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Fender- What's the deal?

#21
I have owned alot of fenders. I dont like jazz basses , or jaguars but i will always feel good on a decent P bass. I like other basses as well but if there was a gun to my head and i had to choose 1 bass to use for life it would be a precision bass. That does not mean it needs to be a fender many companies make great P and J basses.
 
#22
bassistkll said:
I recently saw one of my buds' fusion band and talked with his bassist (Fender Jazz 5-string, Epifani 4x10, Walter Woods amp, his sound was amazing). We were talking gear and he said of Fenders that not all are created equal. Most are pretty good, a lot are crap, and some are "blessed by the bass gods". When you find a blessed one you'll know it (and it may be a cheaper model or an unusual finish or color), but you need to play a bunch of them to find one. Mine is one of the blessed ones and it's a keeper.

Wish you well.
-KLL
Click to expand...

The "blessed ones" sound so because the player can actually play. These are rare indeed.
 
#23
I like a variety of brands. I owned an LB75 for a short while. Though the construction and playability was phenomenal I thought the tone sucked. That doesn't make it any better or worse than Fender or any other brand out there, it just means it was different and wasn't to my liking. Just as you feel about Fender.
 
#24
I like having these magical buttons to make absolutely USELESS posts disappear.

Seriously. Stop this trolling crap. He asked a valid question and you guys can give him the decency to give him a valid answer.
 
#25
Fenders were great til Fender sold the company.

Then, Music Man basses were great, til Fender lost controlling interest of the company. Ernie Ball basses are still quality products- probably the best of the Fender clones that were originally designed by Leo.

Then, G&L basses were great til Fender passed away, and purportedly still are a quality product as well.

The '75 Fender Jazz Bass I owned for 7 years was one of the best and worst instruments I ever owned. Fast neck, great tone, and the electronics from hell. I suspect some amateur jobber tried to rewire it before I owned it- I never had the cash to get it worked on to any decent level so the 75 jazz got traded many years ago for a Gibson L40 guitar and Sigma acoustic bass, both of which are now also long gone.

I also had a Mexican made Fender Urge in the 90s which was a trainwreck- again, good neck, fast feel, but electronics designed by a deaf troll who wouldn't know a bass if he tripped over it!

I now own two Fender clones (IMO, all current Fenders are clones of the original fenders anyways). These non fender clones are decent basses and incorporate many of the landmark features of original Fender basses like deep neck pocket etc... for that "10 LB bass tone" that lighter basses seem to never quite have.

I love the Fender design- it really works as an electric bass! I simply don't trust anything with the Fender name on the headstock that was built after 1965- based on my ownership experience.
 
#27
I got a new Carvin B4 for a gift back in '00. Never really played it much when it was new, but after 10 years its really become a very good sounding and great playing bass for me.

Then again, its nothing special, passive just like a Jazz bass.

B4Body.jpg
 
#28
I love my B4 fretless; with the caveat that I put in aftermarket pickups from the get go. Superb quality, light, good wood and achieves low action.

I had a MIM jazz for many years, and would love a Geddy Lee or something of the sort IF I could find one that felt well put together and had a neck I could trust on it. The MIM's neck started getting a little unruly after a few years; nothing horrendous, but the action was pretty much stuck at medium height because the neck was starting to twist a bit. Bummer.

Man, I wouldn't mind dumping some Nordstrand pups into a Squier CV jazz though... mm.
 
#29
Some years ago i found an awsome trans blue Carvin B5 for a good price and bought it. My main bass back then was a Fender MIM 5 string and i thought this thing will blow it away. I took it to a few gigs and the band and some folks who came to our gigs said where did you get that bass? I said shes' great right? They said ummm......... "No" The Fender sounds way better. I said .."Really? Really they said. I sold the Carvin...so there you go.
 
#30
I have owned many many basses(probably too many to list), and the few I have now save a Kinal Kompact which is on its way are Fenders. They sit in the mix exactly the way that I want, and the necks feel great. They do exactly what I want them to. You really need to find a good one and play it in a live situation to understand how they sit in the mix. Then again, you may never like them. No one said you have to!
 
#33
Okay, I wasn't going to get involved, mostly because I'm tired of reading the same 'Why the Fender hate/Why the Fender love?,' 'Tell me about Music Man,' or whatever questions that get asked ad nauseam around here.

But then I remembered that I'd asked the same level of question twice in the past 5 years. So...

I spent 25 years saying I'd never own a Fender, based on nothing but an unwillingness to buy what I considered a lowest common denominator bass. And stories of Fender's now-legendary bad QC made me smug about it.

Then the 2008 American Standard series appeared, and the axes seemed to have been carved from pure magic. And I recorded a disc upon which were two songs I'd dearly have loved the P-bass grease for. I get a lot of different tones out of my Lakland 55-02, but no candy this time.

So, 2 + 2 = it was time for me to buy a Fender.

I didn't even like P Basses when I bought mine. I still think the P is an ugly pig of a design, but I'm loving the hell out of it, warts and all. And the rumours are true: My 2008/2009 American Standard P has none of the QC issues we've all come to dread.
 
#35
Fender's like any Bass are hit or miss. To you that is. A Jazz Bass that feels great to me may not to the guy sitting next to me and vice versa. I've owned an AM Std and Mexi Jazz and now a Geddy Lee. And for my personal taste the Geddy is the best of the 3.

I've never been a P fan so I wont bother commenting on them.
 
#36
I think a lot of the "quality control" issues are little more than poorly setup basses with old strings. Most any Fender (if the neck is straight) can be setup to play and sound fine -- even magical if the player himself has any magic in him.

For the OP, you don't have to like Fenders, and you have found a bass you do like -- that's a great thing. Perhaps as your taste changes (as it does for all of us), you will decide that you do like Fenders. It is really that simple. I don't like mayonnaise and that's ok too :)
 
#37
I have a Squier Jazz and a Squier Precision. I have had Fenders in the past, and Music Man, and Gibson. I have cheap basses now because I can't justify (to my wife) having expensive instruments.

The Fender is the Original bass. That is where it started, and more songs have been made with them than any other single brand. That is where the popularity comes from. Doesn't mean they are superior, just been around longer.

ALMOST everything else is a derivative. There are very few other original concepts that make it long term in bass guitardom, nothing even approaches the originality of Fender. Look at three of the most legendary basses, and they are all Fender, and they are the first ones and the origin of all the deriviatives....Single Coil Precision, Split Precision, and Jazz bass. Even the Sting Ray is from the same family. Even the G&L basses are derivatives of the Sting Ray and Leo's Ideas.

Leo Fender IS Bass Guitar. Simple as that.

Where would we all be without Leo Fender, and Les Paul??

Jeff
 
#39
Why do I play Fender basses after having played and owned other basses? Even if they might have had advanced electronics, and better build quality, or unique features? Simply enough, I love the tone and feel of a good P or J Bass more than most other basses. They fit me better than most other basses out there these days, given the musical place I'm at, at this time in my life.

Are you missing something? No, not if you are completely happy with what you have and are using now. I'm no different than say a guitarist that had owned and used high end shred guitars with active pickups for most of their career, and then stumbled upon some old, or common Les Paul, or Strat and fell in love with the tones that such instruments offer. In my case I started with a 63 Fender P-Bass as my first pro level instrument, I left the Fender camp for awhile, and later returned and fell in love with the Fender thing all over again. They work for me, make me happy, and that's why I love my humble Fender fare.
 
#40
coming from a guy who is much younger than most of you here is my 2 cents:

i have played only a squier p, an ibanez, an esp and fender jazz and i love my jazz. mostly because of the feel and look. jazz necks are for me. the esp neck was actually skinnier than the jazz neck but it just didnt feel right. also the pickup placement just feels right, i like that the top of it is smooth for thumb to rest on, kinda weird i know but i like it.

also the look of fender jazzes and p's. i dunno why, well actually i sorta do but its too hard to explain., anyways i think its just what i grew up with. fenders are the most popular and most visible in pop culture so i think people just see it and get it in their head that that is what they like. like it was said before, it all comes down to your preferences and i think (at least in my case) my preference was developed from what i saw and was influenced by
 

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