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Fender's lack of bass evolution

#102
I like the older Fender basses, I don't care for their new line ups especially when they quit using Rosewood for that wood paneling looking stuff, when I'm browsing basses I'll see something that catches my eye and when I take a closer look and see that it's not Rosewood or if it's Pbass with a Jazz pickup by the bridge I shake my head and wonder why I just wasted 4 seconds of my life...:woot:
 
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#105
They do innovate sometimes...
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#107
JoratioMumbles said:
you don't need to be continuously innovative if your first innovation keeps selling.
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Well...sort of. The good old BCG matrix comes to mind:

1) cash cows (low growth, high share)
2) dogs (low growth, low share)
3) stars (high growth, high share)
4) question marks (high growth, low share)

Really, most of Fender's product line is attractive as a source of capital to invest in other businesses - not reinvest in the company. Unfortunately.
 
#108
Kukulkan61 said:
I like the older Fender basses, I don't care for their new line ups especially when they quit using Rosewood for that wood paneling looking stuff, when I'm browsing basses I'll see something that catches my eye and when I take a closer look and see that it's not Rosewood or if it's Pbass with a Jazz pickup by the bridge I shake my head and wonder why I just wasted 4 seconds of my life...:woot:
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It's funny - that's why I'm waiting on a Spector Euro 4LT vs the 4LX, except that it's the issue of Ebony vs Rosewood.
 
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#110
BobKos said:
HA HA! Too funny! Maybe call EBMM and ask them how many neck through Stingrays people actually bought and paid for. Not stores - CUSTOMERS. I would be shocked if it was more than 100.
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You sure about that? If the neck through stingrays are so unpopular, why do they continue to sell them? Pretty sure I saw someone post in one of the SR clubs that they had just picked up a neck through ray.
 
#112
lucas303 said:
Anyone else notice Fender's lack luster efforts to come up with new designs? The "new" models are just P and J re-treads or re-configurations. When's the last time they introduced a new through neck model?
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Funny thing is I've owned 6 Fender basses (currently own 4) and none played or sounded exactly the same. I love all of them.
 
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#113
I do think there aren't many basses that sit as well in the lap as a Jazz bass. I think a Jazz with a P pickup and a J neck is a brilliant thing. Some people like P necks better, but pick your poison.

Don't forget the graphite inserts in the necks starting around 2000, and those nicer tuners that were refined 2008-2013. But I also think that 2+2 tilt-back headstocks are objectively better with respect to balance and neck dive. Truss rod adjustments need to happen without having to remove neck bolts or pickguards. Lately Fender have even used truss rod capstans like EBMM.

String-through or bridge string points are also important. The Fender American Standard bridges allow for narrower string spacing on a P neck as well.

So yes, there is some evolution going on.

However, personally I'm thinking something like a 32" Warmoth G4 body with a 2+2 Roasted Maple/Pau Ferro neck and a couple of humbucking Jazz pickups (JV52 or Area J) or a Geezer P-J setup might be the ultimate evolution for me.
 
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#114
Many years ago my dad worked for a paper company that held brands such as Kleenex, Bounty towels, Kotex woman stuff, and Huggies. Those brands were their decades-long cash cows.

I say this because he mentioned that as much as they tried to innovate and develop new lines, the cash cow brands kept them in the black year in and year out.

They recognized this and acted accordingly.
 
#118
g-dude said:
Perhaps they're stale...and perhaps there's an a solid cohort of bass players who are resistent to change.

What Fender and Gibson need to avoid is becoming the Harley Davidson of the musical instrument world. In less than 2 decades, Harley went from being so incredibly popular that you paid a premium and waited for one, to now being viewed as something for old people.
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Plenty of young people jam on Gibson's and Fender's - Harley Davidson is toast
 
#119
If all the top rock, pop, metal and soul bassists and guitarists suddenly started playing ergonomic whale bodied single cuts with fanned frets and headless tuners Fender might start making guitars and basses like that. But the truth is innovative designs are well catered for by niche companies and custom builders who provide for the relatively small market of players actively seeking those types of instruments. Why would Fender do that? they are a mass production operation, they're not going to slow up production of what sells easily to produce limited runs of low demand stuff. Why would anyone think to themselves, I'd like a bass like a Dingwall, or a Zon, or a Wal, but made by Fender. Unless they're hoping Fender might make and sell it for the price of a standard P, but that's not gonna happen...
 
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#120
ClusterFlux said:
Yes, but those changes are mostly cosmetic, or maybe a teeny difference in neck specs.

I'm not sure I'd call yet another vintage reissue, or variant thereof, as "innovative." Fun? Good marketing? Probably. Innovative? Not so much.
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I was referring at the fender dimension or the flea bass.

Some years ago they've made the Roscoe Beck and the Stu Hamm bass which where quite peculiar too.

I can only guess they don't sell that much as Js and Ps.
 

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