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- Hey, this is Sean Hurley, and I'm here today
checking out the American Professional Precision Bass,
and I'm gonna go over some of the key features
and new changes in this bass.
Let's check it out.
So one of the bigger changes that I noticed
is the pickups at V-Mod pickups.
And when I was looking into what's different about them,
the treble pickup is still the Alnico 5,
but the bass pickup has the Alnico 2,
which I've never played through before,
so I was really curious to see how that presented itself,
what was different about it.
And I was really delighted when I was starting to play
in the low register, in the low notes,
which is where I love to work in the grove of a song.
It's got this great studio quality,
like air when you put on a compressor,
you get that puffiness, and it the band gets buoyed up
on those low notes,
and that's where the meat of the instrument does its job.
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So, the first thing that I noticed about the neck
is it's a '63 P Bass shape, which I always appreciate
anything grabbing from that golden era of Fender.
I almost don't believe it when I grab it,
because it just seems so easy.
And I wish I had a '63 that felt this good,
'cause I've picked up so many vintage basses,
and depending on who made it,
they all can feel a little different.
I've got a '61 and a '66, and this thing feels
right in that zone, but it also feels very easy to play,
which makes playing all night long, or all day long,
less of a worry and there's less fatigue.
And then another thing about it is
it's got the satin finish.
It just takes that out of the equation,
my thumb and your thumb will just slide up the neck with no
resistance, which is my favorite kind of finish on a bass.
If it's glossy, I tend to be dragging my thumb
and made aware of, oh, I can't get to that melodic spot
that I need to for that moment.
So having the shape and the feel be exactly
what my hand is used to, is ideal.
There's another change, there's narrow-tall frets,
which until I started talking to guitar players,
I didn't know why fret height was even a consideration.
If I'm hanging on a note,
it's very boring if you just hold on it.
So what I like to do is if I'm sliding up to a note,
I wanna give it a little vibrato if it's something
I'm gonna hang on to, especially in a melodic situation.
And I'm realizing, hey, with these taller frets,
there's less resistance.
So these are another cool feature that puts it
in the modern category, but now the bass players
get a shot at having the option of that taller fret height.
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So another update you'll notice is the fluted tuners,
up top here, which they're angled in,
so that's gonna push the string down,
and you're not gonna have to rely on so many wraps
to get that break to go properly with the A string,
right over the nut, which I always appreciate,
and then it takes all of the guesswork out of restringing.
Some other features of the bass, one in particular,
is this HiMass vintage bridge, which you can feel,
it's just a little heavier and heftier than the old
vintage style, which is gonna give you more sustain.
I notice it right away when hitting open strings.
And then each Allen screw has the channel in there,
so the stability of it is way more than the vintage ones
that we've all kind of grown up with.
It's really a killer update to the old style,
and adds a little bit more mass.
And then in the neck, you've got graphite rods
on each side of the truss rod.
They're Posiflex rods, which is gonna cause the neck to stay
more stable, and any environmental changes or traveling,
and when you're flying around and the temperature
changes drastically, it's gonna mean fewer
neck adjustments throughout the year.
Thanks for checking out
the American Professional P Bass with me.
Stay tuned here for more info and other great videos.
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