I guess I'm an idiot. (My ex-wife has suspected this for a while, actually.) I rather like my '98 Jazz with its stock, normal bridge, its thick, bulletproof finish, the gap in its neck pocket, its improperly crowned frets, and all its other shortcomings.
I really don't think Fender's approach has changed much over the last 30 years. Quality-wise and features-wise, its all about mass production and marketing. They've never set out to build a great instrument. The just try to build lots of good instruments and tell you they're great. A great one does slip through every now and again, just like a bad one does.
Neck pockets used to have a little space in them so as the wood expands and contracts, the finish wouldn't crack. Nowadays, a good tight neck pocket is synonymous with build quality, so Fender tightened up their neck pockets. Wonder how many of these '08s won't have hairline finish cracks in the next ten years?
Same thing with the high mass bridge. The Badass and other similar bridges have seen a surge in popularity lately. So here comes the new Fender high mass bridge - probably cheaper than licensing a Badass or someone else's bridge on all those American Standards.
The finish? I'd bet that the new, thinner finish is cheaper to apply than the old, thick one. The ability to market it as a feature to allow the wood to resonate more is icing on the cake, really - and kind of silly, given the high mass bridge.
Trendier color selection and tort pickguards...how is this not 100% about marketing and selling more basses?
So then someone says Fender doesn't properly crown their frets because it saves them time and money? No surprise to me - that sounds right.
Oh - and timing the introduction of these features with the release of the P5, something a lot of people have wanted to see for a while - how is that not going to help these new changes get a warm reception?
I'm a big Fender fan, and have owned and played many. I have little playing time on the '08s, but they have never struck me as vastly superior to my '98, or my '97, or the '01-'07s that I've played. I think they're all good basses. A few of them are great. I've really only played one I thought was crap, but I'm sure more are out there.
Heck, even back in the Leo days, it was never about building a bunch of great instruments. It was assembly line stuff. You don't like this color? We'll just paint over this color with another one - that wasn't even a downside back then. Using a primer and then a base coat took too long, so they made a primer that they could use as the base coat in their sunburst. That sunburst paint job didn't turn out so good? Paint over it with a solid color. No big deal at the time - and we'd love to get our hands on these basses now. What do you think would happen if Fender tried to take those shortcuts now?
