Fender Player Mustang Bass PJ - Firemist Gold Reviews

I've been a guitar player for decades and at 6'7" always felt my Les Paul scale a little tight. My Fenders a little less so. Had my share of basses too, a Rickenbacker 4001 back in the day and a few Precisions but even though my fingers are long enough the long scale was uncomfortable. Yet most short scale basses usually have weak electronics. Well I bought one of these (elsewhere I'm sorry yo say) and absolutely love it! Yes, it's got a Pau Ferro fretboard, not quite rosewood nor maple but still has a great feel. The firemist gold poly finish is beautiful and the Mexican craftsmanship is nearly as good as mu US made Gibson and Fenders. This guitar is like a 4 string Bass IX with a better pickup configuration. Highly recommended especially for guitar playing bassists… but buy from Sweetwater, their customer service and support is second to none and I missed that there was no candy in my package.

Love this bass. Couldn't decide whether to get a P or J bass, so I figured why not get the best of both worlds? I'm a small guy so I'm partial to short neck basses (my only other bass is a Hofner Violin Bass) and at 30 inches, the Mustang PJ feels great in my hands. Simple controls, yet nice variety of tones, especially when paired with my Fender Rumble Studio 40 Combo Amp. And I really like the Firemist Gold color. My only (mild) complaint is the bass suffers from some neck dive, probably due to the fact that I chose the lightest of the 4 models that Sweetwater offered when I ordered it. There was a one pound difference between the lightest and heaviest models. I suspect the heavier models would be better balanced, but I've solved the neck dive issue with a simple velcro loop that wraps around my belt and guitar strap to "pull" the body downward a bit. Great bass.

As a life long bass player from clubs, to a studio musician in Nashville to touring, I've been blessed to own and play many incredible basses. My wife ordered this for me as something different. All I can say is wow! From fit, to finish to sound, this is one incredible bass! I can dial in any tone I want ! I played a full 4 hour show this past Friday with only this bass. The Firemist gold looks amazing under the lights! This is just so comfortable to play!! Fender hit a home run with this one! Tom Maxwell was awesome as always!

Been looking to get a new Short Scale bass and decided to go with this little modern style mustang.
Could not be happier!! played great right out of the box, though I did need a little adjustment & tweaking to get the action where I prefer it.

Will eventually put my normal flat-wound strings on it but there is honestly nothing wrong with the standard round-wound strings it comes with.

Thank you to all the team @ Sweetwater.

Great playing bass. I like the short scale for playing comfort. The PJ pickup setup is very versatile. Only improvement I would make is make the bridge pickup a little hotter. Quite a bit of volume difference between bridge and neck.

The only issue is it arrived with a finish check (or perhaps crack) on the bass side of the neck pocket. Won't show up well in photos but can feel it with my finger nail. If it is just a paint check, I don't care and all is good. However, if it it a neck pocket crack, it's going to have to go back.

Disclaimer, I bought this bass second hand from a guy that got it from sweetwater earlier this year. It's a beautiful bass, fit and finish is very good! If I bought a new one I would've went with the aged natural finish, but I found a great deal on a gold one and I'm glad because the gold looks amazing when you see it in person. The neck is a very comfortable jazz type profile, which I love. Only complaint there is that it has a couple of frets that aren't quite level. I can live with it for now but will get them leveled at some point. Now, the sound... It's very versatile with the pj pickups, although I would prefer a double volume or a blend control over the three way switch. It works though and you would only gain a bit of fine tuning with a different control setup. I might mod it for fun eventually. One thing that I feel is necessary is to switch where the white wire from the switch and the white wire to the output jack are connected to the volume pot. I'm not sure why, but fender used what some call 50's or reverse wiring on this bass. Look up wiring diagrams for this bass and a standard P bass to see what I'm talking about. In stock form it sounds alright but not as tight and punchy as I expected, and when you roll off the tone it seems to cut the volume a bit. Anyway, it took about fifteen minutes and some very basic soldering skills to change it and now I absolutely love the way it sounds. Best thing is, it's a free mod and you can change it back easily if you prefer the stock sound for some reason