Hating on anything but Fender

[Geri O]

The smart thing (and not insinuating anything about the OP, mind you, just in general) is to stop listening when a bashing session on a particular brand of bass starts. Seriously, what’s constructive or instructional about that? I’d be pissed at the lost time.

 

[jamro217]

Must have missed that memo. Was it in the "pro looks, attitude and gear only, have own transportation" section?

 

[Geri O]

AND, the Ibanez of today is waaay better than the great Ibanezs of yesteryear. Tone wise, I would choose any Ibanez SR505 (or higher) over ANY fender Jazz. While I do enjoy classic tones of a pbass, The Ibanez crushes a Fender Jazz Bass.

Playability? In my humble opinion, heck Ibanez crushes any fender. I LOVE the SR string spacing, but if people enjoy spacing where ya need to know the bus schedule to get from E to A, well Ibanez make SEVERAL other models besides the SR. I bet a lot of the IBBY haters didn't even know that. But, I digress.
YMMV of course..

There, fixed that for ya...

So you comment on a post about hating on a brand of bass by hating on a brand...

Nice...Fender didn’t do the hating in that video, some clown did.

One thing I’ve learned about journeyman musicians (not necessarily well-known “pros”) is that they can take most any instrument and set it up to (mostly) suit their playing style (which is why it’s handy to know basic set-up techniques). Get the job done and go on to the next one.

 

[Chad Michael]

It's ok, there is a certain stigmata associated with a certain motorcycle brand too.

 

[Skillet]

If you let every stupid thing you see on the internet bother you, you are in for a rough time.

 

[OptimalOptimus]

Tonewise there are many good ones, not just one or two. Music is supposed to be fun and creative.

Music is very formulaic...

not that much spaces for creativity

 

[Dincrest]

Product snobbery and herd mentality will always exist. Use the products that you like best. Like others have said, it's your skill and your attitude that gets you the gig more than your gear.

I see a lot of people bag on Schecter basses online (including here on TalkBass), yet in the 10+ years I've spent in gigging bands and going to tons of shows, I saw a LOT of gigging/touring bassists playing Schecter Stiletto Studio basses. Those folks probably spent more time on stage than online.

Still, yes, it's human nature that when we obtain a product, we look for all the good reviews of it to justify to ourselves that, yes, we got a good product. So when those bad reviews start creeping in, that shakes us a little.

 

[BassBrass]

What do you guys think about that hate, is it justified? Are we not past the”you gotta have a Fender to be in the band” stuff or what

You've gotta understand the relative position opinion has with fact, like, opinions are like leaves in the Fall, or sand particles on a beach, there are Piles of them. Do you listen to them as if they were facts? of course not. People really shouldn't be so attached to their own opinions, but they do define you, and some people need to feel more defined.

 

[TrevorG]

If you let every stupid thing you see on the internet bother you, you are in for a rough time.

Ditto that!! There has been dialogue in recent years on the net about producers wanting precisions because of the way they sit in the mix. But that shouldn't exclude you having your own voice for your own work especially when you remember that no bass can do EVERYTHING.

 

[Dr. Love]

The "insert brand name here" bias normally comes from non-bass players who don't really understand the bass and listen with their eyes.

 

[beaglesandbass]

in the comments

And there's your problem. YouTube comments have pretty much turned into a cesspool of immaturity and stupidity.

That you will spend your entire life trying to please the band and get the right tones.

Maybe? I've been playing bass since 2001 and have been in several bands. Not one of them has ever cared what gear I used or tried to tell me how to sound.

 

[Vanheusen77]

I think we are all biased in some way or another. Imagine a audition for a new guitar player in your band. A guy walks in with a new shiny hightech Ibanez guitar with lets say gold hardware and a neon green burst finish. Now imagine the same guy walking in with a vintage looking Fender. Either way it is going to make some kind of impression! If you then play with that same guy for a while I’m betting that impression will be based on other things, but first impressions can be important for sure.

 

[DeepHz]

Well I just recall hearing things like that before as well, about producers getting whacky when someone comes in with something other than a P,Jazz or music Man.......just little things I hear or read here and there, but wondered how much that holds up.

Thanks for your reply.

It has been my understanding that producers and more importantly sound engineers want a passive bass so they can work their magic from there. I understand the old recording studios used this recording model like Motown and Stax. My music teacher went to a recording session with a real Michael Tobias bass and the engineer handed him a passive P Bass and said we don't record with active basses. Maybe that's where the issue lies? I don't know for sure............

 

[James Collins]

The most successful bass players of all time seem to play what they want:

Paul Mccartney - known for Hofner
Flea - known for Wal
John Entwistle - Alembic
Geddy Lee - Fender
Cliff Burton - Rickenbacker
Victor Wooten - Fodera
Jaco Pistorious - Fender
John Paul Jones - Fender
Les Claypool - Carl Thompson
Lemmy Kilmeister - Rickenbacker
Billy Sheehan - Yamaha
James Jamerson - Fender
Jack Bruce - Warwick
Fieldy - Ibanez
Tom Arraya - BC Rich
...the list goes on like this.

Really, just play what you want and get good.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

Personally I think the build quality of even the cheapest Ibanez SR series is better, or at least far more consistent, than any current MIA/MIM Fender. For me personally the SRs have a too bright and "modern" tone but they're amazing basses for the money, at every price point. The cheap, entry level 300E with the new Powerspan pickups is a SERIOUSLY good bass for the money. So good in fact that it only comes down to personal taste whether it would be better or worse than a $2000 MIA Fender.

The Talmans are more my type of bass than the SRs. It's a shame the Talmans don't use standard sized pickups that allows for easy upgrades. The Dynamix pickups arent't that great when run passive IMO and the routing for the Dynamix bridge J-pickup is slightly narrower than a standard bridge J-pickup. The more expensive Talmans with Nordstrands... well they're completely different sized pickups so not suitable for upgrades at all (but you probably won't buy one of those with the intention of replacing the pickups).

If they had made an entry level (TMB100 price range) PASSIVE long scale Talman with standard routing sizes for both pickups it could be a very nice alternative to MUCH more expensive Fenders after a pickup upgrade.

Ibanez makes GREAT instruments in every price range (probably only rivalled by Yamaha in that respect), they just haven't quite cracked the code on making "vintage vibe" instruments.

 

[micguy]

In over 40 years of playing bass, I've had a couple dozen basses. Half of one of them (the neck) was a Fender - a 60's Fender Jazz neck that didn't have a logo on it. So, no one has ever seen me play a bass with a Fender logo in public (I have tried them at stores). I've had decent success - joining bands I wanted to join over the years. I've had a lot of questions asked me at auditions, but not one was about what brand of bass I played. Not once in a band or recording context has anyone ever mentioned that a Fender would fit or sound better. I do get compliments on my sound, though - they are paying attention.

It's such a non-issue that I don't think about it. I suggest you join me.

 

[Kaa]

I've always understood the love for the P and J in recording was that all the engineers knew how to dial them in quickly, thereby saving money. I may be wrong.

 

[ElectricBass72]

Nobody really cares what brand of bass you are playing - except for other bass players!

This x 1,000

 

[deff]

I find it amusing that people can think that Because something has a name on it that it magically imports some ideal tone to an instrument. You can take a BC Warlock which has roughly the same body mass as a Fender Pbass put in the same wiring and electronics and the pickup would be in about the same location, the bridge is virtually identical, the headstock break angle is equivalent within a degree to two and the remaining costruction would be about the same and put it up against a hundred Pbasses. The Warlock statistically would fall somewhere in that random scattering of Pbass sounds. The assumption that some name on the headstock actually has some magic is absurd.

If you like Fenders great, if you don't then you don't. This idea of some homogeneity of tone even within their own subspecies of instruments is absurd.

 

[OptimalOptimus]

I've always understood the love for the P and J in recording was that all the engineers knew how to dial them in quickly, thereby saving money. I may be wrong.

Yeah so they could pull out the same album over and over... see country music and pop