Fender American Vintage II 1966 Jazz Bass Lake Placid Blue

This is a bass for someone who wants a 1966 Jazz Bass and would rather play it than insure it.

The Jazz Bass exists because Don Randall over at Fender Sales wanted something more refined than a Precision. What came back was narrower at the nut, quicker under the hand, and shaped like a Jazzmaster, and bass players have been arguing about P versus J ever since.

By 1966 the design had picked up the details that make this particular year the one people chase. White neck binding, pearl dots, a matching painted headstock, and a 4-ply tortoiseshell pickguard. American Vintage II is Fender's attempt to build that year back exactly, with period-correct bodies, necks, hardware, and pickups voiced to the specific year rather than to a generic idea of "vintage."

What you notice first is the neck. It is a chunky "U" profile in hard rock maple with a bound round-lam rosewood board, a 7.25" radius, and vintage tall frets. If you have played sixties Fenders you know that combination. Your thumb has something to push against and the tall frets let you dig in without fighting the bass. The Pure Vintage '66 pickups are the other half of it. Two volumes and a master tone, wired the way it was then, so you can blend the neck and bridge pickups by ear rather than switch between voices. Roll toward the bridge and you get that Jaco-adjacent bark. Even them out and it is the sound on a thousand records. The threaded saddles on the 4-saddle bridge and the lollipop tuners are the same period-correct approach carried through the hardware.