Has anyone played/owned a Mexican Fender Deluxe Active Precision Bass Special?

 
I've spotted a used one up for sale and was just wondering if anyone has any experience of this model specifically - sound/playability/build quality etc.
 

 
 
Or if not, Mexican built Fender basses (and maybe guitars) in general.
 
I've had a Yamaha active bass before which sounded good, and also a Japanese built PB which played like a dream.
 
I'm not looking to replace my gorgeous US Jazz Bass, just interested in maybe adding a little diversity for recording really.
 
Here's the bumph on the active version:
 
For today’s “active” bassist, Fender® offers the stylish and thunderous Deluxe Series Active Precision Bass® Special guitar. This huge-sounding hybrid model features an alder body with a single-ply beveled gold vinyl pickguard and a maple Jazz Bass® guitar neck (modern C shape) with a 20-fret, 9.5”-radius rosewood or maple fingerboard. Aboard are a standard alnico split single-coil Precision Bass pickup (middle) and a dual-coil ceramic Noiseless™ Jazz Bass pickup with nickel-plated pole pieces (bridge) with pan pot switching.
 
Controls are master volume, pan and three-band active EQ with treble boost/cut (+/- 10 db at 8kHz, a shift in the cut frequency, and about a 2dB slope per octave), mid boost/cut (+10dB, -15dB at 500Hz, and a wide band slope) and bass boost/cut (+/- 12db at 40Hz, with a 4dB slope per octave).
 
Other features include chrome hardware, American Vintage Precision Bass bridge, side-mounted jack and deluxe gig bag.

 
Many thanks in advance for any help and advice.
 
 
 

I have a MIM Fender P-bass. It's not the Super deluxe one like you show, but I find it to be a quite capable bass guitar. I got mine in a pawn shop for $125 in perfect condition. It is far superior to the Peavy bass I was using.

Sounds like you should give her a go, Straummy.

Oomph .... I love that word

I've been using a Mexican Squier P-Bass for about 15 years. It has never let me down and once I had an extreme bass nerd buddy set it up for me it played like a dream (it already played pretty good before that though). It has been through hell and back and keeps going (literally thousands of gigs and rehearsals in the hands of extreme lunatics). I would like to get a better pick up for it though. That said I think I did luck out and got a good one. I find those types of semi off brand models to be hit or miss so if at all possible try and play it first. If not I doubt it would be complete garbage because P-Basses are such a simple design and they've been making them for SOOOO long it's hard to screw up really badly.

I think I played one at a store one day.  IIRC, everything felt ok but it didn't sound like a Precision and IMHO, if it doesn't sound like that, why buy it?

I like the playability and feel of P-Basses. Don't really like the sound (too weak and thin IMHO). An active pickup or a soapbar would be just the thing to bring mine to life. I'd like to try out some of the Music Man basses. Those look quite nice. I dream of a Ricki though. *prays to Lemmy*

Right on, Bapu. I'll definitely look into it. I do need a good multi purpose bass for recording. The P I have is great to play but it is indeed very weak on recordings and requires a ton of tweaking after the fact ... which end up with "meh" results (exactly why I want to get a better pick up or rewire the whole darned thing). I'm actually more curious as to what you were using for the rest of the song. That was a nice, solid, present bass signal. Line 6 as well? This also makes me curious if I could get my existing P-Bass wired with just the electronics your Line 6 has. hmm... Cheers.

Cool. I'll take a listen in a bit. I'm currently punching out my guitar for awhile to blow off some steam (rough few days). Maybe I should just find meself an old American made pick up for my P and swap out the current one. Should be a simple enough wiring job so I could probably get away with doing it myself. At this point my needs for bass are simply getting a nice, solid signal. I'm gonna be snagging GR5 which supposedly has some nice bass models on it and Sonar seems to really be able to draw things out nicely from there. I love this bass and even though I only paid a few hundred bucks for it YEARS ago I don't think I'd sell it if someone offered me $2000. It plays too well, it is too familiar to me and it has FAR too much history to get lost in the fray. I LURVS my Mexi P. Cheers!

@drewfx1... Yup. Crappy Squire stock pickups. I think once that silly thing is replaced it'll be perfect. It's fine for live through a big ole bass rig with lots of gain but on a recording... she just don't cut.

bapu


Beepster. Here you go ------>  http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/fender-original-62-p-bass-pickup $62US

Definite +++ for that particular PU.

But I'd make sure it's not technique, strings, etc. before replacing the PU.

@Bapu... Nice. You're a thrifty and resourceful feller, aren't ya? Nice call on that NanoPatch thingamabob the other day too. As I said, because the Scarlett has a monitor level I don't need it just yet but that is EXACTLY the type of monitor control I was looking for. I'll be buying one at some point just to have around. Cheers.

@drew... Naw, this pick up has to go. It's funny, this bass has been SOOOO solid for soooo long I don't think the faceplate has EVER been removed since I bought it (15 years ago). I'm curious what pick up slot options I have. hmm... I need to change the strings. Maybe I'll crack her open and see what's up in there while I'm at it. Then again... I might release evil spirits of gigs past. :-O

bapu


Drew, I've never owned a Squier. Are pups really all that different? I always thought Squiers were about the woods and craftsmanship.

(Almost) all PU's are just magnets/magnetic material with coils of insulated wire wrapped around. And the magnets, wire, etc are all pretty cheap to begin with, so "better" PU's are either about quality control or the very particular way in which the various pieces fit together, not the cost of the raw materials. 

But I've heard both rather wonderful sounding and not-so-wonderful cheap PU's, so it's hard to say for any given instrument without hearing it myself.

Yeah, dude. Let her be. American P's are golden as they are. If you want to play around snag some old Fender parts from ebay or something and experiment from there. Or if you have the dough call their custom shop. Tearing up a working US model just doesn't make a lot of sense and devalues the future resale price. You seem to be getting a great tone from it as is.