Excerpt from Perfoming Musician+ Live Sound Magazine
This excerpt is from for both the FPB-18 and FJB-6 bass models.
Featured this month are two Fenderlike models, which, unlike last month's Vintage example, follow the path of least resistance and quite closely replicate the famous marque, but at a much reduced price. Made in China, Farida are imported via Dawsons, a stockist with nine stores throughout the country as well as a mail order facility. These two basses fit well into the imported range alongside an electro-acoustic, Hypersonic with radical sleek designs, and a more traditional sunburst Precision.
Construction
The FJB-6 carries a slimmed-down version of a Fender headstock carrying four chrome, open-backed tuners along the top edge. All four strings have a healthy rake angle across the composite nut, with the top two aided by a large, circular retainer. The unobtrusive brand logo runs along the lower edge, and while the front face is glossed, the rear has a natural finish to match the neck. This is one-piece maple with a sonokelin fingerboard into which the 21 frets have been well fitted, and dot inlays are provided on both the front and side. Neck measurement at the nut is a narrow 37mm, widening to 64mm at the last fret, with a 34-inch scale length. A branded plate and four screws secure the neck into the well-machined joint, while truss rod adjustment is by hex bolt accessed via a slot in the body and scratchplate. In practice, this is quite impractical, as there never seems to be enough movement on the key and, generally, the neck needs to be removed to make this adjustment.
As expected for a copy, the white gloss, solid-wood body (the type of wood is unspecified) follows the Fender Jazz design with offset waist and lower bouts, rib and forearm contours, and a generous radius to both front and back edges. There is a matching laminated white scratchplate and obligatory chrome faceplate, which carries the jack socket and three controls, two volumes and one tone, connected to two J-type pickups. The bent steel bridge carries four small barrel-style saddles, each with individual adjustment for string height and intonation, and is attached securely to the mbody with five screws. The string tension alone holds the saddles in place, as there are no slots or posts with this setup. contours, and a generous radius to both front and back edges. There is a matching laminated white scratchplate and obligatory chrome faceplate, which carries the jack socket and three controls, two volumes and one tone, connected to two J-type pickups. The bent steel bridge carries four small barrel-style saddles, each with individual adjustment for string height and intonation, and is attached securely to the body with five screws. The string tension alone holds the saddles in place, as there are no slots or posts with this setup.
The Farida FPB-18 utilises an identically profiled maple neck, but topped in this range with a rosewood fingerboard and the more standard 20 frets. This time, a natural-finished, two-piece, high-grade swamp ash is used for the body, which is in the typical Precision style with the usual concentric waist and lower bouts and large edge radii. Again, there mis a slot cut for truss rod adjustment into the large white laminate scratchplate, which encompasses two P-type pickups, and also carries the volume and tone controls and jack socket around the lower bout.
Strangely, considering neck and string mspacing are identical on both models, there is a completely different bridge on this Precision version. The strings pass through ma thick steel backplate, there are larger mdiameter saddles and there is also the maddition of retaining slots to alleviate sideways movement.
Performance
Played acoustically, the Jazz has a much brighter, crisper tone than its partner, and this transfers through to the electrified sound. As usual with this design, there are two distinct sounds from each pickup, with the neck unit providing a mellower thump, while the bridge pickup produces a very good tight, funky tone. Turn both volumes on full and the blend is excellent with no apparent phase problems, as on some cheap instruments.
The tone control works really well: full on adds a nice treble, turned down an attractive rounder sound, but there is also a very good workable tone halfway on, adding just that bit more versatility.
The Precision-style FPB bass, like its partner, is a dream to play and I really fell in love with the narrow neck. Sound-wise, as expected, there is one basic straightforward rocky tone, but again this last control has a halfway point where there is a little more middle before rolling off to a bassier sound. I owned a '63 Precision for many years, and for pure build quality and sound this Farida knocks spots off the old classic.
It does seem a little strange to have a 21-fret Jazz copy, as most of the vintage basses had 20, while some of the more modern sport 22, with only a very small minority at 21. Perhaps these instruments are produced in two factories, as this could explain all the small discrepancies, even down to slightly different headstock transfers.
The amount of products now coming from China is quite terrifying and, as with most products, there seems to be a vast discrepancy in quality control from the absolutely superb to the downright disgraceful. These basses fit somewhere in the top half, but even so there are some issues. The necks are very good, but for little extra cost different widths could have been employed across the models. Both are well made, but the FPB-18 has one pickup completely out of line with the strings, which must occur on the whole range, as they are set into the pre-cut scratchplate.
Conclusion
Apart from the couple of niggles I mentioned, these are two excellent basses that might not have Fender on the headstock, but can certainly give them a run for their money at a fraction of the cost. Already there are deals from Dawsons. The Jazz can be obtained direct for a mere £179.99 and the Precision copy for £229.99, so they are not expensive basses and definite value for money at these knockdown prices.
Download the full review in Perfoming Musician+ Live Sound Magazine here
(5.16 Meg so we'd recommend right-clicking and downloading the file to your computer)