1970's the dark ages of fender??

[PJ Muzikmansky]

Originally Posted by PDQbass

This is largely a myth perpetrated on this and other forums, judging by the 70's Fenders I have played over the years. Where are all these basses with badly fitting/warped necks etc.? Post photos of these poor quality Fenders if you have them. Never seen proof of the oft-related 1/4 inch neck pocket gap. I gig a '78 Precision which is beautifully made, sounds great and is as straight and true as the day it was made. Maybe there were really bad ones, but I have not come across one. Of course a brand new USA Precision will be just as good and cost very little more! One thing is certain, once these 'myths' are out there on the net they will never go away.

I love jazz basses as much as the next guy, but the '78 jazz I owned and gigged (because I couldn't afford anything better) was certainly no 'myth'

3-4mm gap on both sides of the neck pocket, swimming pool route under the scratchplate, body made up of SEVEN pieces of laminated hard ash (yes I stripped it...). Heavy as all get-out and the horrible 3 bolt neck with the microtilt which would move sideways with the slightest bump, no matter how tight the bolts were. She was a real DOG. Sold it for more than I paid for it and bought a stingray which is a far superior instrument.

I now own a CIJ '62 reissue jazz which is 10 x the bass the old '78 was.

My view? by 1978 the tools (jigs, spindles, router bits etc) used to cut the bodies, neck and pick-up cavities were VERY worn

[PJ Muzikmansky]

Originally Posted by Baird6869

Here is a '77 turd i bought on eBay (my first and last sight unseen vintage Fender purchase). Total crap QC on this one.

Looks great but the original PU were thin sounding crap and had to be replaced, neck needed to be shimmed and the pocket was 1/4" too big... Oh, it also weighed 12lbs.

A buddy loved it and traded me for it. He played it at a gig in front of 15,000 people and said it killed. Go figure.... His bass tech must have magic dust!

WHOA....mine was very similar to this one !

[bassbully]

Oh forgot i have a 73' Musicmaster what a fun 'lil" bass it is.

[Alper Yilmaz]

I have a '73 Jazz Bass. Actually, I had been to check a pedal at a local music store in Brooklyn and rather than getting the pedal, I ended up buying the JB. Folks who know a lot about Fenders on this forum helped me deciding if it were original or not, looking at some pictures. Apart from the pickups, I am positive that everything is original; and even though the solders look original, I cannot seem to go back to the roots of the pickups...

The craftsmanship on this one is really poor, but I love the tone! I was never a big fan of Fenders until playing this; maybe I needed to spend some time with them or this was rightly set up when I fell in love with and bought it. In comparison to my fretless from 2000-2001 period, this one is much better; the fretless has only the body and some of the hardware from its original self!

[73jbass]

My namesake 73Jbass has a neck pocket gap that you could fly a 747 in,but it plays and sounds fantastic. Kind of funny that poor build quality doesn't necessarily translate poor playability or poor sound.

[-=DanAtkinson=-]

Some people have discerning tastes. Some don't. I won't touch anything from McDonald's, but many people do and think it's great.

[unclejane]

Originally Posted by PDQbass

This is largely a myth perpetrated on this and other forums, judging by the 70's Fenders I have played over the years. Where are all these basses with badly fitting/warped necks etc.? Post photos of these poor quality Fenders if you have them. Never seen proof of the oft-related 1/4 inch neck pocket gap. I gig a '78 Precision which is beautifully made, sounds great and is as straight and true as the day it was made. Maybe there were really bad ones, but I have not come across one. Of course a brand new USA Precision will be just as good and cost very little more! One thing is certain, once these 'myths' are out there on the net they will never go away.

It's no myth - ask anyone who's had to play them and they'll give you the real scoop. For each of these gems, there's at least one truly horrible one and typically more than that. I had a '70's jazz bass back in college (mid 80's) that was one of the horrible ones. I've lost count of the others I've borrowed or just tried out; I always thought "holy crap, what's the fuss about on these...".

You see that stripped screw in that one picture of the back plate here in the thread? That was the end result of a frustrated effort to keep the neck from slopping around in the pocket on that bass, tightening and tightening.. I know, I had a neck hold-down screw, in fact a couple, just like it on my jazz bass. For the same reason. Other problems with it were its tonnage and only one audible string (the E string).

The pre-CBS basses I played when I was a kid weren't any better that I could see. Maybe a hair better than the 70's models, but they still weren't anything I'd try to gig with. Especially because of the sound, but the weight and shoddy construction were factors too. Maybe with modern strings you might be able to wake one up enough to get through a gig without breaking your arms, but there are much better and cheaper alternatives for Precisions and Jazzes nowadays.

But the truth is, the Good Old Days of Fender are right now. The basses FMIC are making today are orders of magnitude better than anything they've ever made in the past. If you have to have a Fender P or J, a brand new one is absolutely the way to go. They're the least expensive and the best constructed and sounding Fenders you can buy.

So, no, you guys aren't imagining anything. They really did suck and hurt your hands and ears to play And yes the new ones are so so much better....

LS

[unclejane]

Originally Posted by 73jbass

My namesake 73Jbass has a neck pocket gap that you could fly a 747 in,but it plays and sounds fantastic. Kind of funny that poor build quality doesn't necessarily translate poor playability or poor sound.

Well the secret there is really just consistency. That's why modern construction methods are generally much preferred over the older ones used on the older Fenders.

The more consistently you build your instruments, the more likely they are to all play and sound the same. And the less likely you are to have to deal with irate customers complaining that their friend's bass is great but theirs is a piece of junk

FMIC obviously got tired of that too and upgraded the way they make their instruments. So now you don't have to play 8 or 9 jazz basses in a store before you finally happen on one that's decent. You can pick up any new one and it's very likely going to be as good as any other.

So yeah you throw something against the wall enough times and eventually one of them will stick.... But if you really want to be successful at what you do, you have to improve your methods .

LS

[tkozal]

My 73 Jazz, hard to find any issues with this, it is lightweight, etc.. The binding does take me awhile to get used to:



I also own a 71 P, B neck. More beat then the pic shows, there are like ciggy burns on the back of the neck. Very lightweight. The sound is very good.



A 73 B neck P not all orig, you too, can sound like John Wetton, King Crimson, 1973:





Note I own 73 and older, I also have some pre-CBS stuff. The late 70's stuff I have seen has been real hit or miss

[Spinal Tapper]

Originally Posted by smcd

It's widely acknowledged by every Fender collector out there that the 70's were the worst era for Fender. Very early 70's were good years, but as the decade wore on, Fender's quality got worse.

That doesn't mean that "every" instrument Fender made in the 70's was bad. It means that your liklihood of finding a pig is MUCH greater in the mid-late 70's than it is in any other decade in Fender's history.

I have to argue that the US made Fender stuff in the late 80's early 90's was all pretty much garbage. I had a 93 Jazz bass. What a dog that was, even after a great setup...It still sounded like a dry fart.

[narud]

Originally Posted by Baird6869

His bass tech must have magic dust!

and this just shows that if you dont like heavy basses theyre turds.

why did you shim it? did you not use the microtilt? my 1980 jazz is 11.5 pounds and kills. that weight contributes to its compressed attack you dont get from the light ones. its neck pocket gaps go right along with the neck pocket gaps my 62 jazz have.

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by PDQbass

This is largely a myth perpetrated on this and other forums, judging by the 70's Fenders I have played over the years. Where are all these basses with badly fitting/warped necks etc.? Post photos of these poor quality Fenders if you have them. Never seen proof of the oft-related 1/4 inch neck pocket gap. I gig a '78 Precision which is beautifully made, sounds great and is as straight and true as the day it was made. Maybe there were really bad ones, but I have not come across one. Of course a brand new USA Precision will be just as good and cost very little more! One thing is certain, once these 'myths' are out there on the net they will never go away.

Some of us here were:

a) alive in the 70's
b) playing Fenders in the 70's
c) worked in music stores selling Fenders in the 70's

I qualify for a) and b), and c) if you extend it to 1980/81. Being in a store that turned a lot of inventory (Guitar Center) meant that you saw a *lot* of instruments. The nostalgia for "vintage" 70's Fenders is quaint and no doubt they made some good instruments. But it was probably the worst decade wrt consistency and qc. The 80's was maybe better technically but boring. The last few years have been about as good as Fender has ever been imho. ymmv, offer void where prohibited.

[mongo2]

[quote=nostatic;13739543]Some of us here were:

a) alive in the 70's
b) playing Fenders in the 70's
c) worked in music stores selling Fenders in the 70's

Guilty...and add worked on them since the early '70s.

[Stewie26]

Originally Posted by smcd

Very early 70's were good years, but as the decade wore on, Fender's quality got worse.

.

I still have a 73 Tele bass I bought new in 74 and the feel, fit and trim, is better than my 2010 J bass.

[-=DanAtkinson=-]

Originally Posted by narud

my 1980 jazz is 11.5 pounds and kills. that weight contributes to its compressed attack you dont get from the light ones.

And my light ones have a "warm bloom" and "midrange girth" that you don't get from the heavy ones. And the best part? They aren't heavy as hell.

[georgiagoodie]

Originally Posted by gimmeagig

Here's My 74 Jazz.It has it's flaws as far as workmanship is concerned but I modded it a little bit and it plays and sounds great.Wouldn't trade it for any other Fender.

Nice Bass!

I love my '74 as well.





I am confused. If the '70s were so bad, why are they now issuing '74 AND '75 Jazz reissues, as well as Geddy's & Marcus Miller's?

[NWB]

Originally Posted by Alper Yilmaz

The craftsmanship on this one is really poor, but I love the tone!

There is a pretty good article in the latest Bass Gear Magazine about vintage jazz basses. Their observations are close to what you're saying here.

[NWB]

Originally Posted by -=DanAtkinson=-

I've played probably 15-20 Fenders from the 70's. None of them impressed me. They weren't garbage, as some haters claim, but I would take a 2012 American Standard over any of them.

Love the look, however. So I made my own:

I'd take an Atkinson over any vintage Fender. Just my opinion.

[king_biscuit]

I've played good and bad instruments from every Fender era. Why can't each instrument just be judged on its own?

[-=DanAtkinson=-]

Originally Posted by georgiagoodie

I am confused. If the '70s were so bad, why are they now issuing '74 AND '75 Jazz reissues, as well as Geddy's & Marcus Miller's?

Because lots of players love the looks, and the 70's pickup spacing. And Geddy is a bass icon and his name helps sell stuff, and companies like it when they can sell stuff.

Those reissues will be infinitely superior to actual 70's Fenders. (With the exception of the occasional 70's gem.)