Well, I took the CIJ to practice last night and the pickups really performed well. As I noticed in the store, they were very strong and perfectly even during practice. I really do like all of the switches. While I have a tendency to play with as much low end as possible and tame the highs, sometimes on some songs flipping a couple switches to kick the bridge/mid pup up was kinda cool. The electronics in this bass are superb. The rounds that come on it are good, but I'm gonna test drive a set of flats I have handy. The stock low E-string is just too light gauge for me, so a set of heavier gauge strings all the way around will improve the "bassiness" of the instrument. I like the fatter strings anyway. Needless to say, the bass has a real edge to it with the rounds and there were times I fel like Geddy if I plucked the strings over the middle pup. Things rounded out and bassed up when I moved over the neck pup.
As I said, the finish is beautiful. As far as I could tell, they feel the same on the strap and the necks seem equivalent to me. The bass is so easy to play, it would be tempting to use it a lot when giging. I do have to work on the action a little bit and the truss rod has that damn adjustment in the heel, half buried under the top of the body. Ugh.
The one flaw I see in it are the bridge saddles. They are the plain ones, no adjustment screws!!!!! So, how do you raise and lower the bridge??? I can't recall if the Pawnshop Bass VI had adjustable saddles. Guess I'll be buying a Jag guitar bridge and replacing the saddles. Really Fender? I guess it couldn't be perfect, could it?
