Fender American Performer Series

Funkfingers

They’re here.

Seen but not played one - a P/J thing in the tasteful metallic blue. Hang tag proclaims “all American build” but some hardware looks like generic Asian. It is a fairly safe bet that the pickups will be plastic bobbin horrors rather than anything Custom Shop or Pure Vintage.

My friendly neighbourhood Fender dealer has been teasing about all of the new models that are about to be lauched at the 2019 Winter NAMM. Probably worth holding out to see what appears.

crunchman

Not played the basses, but played a couple of American Performer Teles a couple of weeks ago.  Quite liked them.

Funkfingers

crunchman said:

Quite liked them.

Damned by faint praise, perhaps?

My local dealership also took delivery of an AmPerf HSS Stratocaster. This exhibited various signs of being an economy model. After making a few adjustments, the dealer plugged it in. To my ears, the Fender Double Tap humbucker sounded coarse in both modes. I anticipate that the AmPerf bass pickups would be equally disappointing.

If the AmPerf series basses retail for about a grand and, then, require another two hundred quid spending on upgrade parts, it would be smarter to go straight for the American Professional series.

Pablocrackers

I got a performer jazz recently great bass tried it against the mexican & americans in store sounded & played alot better then the mexican and equally as good as the professional. Ymmv i found it worth the jump from mexican but not a worth the extra cash for the professional tbh. Pick ups sound great to me and perfect build only difference to pro is a few hardware changes and pickups & no hard case (££) but the performers sound really good

crunchman

Funkfingers said:

crunchman said:

Quite liked them.

Damned by faint praise, perhaps?

My local dealership also took delivery of an AmPerf HSS Stratocaster. This exhibited various signs of being an economy model. After making a few adjustments, the dealer plugged it in. To my ears, the Fender Double Tap humbucker sounded coarse in both modes. I anticipate that the AmPerf bass pickups would be equally disappointing.

If the AmPerf series basses retail for about a grand and, then, require another two hundred quid spending on upgrade parts, it would be smarter to go straight for the American Professional series.

I preferred that Performer Tele to the American Pro I tried a while back.

There is a very short review of the Performer P Bass in the latest Guitar Magazine.  They seemed to think it was pretty solid and did all the things a P Bass should.

Funkfingers

The same dealer now has a Performer Series Mustang Bass. This has an added long Jazz Bass pickup near the bridge, causing the controls to be reconfigured and the jack socket to be moved to the edge. The bridge itself also looks "wrong". Thus far, I think that I prefer the Mustang Bass PJ.


EDIT: I have now had a brief go on this bass. To me, it feels like a toy - albeit a very nicely built one. Everything is too close together, in every direction. Viewed up close, there are a few tell tale signs of cost cutting compared to American Pro and Elite series instruments. (Nut dressing residue and fret slot glue on the fingerboard. That sort of thing.) Overall, it reminded me of a short scale Satellite/Kay bass that a former bandmate had when we were all in our teens.