I bought my Geddy Jazz bass a couple years ago. I play cover band rock, funk, r&b and disco. Basically I play all types of dance music for corporate events, up-scale weddings and the tomorrow land stage at Disneyland. On occasion, I still play bars but those I would like to avoid.
I was looking for a bass with a thinner neck and a fat thick sound. I was also considering having the bass set up to B-E-A-D tuning so I didn’t have to play a five-string bass. So I picked the Geddy Lee bass to cover those wants and it did a good job.
(This is my video bass review of the Geddy Lee Jazz bass below.)
Overall, I really like this bass. I think it is one of the better ones Fender is making right now. While this bass is made in Japan along with the Jaguar bass, I feel it is better put together than several USA made Fenders I have played.
The components are solid. The neck is maple in a C shape with a urethane finish. The fret board is maple with black binding and black block inlays. The fret board is lined with 20 medium-sized jumbo frets. I like these frets over the smaller thinner frets even though I do make more fret noise with them if I am not placing my fingers in the right spots. The body is Alder. The tuners are Fender vintage ‘70s stamped open gear tuners. The stock bridge is a Leo Quan Badass 2. There are 2 vintage jazz bass single coils pickups. Controls are the standard neck volume, bridge volume, and master tone control.
This is a very easy bass to play. The neck is fast and once set up by a local guitar shop, the action can make them play like butter. The bass feels balanced and comfortable when it is strapped on.
The quality of the construction is good. I only have a few points I do not care for:
I think the black block inlays and the black binding are somewhat cheap. They just do not seem quite right. It’s not a deal breaker by any means but they just seem a little cheesy to me. If you compared the inlays and binding of a Lakland Duck Dunn Skyline bass, the level of quality is easy to see. Now the Lakland is a little more money too but not much. I’d like to see Fender come up with a better binding and better blocks. The extra money to pay for that little touch would be worth it.
I am not a fan of the BassAss bass bridges. In addition, that is not so much directly from me but from my bass tech. He told me the BassAss bridges are not all that people think they are. The quality of metal is not good in these bridges and they actually suck some of the sound and sustain out of the guitar. My bass tech is a very experienced bass player and I trust him on this. Having worked on guitars and basses for years, he is knowledgeable. His feeling is that much of the Fender jazz and p-bass sound comes from the simplistic bridge design. The wood bass bodies resonant through these older styles bridges much better. On my Geddy Lee bass, I have a Wilkenson vintage looking bridge. It is better metal than the original jazz bass bridges and sustain very well.
My strap buttons did not want to stay in the alder wood body. After tightening them several times the screws holes got too big and the buttons would not stay in. I had to use filler glue and some toothpicks to fill the holes up. I then drilled a small hole through the glue and toothpicks and now the buttons are not going anywhere. Alder wood is known as a soft-hardwood so this may be the issue. Alder is lighter weight and said to be good for lows and highs. However, it creates less mids than basswood. So the range of sounds is the trade-off compared to a harder wood the strap buttons would stay screwed into. This again was not a big deal to me.
When I have played these basses in stores like Guitar Center, the action has always been too high. So be prepared to take it to someone and have it properly set up. I am often shocked at how many Fender basses are badly set up and released by the factory. I never see this with Ernie Ball Musicman or Lakland basses whether they are USA made of overseas.
I do not have a problem with the Fender stock bass tuners that come on this model. However, some people trade them out for Hipshot gear tuners. I have those as well but I did not put them on the bass. I think the stock tuners are fine.
The pickups are vintage jazz bass single coils and I think they are fine too. I could have just left them one but I thought I wanted a little more growl and punch. I tried Seymore Duncan ¼ pound pickups and then EMG bass pickups but didn’t like either of them. I ended with Dimarzio Model J™ pickups and I like them a lot. However, I think the stock pickups are fine.
As you can hear in the video, the bass is punchy and full sounding. It sounded that way with the stock pickups too. I did not need the Dimarzios but I got it in my head that they did sound fuller. I have heard guys with the stock pickups sound great though.
I prefer to run the front pickup on a jazz bass on full and the bridge pickup about ¾ up. The bridge pickup is too harsh sounding to my ear when it is solo or turned up a lot. Some guys like that sound but to me it is not a warm tone.
In conclusion, I highly recommend this bass. It has many good things going for it and I am sure if you buy one you will not be disappointed.