I don't worry about the negative people on here as they tend to be clearly labelled (like brightly coloured poisonous frogs in the jungle). I worry about the sheer number of members on here who see anything that reads like a negative critique of a bass and somehow take it personally. Clearly a good number lack the emotional maturity necessary to handle this sort of information without perceiving it as a personal slight. If I criticise a bass, this isn't a personal attack on anyone. I'm not criticising your bass, your choice of bass or your choice of manufacturer. This sort of language shouldn't upset anybody. I'm not killing any buzz just by sharing my opinion on something. A good chunk of people on here just aren't emotionally capable of parsing writing in this matter.
Pete Wells reviews Guy Fieri's restaurant in Times Square in the NYT. What Pete laid out was a detailed and damning critique of everything wrong with the food he sampled and why, by extension, this made Fieri seem non-credible as a chef, restauranter and self-proclaimed foodie. Most people thought that the article was a brilliant hatchet job, but of course there will always be the corner of Twitter who thinks that Pete Wells is simply an ******* for saying mean things.
Beyond that, do you reckon the CEO of Fender is up at night crying into his pillow because somebody out there doesn't like Pau Ferro fretboards? He isn't upset, so nobody here has to get upset on his behalf.
To flesh out my first post in here slightly:
Pete Wells reviews Guy Fieri's restaurant in Times Square in the NYT. What Pete laid out was a detailed and damning critique of everything wrong with the food he sampled and why, by extension, this made Fieri seem non-credible as a chef, restauranter and self-proclaimed foodie. Most people thought that the article was a brilliant hatchet job, but of course there will always be the corner of Twitter who thinks that Pete Wells is simply an ******* for saying mean things.
Beyond that, do you reckon the CEO of Fender is up at night crying into his pillow because somebody out there doesn't like Pau Ferro fretboards? He isn't upset, so nobody here has to get upset on his behalf.
To flesh out my first post in here slightly:
- I like the '51-style P bass platform, but my tastes are conservative here. I would rather see a single pickup on this bass and maybe a 2-saddle compensation bridge. The split P pickup is too much like those Mike Dirnt basses for me (I owned one, and it sounded like every other P bass but had a fatter neck and weighed more than most). A '51 P bass with a chrome Thunderbird pickup would be cool, and even a MusicMan style humbucker would be interesting. These basses lend themselves to a sort of one-pickup straight ahead simplicity.
- This bass looks like it was designed by committee. The flat black pickguard looks cheap against the high gloss finish, whereas against a more satin finish it would look elegant. It is too matte to be a direct copy of an original lacquered '50s pickguard, so it simply looks a bit odd. had Fender stuck a black bridge and control plate on the bass then it might have looked more cohesive. In its place I would prefer a 3-ply parchment pickguard to make the instrument visually lighter (and to lend a nod to '70s Telecaster basses, squaring the circle if you like).
- The PJ pickup set has been done to death. I don't personally like the sound of the two pickups on at the same time in a PJ setup. At best it is a passable impression of a Jazz bass, and at worst it has a horrible mix of muddy bass and twangy, brittle treble tones that is powerful but pretty ugly to listen to. A bit of brains has to go into making a noiseless PJ set that balances nicely.
- I don't like hum you get from a single coil J pickup and the way that hum variously blends into the tone depending on settings. A PJ pickup setup seems like a jaded stab at adding functionality and tonal diversity to a bass design. Look at import builders like Cort and you notice their basic P bass copy costs $250 and their PJ copy costs $275 because it is the bland 'cheesy garlic bread versus plain garlic bread' upgrade that every import manufacturer goes for.
- Roasted maple is a bit faddy thanks to MusicMan, and if not done nicely can simply look like dirty maple. In my opinion this bass looks like a dark, dirty bass in need of a clean, with too many muddy brown hues in the mix.
- I don't like any advertising copy that claims that a modern thin nitro finish, which is likely mixed with more plasticizers than a vintage nitro finish would have been, adds any sort of tonal properties. This is doubly true if it is sprayed over a generic thick Fender sealer coat. This is triply true if the same advertising copy claims that nitro lets the 'wood breathe'. Advertising like this appears to assume we are stupid and easily fooled.
- Fender used nitro back in the day because it was prevalent, easy to apply and quick to finish off. I sincerely doubt it was chosen for any sort of tonal properties. This vague appeal to nostalgia is anything but pioneering or exciting, in my opinion.
