Fender Deluxe custom shop. Nothing to compare.

I'm really sad. From 1995 I've been playing ESP Standard 5-string J-bass and it's a really good instrument. I had a chance to play about a dozen of different Fender Jazzes, but all of them were not as good as my ESP. I was very snobish about my bass and I thought it's better than Fender, and so it was. Now this week I went to the local music store to buy a new set of strings, and there was a new instrument standing apart from all the rest of the guitars and basses. It was Jazz bass with natural finish. I asked the bass dude - what is this - and he raised his finger and said "O!". So I asked - how much is the O - because there was no price tag on it. He said - 11. 11 thousands shekels is about $2500. I said "O!". That's not cheap for Jazz bass. I thought the highest list price for Fender Jazz is something like $1800 - if it's not a custom shop or some Flamed Maple Top. I didn't have 11.000 NIS to buy the bass or to dream about buying it, but it was too intriguing not to check it out.
So I played it and that's why I'm sad. I cannot afford it. But I can tell you about it, and that's already something.

Technical details
The bass is Fender Deluxe, made in USA. It's custom shop. There's a nickel plate on the neck joint saying "Corona, California". The logo on the headstock is not printed, it's something like silver inlay saying only "Fender" and "Jazz bass". No usual "made in USA". The serial number was on the back of the headstock.
The finish is blonde - all natural blonde. I guess the body was ash - with some interesting structure, really curly. I think it's called "bird's eye". The neck was also blonde, exactly the same color, the fingerboard too. Probably maple. Brown pearloid 4-ply pickguard. Looks like 11.000

Body
As I said, it was ash, two piece body. The contour is a "deluxe" shape, it's a bit smaller that standard - with deeper cutoffs. The wood pattern was matched perfectly, and the only place you could see it's two piece glued together was the neck heel.

Neck
Maple neck - I wonder if maple can look so close to ash - maybe it was ash neck ??? (duh), with blonde fingerboard. the frets (21, not 20!) were very small, and the metal looked yellowish a bit - as if it's not pure steel but something with bronze added. I don't know what was the material anyway. The frets were set low, polished, and covered with something like paraphine - in order to fill all the gaps in the wood.
Satin finish. The inlays were something unusual - it was blue/green mother of pearl dots. I'm not sure this thing is natural because the color was too weird.

Tuners
The shop dude said they are "ceramic". The heads are smaller and thicker than standard jazz, and on the back you can see a matte-black detail with all the screws inside. I guess that black thing is "ceramic". Okay, the bass was in tune so there was no need to rotate these.

Pickups
The bass had a pair of "noiseless" j-singles. They are found on all the Deluxe series. The name says it all.

Electronics
The bass is active (as all the Deluxes). The control knobs are a standard Deluxe set: master volume, balance between pickups, and a three-band EQ: two concentric knobs for hi and low and the small last knob for mids. Total of 4 knobs, from which one has two concentric controls.

Bridge
The bridge has two options - string through body or through bridge. The default setup was through body. Holes for the strings-through-bridge option looked a bit too big, and I wonder why is that. The saddles looked like those on standard Jazz bass.

Okay, enough technical stuff.

How it plays
In one sentence - it was the best bass I've played.
First, it's light. It weights much less than standard Jazz bass. The neck, with its small frets, was so fast and comfortable, it felt almost like fretless.

THE SOUND
Well, finally there's a bass that sounds like a real Jazz bass should. I felt I'm Marcus Miller. It rang, it was juicy, and there was that J-growl every bassist can recognize. The E-string was so bright and deep - I cried there's no B on this jazz. The action was low, the neck was set up straight, but there was no fret buzz. At first I thought there's a buzz on the E-string, but then I understood that it's just the sound of the string. I'm dying!
After playing for a while I started feeling it's not as deep as standard Jazz. It really sounded like light ash body - ringing and bouncing. I'm not sure I'm right, maybe that was the amp that gave me that feeling, after all it was just fifteen minutes in guitar shop. The controls were flat, but active electronics usually tend to sound brighter.

Rotating those knobs
At first, I've put all the controls to "flat", both on the bass and on the amp (it was Fender BXR400 combo I think). I'm a passive circut worshipper, and until today I think the EQ shoul be mounted on the front panel of the amplifier, not on the bass. The difference between Deluxe and Standard jazz controls is, at first, that there's a master volume and "balance" control - instead of two volumes and one tone (or two volumes on vintage jazz). Well, the "balance" might be easier to operate than two volumes, I agree. And master volume is a very useful thing. I've got so used to two volumes on my Jazz and Les Paul that I fully realized how useful it is.
Just for a test I've tried playing on the bridge or neck pickup only. First, there was no sign of noise. The Noiseless pickups were really noiseless - what else do you expect? There were also no surprises in the neck and bridge positions - it sounded like a Jazz bass should.
Now the EQ: there are, as I said, boost and cut for lows, highs and mids. Flat it sounds like a (very good) passive jazz bass with a tone control wide opened. When you rotate the controls, it boosts or cuts certain frequencies, and it strongly affects the output volume. That's what I don't like about it. I missed the passive tone control which is not "boost" or "cut" but changing color. I like playing jazz bass with 60% of the neck, 100% of the bridge and tone rolled away for some 50%. It gives a fat, vintage and very defined tone for fingers (for slap I put both pickups on 100%). Deluxe (and all the other active basses) don't have that "passive" tone, and after you set up your EQ you don't want to change it because it will change the output volume. You can only play with balance between pickups to change the tone.
That is not the problem of this bass, that's is my personal problem with all active electronics.

Nothing else to say
Well, the bass looks terrific, sounds stunning and plays like butter. If you have $2500 and looking for a Jazz bass - buy a custom shop Fender and I don't think you'll ever need another instrument. It's almost perfect.