Fender American Ultra Jazz Bass - Texas Tea with Maple Fingerboard Reviews

Top quality fit/finish, great tones. Looks beautiful. Sweetwater's multi point pre inspection is AAA

First off, Erik Bothwell is an incredible sales engineer. No BS, all business. He's your dude. Ask for him. Thanks, Erik!

I have mostly played a Fender Jazz for 25 years and it's my go-to stick. I have been on the hunt for a 2018 T-bird in Cardinal Red for 5 years, then looked at the Wattstopper 3/4 scale, but decided to give up the chase when I saw the Ultra in Texas Tea. A beauty!

The way this Jazz plays and FEELS cannot be compared to other J's. Right out of the box it is butter. Search reviews and you will see the word butter come up again and again. It's true.

You won't regret buying this bass. I'm pretty picky and those that I play with are as well. Every person that has thrown licks at this Ultra had wide eyes and a smile. Worth every penny.

Bravo Fender! This bass plays as if God himself hand crafted it. The Texas Tea color is unique as it has the ability to change color depending on distance and lighting angles with gold specs buried deep in the paint almost giving it the ability to shimmer. The Cobra Blue is my next favorite color and will make your bass the focal point of the band. The sound is rich, deep and full bodied with a multitude of variations at your finger tips, thanks to the built in EQ. The guitar is well balanced. The neck is slim and sleek giving you the ability to effortlessly move up and down the neck while playing lighting fast licks. I let Sweetwater's luthiers do a plek setup for me. The action is low and you need to go out of your way to make the strings buzz. Totally worth the money. Thank you Sweetwater and my Sales Engineer, Nick Reedy. I'm a 100% satisfied customer.

Not sure what else to say. It chews up batteries when in active mode, but bought some rechargable batteries and solved that problem. Tons of tones, and sustain for days.

This bass is so easy to play. If butter had 4 strings this would be it. Highest quality Fender I've ever handled.

Lots of options, but the active pickups are really the sweet spot for this.

I've played some basses where the active pickups feel overcharged and forced. Not this. Its just a natural extension of the bass and feels at home.

This thing is worth it and if its the only bass I play for the rest of my life, I'd be just fine.

I've been a bass player my entire band career(s) for decades. I've owned just about every top shelf bass guitar available. I've also owned a few custom made beauties as well. There's not much more I'm going to say about this Jazz bass because professional players out there know top shelf Fender quality as well. This bass plays and looks first class. To me this bass is far above high quality and better than any other American Fender Jazz bass I've owned. This bass is going to be my stage player for many years to come. I also thank the Sweetwater crew for being the best!

This newest bass from Fender is so great! The sound from the active/passive electronics are so crisp and has so much range. The neck on this bass feels so great and plays so easily!! And the looks of the bass. The Texas Tea looks so much better in person than what the pictures show. The gold flecks is such a nice touch. The darker maple neck along with the gold anodized pickguard really make it look like somewhat vintage. The block inlays are beautiful!! Too bad Fender doesn't offer this color in the PJ bass, or I would have it's twin!!! It sounds soo good in the mix during worship services. I put DR Hi-beams on this and I can dig in hard and really feel it in the mix. So so good!

If you are here, I figure you already know at least a little something about Jazz Basses, so I'll try and keep it short. I am more of a passive pickup player, and these noiseless are among the best noiseless pickups I've played. I find going that route is a gamble sometimes, but fear not, these sound great. As always, YMMV. Not really being an active player previously, I will say the active mode really takes everything up a notch, which is to be expected, I suppose. In rehearsal I've used both passive and active. I couldn't really say which I prefer. I use the passive setting for some songs and active for others. Having that option is fantastic. They sound great and both cut through the mix. There is always that amp variable, though, don't forget :) Wonderful bass. It really does feel like you are playing a high end instrument. And a big THANK YOU to Alberto and Jim, for going above and beyond.

I've been dreaming of having a good 4-String Jazz Bass for quite a few years. When the Elite Series came out I very much wanted one but was not able to purchase yet and was disappointed when Fender ended production of it. When I read and saw the reviews of the Ultra Series which replaced the Elite I was impressed. I finally bought the Texas Tea. This is a gorgeous bass with amazing playability and sound quality. The reviews did mention that the cameras don't bring out the true beauty of this instrument and I agree, that is very true. In person the build, color and finish are just amazing and beautiful. Access to the upper frets is easy. You can dial in any tone using the EQ and pickup selector. This Jazz Bass Ultra was definitely worth the long wait.

I'm a 44 year old newb (8 months playing; reformed drummer). Been around music many years, good musicianship around me. This is my third bass (it's fun) - first a Sterling Stingray, second an Ibanez SR500e. The Stingray is tougher for me to play, but cool - sounds like a Musicman. The Ibanez I like a lot - playable for me, good weight, balance. This Fender is another level. If I hit the zone, it feels like it's playing itself. Passive tone is lovely - warm, pleasant, right punch, rise and sustain is even and smooth - and blending in more of the bridge pick-up brings more punch, grit, can get downright mean. I've not played with the eq much yet, but frankly I'd take it without it and be happy. Beautifully made, very satisfying to handle. Downside, if any - feels a bit heavy to me. I don't need to put it down, but I can feel it after an hour. But I've only played a few bass guitars, so with a grain of salt. The weigth doesn't put me off at all though. Fantastic. Very happy with it.

These pictures suck. The finish on the bass changes depending on the lighting, the texas tea can look translucent green, shiny military green or just black. The frets look way better in person too, the smoke-like inlays literally look like someone is blowing smoke inside of your inlay. The playability of this bass is absurd, every fret has a perfect harmonic. I've been paying this bass non-stop for 3 months and it never really goes out of tune. The tonal diversity of this bass is also awesome and, contrary to other popular bases with nice preamps, its really easy to use the knobs on this. The roasted maple neck is a dream to fly around and the black binding on it makes it super smooth and nice to grip. Tapping on this bass is also really nice particularly because of the feel of the roasted maple neck. The active/passive switch is really fun to play around with but be careful what amps you play active with, you may literally kill them with the power of this bass (rip my ampeg combo)

The one thing I really really really really hated about this bass was the wooden pick guard. My nails would scratch the pickguard when I popped or plucked to hard, causing a feeling somewhat like running them down a chalk-board. My solution was cutting my nails and not being a pig and its worked out perfectly for me.

BUY THIS JAZZ, YOU WILL NOT REGRET, BUT YOU WILL NEVER LIKE OTHER BASSES AS MUCH. EVER.

I have 8 basses, including this one. I like to say I have 2 basses, this one and all the others. It really is that good. Sustain is incredible. There is not one deadspot on the fretboard. I've been playing for 20 years and have never had a bass as completely amazing as this one. Yes, it's expensive, but I can tell you that I've paid the same and more for other basses and this one is in a class by itself. This is the real deal.

I have owned this bass for about a month now. It's fantastic. The sustain on this guitar is amazing. Also, I don't know what they did to give the neck it's unique finish, but it's incredible. Effortlessly fast and very comfortable, you'll notice it the first time you play. Electronics are super quiet and punchy. The finish is beautiful. Fender has obviously spent a lot of time and attention building this guitar. Best bass I've ever owned and I've been buying, selling and trading for more than 15 years.

Amazing Bass! Fit and finish is top notch (on par if not better than my MM Stingray). The new neck profile is probably the best bass neck I have played. You can get MANY different tones from the electronics and the 18V preamp is amazing. The Texas Tea color is something you have to see in person!! It looks black in pictures, but has alot of sparkle in person. Overall, a stunning instrument!