Jazz Bass Shootout - Squier vs. Mexican vs. American - All About the Bass 

you are a saint.

absolutely , you are saint :)

You guys are too nice.

Dude, the MIM sounds better in each.

Thanks for saving my time!!!

Yes please

would have to swap the squier to a maple fretboard

Music Store Köln has a super cheap J&D jazz bass with maple board (139 Euros including delivery to the Netherlands). There's one on my lap right now, and it plays and sounds great. (Or there's the 70s Squier classic vibe, if you like brands and have a bit more money.)

How did it play??..

better than expected...had to recut the nut and re do the frets...after that it turned out ok, as good as any squire i've played

This is what I keep doing. Got three MODDED squiers!

that's fair, if you grow attached to your instrument though, you may not need to resell, I have yamaha trbx 174 that I've upgraded into a beautiful P bass, im never selling it.

😄

I have squire and a MIM - the squire has better finish quality (components probably not)

I agree..........it isn't the instrument.....it is the PLAYER. I have done bass for 20 years and I have owned both Fenders and Squiers: my present bass I use is an MIM Standard and next to my Geddy Lee (which was a gift from my late grandfather) I will NEVER part with it willingly. SHE DOES THE JOB.

My J Squier with Seymore Duncan Basslines is my favorite bass. (Japanese)

@Timothy Yo and they are heavy!

Did you expect it to sound like garbage Fender put their name on it so I would expect it to at least sound decent

@@MarcG7424 it sounds better than most fenders that cost $1000+

he is my fav person for the comparing things in the meantime, absolutly serious credibility. And -of ourse- highest experience . This guy knows what hes talking about.

I suppose an affinity and the mini basses are friendliest to the wallet/bank and will give you a brighter sound than the mexican and american standard.

It's taking me a long to get around to it but I'm planning on doing the same on my MIM Precision. My JB is a G&L Tribute series and it's an absolute monster!

I thought the same. More of a fair comparison...

No doubt about it - a really good amp with good speakers will make a tremendous difference. Way back in the day , amps and speakers were big and HEAVY but also there was a lot of bottom end that you could not only hear but feel too.

Do they have completely different departments for guitars and basses? I have two guitars from that factory and tried a few more and always found them to be of absolutely great build quality.

Or, just save your money a bit more, and buy an american.

I just purchased a New-Old-Stock 2003 Fender MIM "Deluxe Zone" P/J in "Pewter" (a Metallic Silver with a touch of Bronze) - the "Spiritual Successor" to the '90s "Precision Lyte" with a downsized body and slim neck compared to standard Precision Basses. I'm much more a "Modern Jazz" & Spector Guy: I prefer their punchy, full mids as opposed to the "Open, Hollow Mids" that my ears hear from Precision & P/J Basses...but this is the P/J that has spoken to me the most among all I've played throughout the years. A downsized, super-light Alder Body, slim Maple Neck and Rosewood Fretboard, with solid P and J Pickups that's wired Vol / Blend with an Active 3-band EQ. I'm most likely going to replace the stock electronics with an Aguilar OBP-3SK/PP... not that the stock is bad, but the OBP-3 is my "Preamp Of Choice" as well as EMG's "GZR" Geezer Butler Signature Passive P/J Pickups, as I've heard *nothing* but praise about them with their "slightly gritty" tone. I'm also toying around with the idea of swapping Black GB-7s for the stock Chrome Tuners and a Hipshot Type-A Bridge I have on hand, but that would be for purely astectic values as I think that Silver and Black Hardware would simply be more "me", and I have all the parts on hand. ...but I can say with absolute honesty that it feels just like all my American or European-made Instruments, and the price I got this NOS Bass was an *absolute steal* to fill the "P/J Bass" hole in My Collection, as did a MIM "Standard"'Jazz Bass I purchased in the mid-'00s, which I upgraded the Hardware & Pickups in and sold a few years down the road and making double what I had paid for, both the Bass as well as the parts. 😉

form52 thanks for the knowledge mate 👍

Form52 I Own a mexican Jazz that sounds EXACTLY like the american shown in this video; after buying that i tried other two mexicans and they sounded like crap, so you are right

+Dave Miller Pretty sure their site says it's alder but you might be right.

I have confirmed the Squire web site does state Alder as the wood of choice for the basic Affinity series 4 string.

Yep, I stand corrected, the web site does say Alder bodied. Thank you for the replies.

In fact the vintage modified and classic vibe uses basswood,agathis and maple as body woods,just the cheaper basic affinity uses the tipical fender añder wood lol

I believe the Squier Affinity in the video is made of Agathis. It looks like the kind that come with the starter packs (skunk stripe and black head stock logo) which are made in Indonesia with agathis as the body wood. The Affinities you get outside of the starter packs are made in a Chinese factory with alder bodies. Cheers.

ouncy what the fuck?

Well it's obviously not moving because they recorded it in less than a minute

Matteo Damien I believe that's his Custom Shop 58' Les Paul

Ashley Mann He's always been like that in his videos.

I like his style

It's funny :P Almost like he's running a business

Ironically enough I bet he makes more money selling Squier and Mex than he does with American Std.

thats not how running a shop works. andertons sells more of the cheap stuff than the expensive stuff. logically, they probably get more profit off cheaper stuff than expensive stuff.

Haha, yeah, he keeps trying to spin it as "isn't that more expensive one so much nicer?" and gets shot down every time.

Personally, I think Lee seems to be more than open-minded about price v quality, and that IS a surprise for someone running a business. Love the videos!

I think the only real differences between standard and American standard is the pickups are different. You could switch them and file the frets if you needed. I really don't think there is a lot of difference between the levels of Fender. Like, it is much easier to see the differences between a PRS, SE, and S2 or a Warwick Custom, Team, or Rock bass.

CARBr6 If you watch Phillip McKnight's RU-vid channel, he goes into detail with the differences between cheaper and more expensive versions of similar instruments. At base, cheaper instruments don't use the better cuts of wood, have lower quality metal in the construction, and lower quality pickups and electronics.

GuyNamedSean that may be, but if you watch the Andertons video on the Law of diminishing returns you'll see that there isn't really a huge amount of difference in the mid range mid priced stuff.

GuyNamedSean that may be, but if you watch the Andertons video on the Law of diminishing returns you'll see that there isn't really a huge amount of difference in the mid range mid priced stuff.

or Musicman? Leo did those as well.

Yes, though they aren't really comparable to fender anymore. Under Ernieball musicman has ventured a long way from Leo's work and are their own thing now. Musicman is great if you're into them. But they're like trying to compare PRS or Gibson to Fenders. They're just completely different instruments now. Where G&L is still sticking to Leo's designs and traditions.

I think the standard StingRay still looks and plays pretty much the same as it did when Fender designed it with Walker and Ball.

G&L just released the Kiloton bass. It's the SB style body with the L-2000 bridge humbucker.

You have a valid point. I think that as long as you are not tied to a brand you can get an instrument that is as good as the American Standard Jazz for a lot less money. There is an element of paying for the name here, after all the construction methods with the exception of the amount of gluing for the body and drilling 4 holes for the American Standard bridge are very much the same. I can believe you pay more for the bridge, tuners and woods, but we are talking £10's rather than £100's. The rest is a premium for labour cost which on any mass production basis should be less than £100 per instrument and the rest is just profiteering on the name.