curious. Why does Fender sell the Jaco Pastorius bass with flatwound strings?

[bluesblaster]

If you've ever had the opportunity to play one the good pre CBS J basses then you will know the difference, that and the fact were not him.

 

[Jim C]

Why ship with flat wounds?
Because most players would not be able to play well with rounds.
JP OTOH, would have used rusty bailing wire if he liked the tone better.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

The Custom Shop version comes with rounds and an epoxy coated board rather than a urethane coated board.

 

[Pyrat]

I have a Squier body/Fender fretless replacement w/ DR Sunbeams that cops that tone pretty darn well albeit, NONE of us ARE Jaco. I'd love to own one of the Jaco signatures but I bought the Tony Franklin fretless to cover ground that my faux-BOD couldn't and darned if I'll live long enough to master either one...but it sure is the most fun I have playing~

 

[Ferniff]

I dont know a whole lot about Jaco but I thought he maintained his bass's neck a lot due to the rounds and fretless. I'm guessing Fender thinks must people wont go through that effort and so years down the road you'll have a bunch of people complaining about their ruined necks if they came with rounds originally.

 

[Killing Floor]

You're saying…
Jaco didn't need flats! Haha

It's the inverse of "why doesn't Fender sell Ps with flats?"

 

[trickyric]

They also don't rip out the frets and fill the slots with boat epoxy. It's a tribute bass, not his bass.

the do put a Urethane-coated epoxy layer on the fretboard

 

[trickyric]

You're saying…
Jaco didn't need flats! Haha

It's the inverse of "why doesn't Fender sell Ps with flats?"

if you are making a tribute or copy of something, I would think you would try to be as authentic as you can....within reason.. if Jaco's name is on it why not at least use round wounds like he did?

 

[MultiScaleMale]

the do put a Urethane-coated epoxy layer on the fretboard

Urethane and epoxy are two different finishes.

 

[bobyoung53]

Jaco famously played round wound Rotosound swing bass strings.. so why does Fender sell the signature bass with flats?

Because Jaco coated his neck with marine epoxy, The Rotos he used would eat a rosewood neck very fast, ask me how i know. I think The custom shop makes one or used to.

 

[bobyoung53]

Because they won't make money out of installing strings from a competitor.

They install pickups from a competitor. TF fretlesses come with Dimarzio Jazz pickups.

 

[bobyoung53]

the do put a Urethane-coated epoxy layer on the fretboard

Urethane doesn't last long with Rotosounds, Jaco used marine epoxy which is as hard as nails and lasts pretty much forever even with rough roundwounds like Rotos. Ebony also is really tough, I have Rotos on my ebony TF fretless.

 

[Gorn]

the do put a Urethane-coated epoxy layer on the fretboard

A few people have responded with logical reasons why the bass doesn't come with rounds. I understand you think it should, but it doesn't. Fender is selling the bass the way they are and it seems to be working out for them.

 

[SLO Surfer]

Jaco famously played round wound Rotosound swing bass strings.. so why does Fender sell the signature bass with flats?

TL/DR. Probably so they get less bad reviews about the Bass needing finger board repairs.

 

[cnltb]

curious. Why does Fender sell the Jaco Pastorius bass with flatwound strings?
Maybe they get them cheap right now?

 

[twinjet]

Jaco famously played round wound Rotosound swing bass strings.. so why does Fender sell the signature bass with flats?

A lot of people might like the relic look without the damage rounds can cause.

 

[GreyBeard]

Honestly I have no clue. My guess is that most Fretless basses come with flats as a standard(due to board wear), or that J-basses in the 60s came with flatwounds so theoretically it is period-accurate or something lol. It would make more sense to ship with Roundwounds though as you said.

Agree, no way to get anything close to Jaco's sound with flats

 

[g-dude]

Because they won't make money out of installing strings from a competitor.

The Steve Harris signature P comes with Rotosound flats, but mercifully not installed.

 

[Acoop]

Must be recent because the last one I played had round.
A better question is fly does a CS 63 P-bass comes with round wounds?

 

[jd56hawk]

Maybe they want to force bassists to change strings!
Funny how some don't know how.