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Has anyone gone fenderless??

Do you use Fenders or Brand X

  • I have only Fenders

    Votes: 66 11.4%

  • I use both Fenders and non Fenders

    Votes: 257 44.3%

  • I have never owned a Fender

    Votes: 149 25.7%

  • I sold all my Fenders for Brand X

    Votes: 108 18.6%
  • Total voters
    580
#161
arock0627 said:
You list the 1% who can play what they want (Stanley Clarke, Victor Wooten) and then list the 1% who can manage to break out of the "Warm" zone with a Fender... basically, you just gave me a bunch of outliers that don't really prove a damn thing. Fender basses are known for their muddy tone, that's what makes them Fenders.

Oh, "Warm" tone. Excuse me.

Maybe its the constancy of this thing. Maybe I'm even a little miffed that people actually believe that if you can't get a sound you like out of a Fender you should give up playing bass entirely. I don't know.
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I don't think you really know what you are talking about. Either that, or I am in the "1%".

Just play whatever you want and be really good at it. But if you think that only 10% of players can make a Fender Jazz sound good, I question your level of experience.
 
#162
AngelCrusher said:
Yes, I agree with you there. I sold my Fender Jazz to a producer down here and have been contemplating replacing it with a Lakland jazz which is why I ask. I do a ton of session work so I am pretty picky on tone as you probably are as well.

If the Nashville session guys are rocking Laklands then I feel like they are going to catch on in other studios too.Sometimes it just takes enough good players to roll through there with something killer and similar to a Fender J or P to open up minds a little.
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Yeah, Laklands, Sadowsky's, etc. have gotten enough cred to be accepted by most engineers and producers. Unfortunately - for the bass player - in most sessions, you're given the least amount of time to get a sound. That means using something familiar and easy to mix!

If you're thinking about getting a Lakland or similar, may I suggest making sure it has a passive option? Active pre's often don't play well with vintage comps and pre's that you will run into. (again, no time to fiddle for the bassist :scowl:)
 
#163
GO FENDERLESS?!?!?!?!

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#165
scotch said:
(again, no time to fiddle for the bassist :scowl:)
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That kind of crap is indicative of someone who is severely lazy -- I wouldn't respect someone who acted like that. I know apparently many "professionals" get away with it, but what I am hearing is "WE'RE ALL FAR TOO LAZY TO LEARN HOW TO RECORD ANY BASS BUT THIS ONE KIND." I don't respect lazy.
 
#166
arock0627 said:
Mike Dirnt used a Musicman. He also used a Jackson. Listen to Green Days stuff pre-Insomniac. That is not a Fender.
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Kerplunk, their second album, was a Gibson G3. Dookie was an active Fender PJ set to sound like a passive Precision. I'm guessing the Precision Deluxe, but Mike doesn't say in the Jan 2013 BP article I'm getting this info from. Nimrod was a couple vintage Precisions. Insomniac was the G3 again. And I just searched about 5 or 6 pages of Google images and didn't see a single pic of Mike with either a Jackson or a MusicMan.

And yes, if Geddy Lee can make a Fender J sound great, then maybe anyone can. Of course, most people won't be able to, no matter how much they practice. There's a reason that these guys are tops and it was 90% practice and 10% some other variable, possibly genetic "other". Les Claypools sound is nigh impossible to copy, Tim Commeford had a sound that was completely unique, for instance. I can get more of a brassy tone out of a Fender than most other people I know, but it has to do with my attack and physical capabilities moreso than I know what I'm doing with knobs. On the other hand, sometimes the tone I produce is a little too much attack.
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I'm never one to discount what goes on in the hands, but to get a bright sound out of a Fender, all you have to do is turn down bass and turn up treble. Anyone can do it, even beginners.

That being said, I prefer the woodsy tones of my setup and the fact that I have the ability to create a Fender-esque thump if I so desire (plucking over the frets instead of the pups), but it's not my only option.
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Isn't mine either, and I play Fenders, so there! :p

At this point, I'd consider the point that you just talked yourself into a corner you can't get out of and you're just throwing stuff at the wall to see if it sticks.
 
#168
maxgrant said:
That kind of crap is indicative of someone who is severely lazy -- I wouldn't respect someone who acted like that. I know apparently many "professionals" get away with it, but what I am hearing is "WE'RE ALL FAR TOO LAZY TO LEARN HOW TO RECORD ANY BASS BUT THIS ONE KIND." I don't respect lazy.
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That's what all professionals do. Doncha know?

I find it funny that an untrained, self taught guy in our band shed used a $150 digital 4 track, a single mic, and 3 minutes of fiddling to make my old Ibanez sr406 sound like a monster, but these big time sound guys can't do it with thousands upon thousands of dollars in gear and decades of experience.

But yet they can eek out good **** from just about any drum set or guitar setup. Yup.
 
#169
Never owned a fender and never will. Better basses available for the money. I prefer humbucker pups, but have also owned J pup bass by warwick and P pup basses by BC Rich. Overall I prefer humbucker/soapbar pup basses with active 2-3 band eq onbaord. Even if fender started offering such equipted basses Id still pass. Due to better basses available by makers like esp lt, ibanez, jackson, washburn, warwick, etc etc.
 
#171
scotch said:
Yeah, Laklands, Sadowsky's, etc. have gotten enough cred to be accepted by most engineers and producers. Unfortunately - for the bass player - in most sessions, you're given the least amount of time to get a sound. That means using something familiar and easy to mix!

If you're thinking about getting a Lakland or similar, may I suggest making sure it has a passive option? Active pre's often don't play well with vintage comps and pre's that you will run into. (again, no time to fiddle for the bassist :scowl:)
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Yes for sure! My 5502 has a passive pull and the next Lakland I buy will be all passive. Most like their Jazz Bass version.

I definitely agree on passive basses in the studio. I always enjoy a relatively new, local guy whining about "his tone" in the studio. Those guys get us more work..lol.
 
#172
arock0627 said:
That's what all professionals do. Doncha know?

I find it funny that an untrained, self taught guy in our band shed used a $150 digital 4 track, a single mic, and 3 minutes of fiddling to make my old Ibanez sr406 sound like a monster, but these big time sound guys can't do it with thousands upon thousands of dollars in gear and decades of experience.
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I have a crazy feeling you don't really know what a great recording sounds like, but carry on.
 
#174
AngelCrusher said:
I have a crazy feeling you don't really know what a great recording sounds like, but carry on.
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Its pretty easy to distinguish a professional mix from an amateur.

To check the mix and tone we would put our songs on a cd sandwiched between professional, national bands of similar genre. The difference was minimal, or at least nothing we could fix without some serious studio gear. It sounded better than a live professional mix but worse than a pro mix and only a shade worse than the biggest local bands were putting out (Nothingface being the one we usually used) at studios that cost fairly big bucks for a local act. It usually ended up being a tad too bottom heavy and rumbly, and you could tell our vocals weren't done in a professional soundbooth. There was also a distinctive reverb from recording in the shed, but we managed to cut that by lining a box with blankets and covering the speaker cabs with them with the mix located inside.

The final mix was a little "peakier" than we were hoping, due to the lack of compression equipment. That was fixed the second time around by using the 2 Ch compressor/limiter I had gotten in my rack system.

When that guy did our mixing in the recording and live my bass was always punchy, distinctive, but not enough to stand out too much. It complemented our guitarists tone nicely and added some nice bite to his rather mid scooped distortion. It also had enough rumble and bump to really bring the drums out.

But, you know, carry on.
 
#179
Forced to buy a Fender sunburst jazz for the Hendrix tribute band thing, to be authentic. However, if that goes by the wayside I will dump the Fender. After owning custom basses and an Alembic, I just don't want to go back to the Fenders. Like going from a Ferrari to a Yugo or something.
 
#180
My first quality bass was a 63 Fender P-Bass, and from 1975 to 1992 I got away from owning and playing Fender basses. In 92 I came back home to Fender when I bought my very wonderful sounding and playing 78 P-Bass on the cheap. Since then I've added other Fender basses, and I eventually sold off my non-Fender basses. My current and humble lineup works great for me; but I'm not against considering basses made by other companies and makers for possible future additions to my bass arsenal.
 

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