Review : Fender Ultra Precision Bass
It's the fall of 2019. Winter has brought snow early to my area. Fortunately, Fender has brought something new as well. The new Fender Ultra series is the current top of the line factory issues. You can still get Custom Shop products of course, but if you don't have the coin or the need, the Ultra lineup is a great place to look.
I've seen and played a number of Ultras so far. I like the new neck with its compound radius. I love the simple improvements in radiusing the body for comfort and higher fret access. I think the rolled fingerboard edges are terrific and find the tone from the latest generation of Fender Noiseless pickups to be outstanding. I also think that most of the new finish colours are great.
I'm an adequate guitar player on my best days. I have miles to go as a bass player, but it relaxes me like very little else, and I find I can get some funk going on the bass, easier than on other instruments. When my friend Cody Shaw over at The Arts Music Store gave me a chance to see what the Ultras were like, I confess that I fawned over the Ultra Precision Bass. When Cody let me play it briefly, I was immediately impressed by the subtle alterations that Fender had made to modernize the proven Precision Bass, without going overboard so far as to make loyalists crazy.
There are, no robot tuners.
So I bought it.
The fit to the body is improved. For a player such as myself who won the short and stubby finger lottery, the neck feels wonderful. For an aging player with arthritis in the wrists (never have a rope break while rappelling in your youth, it bites you later), the D neck is very comfortable. I also really appreciate the revised heel which makes high fret access much simpler.
I already own a 5 String American Elite and a '51 reissue. I admit to liking my Geddy Lee Jazz Bass a bit more from a player's perspective, more the tone than anything. The Ultra Precision Bass brings classic Precision Bass pickups and adds a Jazz Bass pickup near the bridge. Fender calls it a Precision Bass, I call her PJ, after the actress PJ Soles who starred in the old movie Rock and Roll High School. That's my story anyways. More likely it's because the Ultra Precision is an ideal blend of Precision and Jazz basses.
The pickups are Fender's Ultra Vintage Noiseless designs. They are indeed very quiet. All my playing thus far has been into an Ampeg Micro CL mini stack with a TC Electronic Polytune 3 between the instrument and the amp input. They also sound terrific in their normal passive mode.
Fender did not stop at passive. There is an 18v preamp in the bass, powered by a pair of 9v batteries. The preamp brings additional controls and basically delivers more punch than the passive option across the board with adjustments for bass, mid and treble. Switching in and out of active preamp service is accomplished by a convenient microswitch.
To keep the control layout usable, the knobs that manage preamp settings are stacked knobs, while the volume and pickup mix knobs are standalone.
The bridge is also new, noted as called the HiMass. It's a nice heavily built piece of kit. The photos really do not do the paint job justice. I also find the pick guard to be very gently minty vintage coloured, but not that horrific mint replacement pick guard that one can buy for Strats.
I want to come back to the D neck. I heard some criticisms about the D decision prior to people actually playing it. With the exception of a couple of folks with really large hands who prefer a club style neck, everyone else found the profile very comfortable. The finish on the back of the neck is a very smooth matte, and despite playing for a couple of hours at home, it never got sticky. The fretboard on mine is rosewood, Fender taking advantage of changes to CITES rules on the use of some species of Dalbergia. The nut is bone, and the headstock logos are in gold foil. Some folks have written about finding prototype Ultras with the logos in silver foil. I've not see such a thing myself.
Like the guitars, the bass offers a 10" to 14" compound radius fingerboard. The bass has 21 medium jumbo frets. All I can say is that it's very comfortable to play and doesn't generate a lot of noise when you are moving around on it.
PJ came with a molded hardshell case that seems quite durable. Out of the box, setup was excellent and unlike most Fender guitars when new, I have not had the need to restring her immediately.
All models of the Ultra Precision Bass have a maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. The body would varies depending on the finish. If the finish has transparency, the body wood is Ash. If there is no transparency, the body wood is Alder. Colours include Aged Natural, Arctic Pearl, Mocha Burst, Plasma Red Burst and Ultraburst. PJ is the Mocha Burst and it changes depending on the lighting and looks fantastic.
Pricing starts at $2469.99 and goes up to $2729.99 CAD depending on colour and body wood chosen.
The new Ultra sounds great, plays great and if you are in the market for a higher end 4 string bass, I think it's worth your time to check it out.
Thanks again to the folks at The Arts Music Store for helping me get hands on the day of release.