• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Does liking Fender instruments make you Unoriginal?

#41
Clef_de_fa said:
I find that kind of respond to be a little wrong. Why ? because your Canon whatever may have a filter or better resolution so you can take closer picture without it being blurry, sure you hade the idea or the talent to take the picture in a great angle to let the feeling but still, it may not have the same impact if you didn't have that better resolution ... just like in music, the first time fretless was something no matter they did, the tone can't be acheive without that fretless ... or the first time people heard a B string and be like "how did you get that low"

Where I want to go is : the tool is important to let us create what we have in mind.
Click to expand...

I don't really think we disagree; the gear is important, but in my opinion mostly "at the extremes", e.g. you can't take closeups or telephoto shots with a normal lens, and as you said you need a fretless or a B string for a particular sound. But, that's technical to a large extent, not the story or the content. Sometimes people can't separate the two, content is one thing and the technical presentation another. I agree that the technical quality can affect how we perceive the content, but a good song or a good photo is really much, much more about the content than the technical quality.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Clef_de_fa
#42
Doctor J said:
There's nothing wrong with liking Fenders, though there does seem to be a staunch conservatism behind a lot of what Fender do these days which is at odds with what established the brand originally. FMIC own a bunch of designs, but the soul of what that brand name stood for has long since left the building. Our instrument was the result of radical and creative thinking, it saddens me that the brand now stands for regurgitation of what has gone before, a catalogue of minor variations of the same theme using celebrity association as its primary marketing tool. It used not to be this way.
Click to expand...

Except when they try to do something new (e.g. Dimension bass, Zone bass) it fails because people who like Fender don't buy it because it's not the old thing, and people who don't like Fender don't buy it because it's Fender.

smeet said:
I'll tell you what does bother me. I used to be a violinist, and anybody who wasn't a beginner had an instrument made by hand, even if not by a single master luthier. They are all basically the same, design, but there is an individuality that sets each instrument apart. The fact that almost everybody playing an electric bass or guitar is using a mass-produced instrument makes me sad. It's a sign of the times I guess. They work and sound fine for the most part (some are even great), but it is sad that an instrument crafted by a human is prohibitively expensive for most people.
Click to expand...

How much did those handmade violins cost though? In my experience, probably the same or more than most handmade bass guitars. The difference is accessability for the masses - there are probably a lot more guitarists/bassists than classical string musicians, and with the majority of the sound of an electric instrument being generated by the pickup rather than a resonating acoustic chamber, its probably much easier to make a cheap, decent sounding electric instrument.
 
  • Like
Reactions: One Drop
#53
I wouldn't say that playing a specific instrument makes you unoriginal. Unless you are playing a completely custom bass, you are playing something that someone else uses; that doesn't make you unoriginal, it's what you do with it.
 
#55
Jughead6 said:
But some people's obsessive adoration is irritating. They're just instruments.
Click to expand...
I couldn't agree more. Yes they set the standard, but they aren't all that. I find them visually bland, sonically boring, and ergonomically cumbersome; not to mention technologically stagnant. They are the bass equivalent of a shark or alligator. However, if someone else plays them, it doesn't hurt me any. I think the only way it really affects me is that stores delicate far too much space to Fender, which you can get anywhere. I'd rather they use their space on things I haven't seen a million times before.
 
#57
When you see a beautiful girl walking down the street and she is wearing skin tight blue jeans, do you think "how unoriginal, people have been wearing those since the '50s?" I bet you don't. And if someone walks into a club and hears a bassline so grooving that they can't stop their foot from tapping and their head from nodding, and the tone is killin, then they won't give a f**k what brand of bass you are playing. (unless they are another bass player)
 
#58
The first response said "it's not the bass" and I agree.

I could have just as much fun with (person who is super fun but not physically attractive) as I could with (person who is super fun and verrrry attractive to me), but I'd rather be in a position without want.

As soon as I can get a J body cut from bubinga to accept my Warwick neck and bridge, I will have my last bass.
 
#59
It is, of course, the player that determines the efficacy of the instrument.

That said, there are two things that can set Fender basses apart from the rest of the crowd. IMO.

1) Modifications. Fender basses can lend themselves to player specific modifications. For me there are several parts to this; but, bottom line is I just don'mind making sometimes experimental modifications to Fender basses. I am much less inclined to do the same thing to my Tobias or my Zon; though that could just be a personality defect in my case. As to what constitutes an appropriate modification; well, that really depends on the player and whether or not it is something that serves the entertainment value of the instrument. It can be a fine line maybe between trashing a perfectly good bass and creating the next icon. All depends.

2) Wear. Fender basses are kind of like an old pair of Levi's jeans, in that the more played in they get, the more character they tend to develop. I have had a couple other basses which produced the same thing; but they were all in some way Fender related. I do not dig the relic thing in this respect, even on a Fender. It has to be wear from my particular idiosyncratic technique.

To the OP: I also picked up a Fender Jazz in a shop early on in my playing. At that point, there were no bass icons I was aware of who were using it; so, I let it slip past, even though it was definitely sweet. Took me another 12 years to set that one straight. A Jazz Bass would be the very last bass pried from my cold dead fingers at this point.

YMMV
 
#60
Does liking Fender instruments make you Unoriginal?
I dont think so.
What if it does?
Does it matter?
Like what you like.
I think 99.999% of people don't care who made your instrument and amp.
Most of them will care if you play it well if you do so in their presence.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back