jamesnotjim

Since sometime in the 80s, Fender has had a P+J bass in their catalog, but they've never been sure what to call it. In the mid and late 80s, they called it the "Jazz Bass Special." It was made in Japan and combined a Jazz Bass neck with a Precision Bass body and had P-Bass split coil in the neck position and a Jazz Bass single coil in the bridge. This iteration had a three-way toggle switch for selecting either pickup or both together as well as a volume knob for each pickup and a "PBX" tone control with a dented center position. It was a great bass: playable, durable, and solid. Using just the P-Bass pickup, it sounds like a P-Bass. Using both pickups together, it sounds a bit like a jazz but beefier. Using the bridge by itself, well, that's not good for much, really. But two out of three ain't bad. Essentially, the Jazz Bass Special gave you the playability of a Jazz wth the looks of a Precision and a sound that bridged the gap between the two. It was--and, in it's more recent incarnations, still is--a fine option for bassists who like the look of a P but want a bit more tonal diversity than a P can deliver.

I avoided single-coil guitars all my life for fear of 60-cycle hum. I was wrong. I was so wrong. This guitar plays like butter, looks great, and sounds amazing clean, distorted, or anywhere in between. The clean tones, though, are amazing, especially when paired with a nice tube amp. I find myself playing clean far more often now. It turns out the more rounded neck radius (7.25") fits my hand better. This is the only guitar I've ever owned where barre chords--something else I've always avoided--are easy. My other guitars are jealous. I could get rid of them all and keep this Strat. These are made in Mexico. I've been really impressed with the MIM Fenders. There's really nothing I would change about it--other than the tremolo. But their design goal was to keep it very classic in look and vibe.

The Super Champ X2 is the best-kept secret in the Fender tube-amp lineup. Its clean channel (#1) is fantastic, beautiful on its own and a perfect pedal platform. The other channel (#2), while still tube powered, has a selection of mods that try to imitate other amps. That's cute and all, but I never use it. It also has a bank of digital effects that can be used on either channel. I use the reverb. It's excellent, and indistinguishable from the real deal. It's a very conservatively rated 15 watts. It has a USB out with speaker emulation that's good for recording, but I prefer to just stick an SM57 right up against the grill cloth. It's sounds brilliant, clean or dirty. Pair this with your favorite overdrive or fuzz pedal, and you're in business.

Right now, I use this as a tap tempo for my Boss AW-3 Auto Wah. I've used it for lots of other things in the past. It's solid and, if you need more than one, you can lock them together with a mechanism that's part of the case design.

I've used more elaborate DAWs in the past, but the simplicity of GarageBand helps me focus on playing and recording. It also runs well on my ancient iMac.