trying to work out the best way to handle scripts and being on camera (or not). I'm probably going to settle on mostly not being on-camera when speaking, but I had too much to say and not enough B-roll for this one!
Since I'm pausing between sentences and cutting it together anyway, I should be able to handle memorizing one line long enough to just look straight at the camera as I'm delivering it! 😂 Maybe not though. I psych myself out.
You should have bought a Sadowski
Maybe, but he could have gotten a Squire or Mexican Fender and taken it to a repair shop to get it fully inspected and modded and fret leveled. I’ve done it and the results are excellent
the dimarzio pickups sound more fender than the fender pickups
My husband just ordered on on the 15th. He got the corona classic pu. I know he s. Seymour dunkin qp in case., a well as copper tape for shielding. Looks like h may need them all
Ive heard that they are really not custom made from reworked/repainted returned and second instruments parts.
Of course they are not custom made. That's Custom Shop and way more $$$$. These are assembled from the same parts they use for the American Professional II.
Before the internet, I had no idea what Fender was. I just grabbed any decent guitar and focused on the music. Life was simpler back then. Nobody really cared that much about brand names
Jeeze, you shoulda just bought an american performer pbass, it's a pj, comes with a gig bag instead of a hardcase, no stacked knobs, and you coulda replaced the electronics in that and still had cash to spare
The “$500 Fender is better than a $2k Fender has NEVER been my experience”.
Hmm. Paying 2k for a bass, then having to buy new pickups? I'll stick with Tobias. If I pay 2k, I can just play it for 30 years and it sounds perfect every time.
Correct me if im wrong , but from my under standing the mod shop options are just mismatched items , over stock or B stock that would not pass final inspection and are sold at a premium as a mod shop. Ive seen some ugly things on mods, even some examples on youtube owners too. So in short they dont do anything in the mod shop except assemble what they have and cant sell to small or large dealers.
I don't think that's the case. My understanding is it's just the same parts they use for the American Professional II, so it's basically equivalent to that, plus the additional body color options. I do think though, from my experience with this instrument, that they are maybe rushing the assembly and QC process on these Mod Shop instruments right now. (But yeah, kind of to your point… the Mod Shop is not the Custom Shop. They're just assembling stock parts.)
its such a shame but i've lost a lot of respect for fender and american company. i've had a lot of issue with a Xotic california, a 2k $ instrument that came with the neck pocket cut too deep. meaning that even with the saddle at the lowest, the action was still too high. i had to do a neck shim myselft with some library card. inexusable for a limited USA run on a "handmade in california" instrument. its sad to say but i've never had such issue on most of my chinese, korean instrument that cost 3 time less money. nowaday i don't even bother with usa or boutique brand.
My main axe now is a cort A6 with new mk6cbc pickup and delano preamp (also serie/parallel/mid swich mod). i bought the bass for 800 euro and all the mods cost me an aditionnal 400. and that bass murder every bass i own. even the 2k one. the only thing giving away that the bass isn''t a boutique one is the flame maple top motif that's clearly not one of the best and the big "Cort" logo on the headstock. aside from that in a mix, you would think its a ken smith or peavey cirrus.
That’s why it’s called a fender mod shop, because you have to do all the mods yourself 😂
When is the market gonna stop giving Fender the benefit of the doubt? More fool us if we keep giving them our money when there are so many good quality alternatives now.
Just build a warmoth way better quality
What a cry baby