Fender American Vintage 64 Jazz Bass

General

No-nonsense bass players are bound to be well chuffed with Fender's American Vintage bass guitars. The American guitar builders have carefully examined previous models to be able to accurately reproduce them. They even re-made the tools of the period. This is how this Fender American Vintage '64 Jazz Bass came to be. This is the version with the black finish. It's black, with a white pickguard and a rosewood fretboard.

Fender American Vintage '64 Jazz Bass: Vintage '64 Jazz Bass

This sounds blatantly obvious but that is only because it is very true - this bass is like the 1964 Jazz Bass in every way. Look at the bridge cover, for instance: chrome-plated and sporting the Fender F. Look up a bit and you'll notice the - also chrome-plated - hand rest above the middle pickup. This guitar has three knobs, two for controlling the volume of the bridge and middle pickup and a master tone control, all three fitted to a chrome-plated control plate. The pickguard underneath is white and consists of 3-layers. The pickups on this guitar are two single-coils that were designed by Fender, specifically for this guitar.

Tone and playability

Fender's attention to the vintage details didn't stop at the guitar's looks, however. Its single-coil pickups were positioned in the exact same place as the ones on the 1964 guitar, providing it with the same tonal characteristics: full of warmth and Jazz Bass harmonics. One of the most notable changes for the 1964 model was the neck, which went from a C-shaped maple version to a thinner C-shaped maple version. 1964 was the last year in which the neck was fitted with Clay Dot position markers and as such, they can also be found on this American Vintage model. Its frets are also vintage style, relatively low and narrow. For those who feel deeply about the early Jazz Bass and its distinctive sound and feel, the American Vintage '64 Jazz Bass is the perfect instrument.

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