Fender American Deluxe Precision Bass  

Spot of glue on fretboard sticking up the size of a ink pen tip diameter..took work to get it partially removed, lower tone knob or dail that shares the same pot never tightened down spinning freely, went to remove batteries for storage of bass..was very careful, because I noticed they used the very cheap folded card board type battery terminal block..went as easy as possible to remove battery, and one of the terminals broke off and stayed on the battery anyways, also the little spong thing to cushion the battery came right off, because they did not clean a powdery substantance off the battery compartment walls, so it had powder on the the adhesive side thus it came off..(American guitars I just bought) just changed a defective knob on a new Gibson les Paul, and had to send a Gibson SG back. because someone missed with the screw driver and guaged the front of the body..THE POINT I AM MAKING these american guitar companies do not have the quality control like they used to for the big bucks they charge because of ther name..I have been playing for 37 years and owned a lot of guitars from the big names and now you have to hassle with a low standard of quality control...very versital bass, excellent tone, but must be fully inspected, because the lack of quality control...I will upgrade the Battery terminals, something to consider if you purchase one of these basses.

Very very cheap battery terminals

low quality control spinng knob never tightened and a few cheap parts customer needs to use some of their time to fix and upgrade battery terminals.. clean powder out of battery compartment and restick sponge cushion

electronics good tone and concept but the cheap battery terminals was skimping..bass does't fit case very well not snug in case moves around in the gap around the body in.. case not made to fit excately

Powerful active EQ; active/passive switch really does provide a wider tonescape; choice of top-load or string-thru bridge puts that debate to rest; great flight case. About the only thing I can wish for is a piezo pickup, but that's a very nitpicky request.

Finish is flawless; tuners are ultra-stable and don't tax your fingers; no noise whatsoever; tone is very expressive without too much thump or tin. Truss rod and string height were good from the factory, but intonation and pickup height required adjustment. Knobs made contact with the pickguard, which would eventually create wear, so they needed to be raised slightly (easily done with a flathead screwdriver).

If you like this sort of sound, the price is right, though not mind-bogglingly low. It's absolutely a professional instrument, so you could pay a LOT more.

I'm overjoyed with the American Deluxe Precision Bass. It's light, romantic-looking, and it sounds great. It is now my #1 bass, and I can't see myself parting with it...ever.

I've had this bass for several weeks and continue to explore new sounds and get used to all the amazing new features. The new preamp is fantastic with lots of headroom from the 18 volt electronics and the passive mode is so close to my American Standard sound I'm really amazed. I plat it passive at least half of the time because it sounds so good! The electronics are the  best Fender's ever done and the tone controls are for real adding tone and not just boosting db. Subtle might be a better word for the bass and the mid control adds punch while the treble adds nice crispness. Even the passive tone control provides excellent tone shaping. The craftsmanship of the neck and body are outstanding as you'd expect and the hipshot lightweight tuners are light and stay in tune. The new strong arm string tree for the A string solves a long-standing problem and adds to the many features. The only drawback on this bass is the lack of shielding. Out of the box REALLY noisy which is likely why I was able to get a good deal on a used one. This is overcome by having conductive shielding paint installed and a ground plate under the J pickup. Once the noise is overcome, this is an insanely nice bass, but beware you might get one of the noisy ones like I did. Fender should go back to shielding like they used to and maybe they have, but my tech knew about it so I got mine fixed pretty quick. I like this better than the Jazz deluxe likely because of the great pbass pickup.

Quality is outstanding except for the lack of electronics shielding.

Great value and the new electronics and other features justify the slight price increase over prior models.

Great overall bass loaded with the best of the best Fender features. Would have been higher rating except for noisy lack of shielding.