Of course. I see your point. I just don't want to be charged more for my preferences.
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Hey Fender- This is NOT cool!
- Thread starter rogerbmiller
- Start date
I thought the first pic was showing the pickups' polepieces not aligned correctly, but yeah the wood pairing is slightly off.
My American Standard P is black. One can only imagine how many pieces of wood are glued up in the body. Honestly I wouldn't care even if I could see them. Now that the bass is going on 8 or so years old, I can tell by the checking of the thin skin finish that it looks like a three piece body with the seams pretty equally placed. At the end of the fretboard by the nut is a darker colored stripe in the grain of the Maple that runs almost to the first fret and close to the center of the board. It almost looks like a crack. Close up it's very visible but again who cares? The bass plays great and the action is sick low on it. It's been that way since I bought it in late 07 as an 08 model.
I once owned a music store in the late 60's to mid 80's and we were a Fender dealer. Because of that I had a chance to tour the factory. It was during the Fullerton years and Fender was under CBS control at the time. One of the places in the tour was of the raw wood prep area where the glue ups were done and also body cutting, shaping, sanding, and finish selection area. On any body where the grain would show after finishing like Natural, 3TSB, Blonde, the employees would select two pieces of wood that had grain that matched and seams as close to the center line as possible. In other words two piece bodies with the seam close to center was the preferred body. The feeling was that from the front, the body seam in the center or slightly off center would be mostly covered up by hardware and not noticed. Not much was considered as far as how the pieces matched up on the back, as the audience would rarely see that. If they 'had' to use three pieces, they'd try to get the third seam as close to the edge as possible knowing on a 3TSB the darker color on the edge would hide the seam. Or be less visible.
So what about those solid colors? The attitude at the factory was 'anything goes' for a solid color. They still tried for two piece bodies but there was no reason to grain match for looks. I personally saw bodies glued up that were four pieces of wood. Our guide said that the worst wood was used for the black bodies. I asked him what he meant. He said that they were structurally sound but the wood looked visually like crap. Hence the choice of black color. He also mentioned that you shouldn't strip down a black body because the wood was as he said "scary looking". (Yep like I mentioned above my current P is black. LOL)
I can see the OP's point but Fenders are mass produced. A lot of CNC and other automated machines are used during production. A machine has no soul or eyes. It cranks out whatever it's programmed to do. The products are made as fast as possible and then sent to a human who screws the whole mess together and sets it up. Again as fast as possible. So visual defects (if you can call it a defect) do happen. If the human who sets it up notices it, what are they supposed to do? In the old days Fender took those bodies and sprayed a solid color over them. Today IMO they just box it and ship it. If the bass the OP saw plays great, it will sell. There are those like myself who don't or won't care. They just want an instrument that plays great.
I once owned a music store in the late 60's to mid 80's and we were a Fender dealer. Because of that I had a chance to tour the factory. It was during the Fullerton years and Fender was under CBS control at the time. One of the places in the tour was of the raw wood prep area where the glue ups were done and also body cutting, shaping, sanding, and finish selection area. On any body where the grain would show after finishing like Natural, 3TSB, Blonde, the employees would select two pieces of wood that had grain that matched and seams as close to the center line as possible. In other words two piece bodies with the seam close to center was the preferred body. The feeling was that from the front, the body seam in the center or slightly off center would be mostly covered up by hardware and not noticed. Not much was considered as far as how the pieces matched up on the back, as the audience would rarely see that. If they 'had' to use three pieces, they'd try to get the third seam as close to the edge as possible knowing on a 3TSB the darker color on the edge would hide the seam. Or be less visible.
So what about those solid colors? The attitude at the factory was 'anything goes' for a solid color. They still tried for two piece bodies but there was no reason to grain match for looks. I personally saw bodies glued up that were four pieces of wood. Our guide said that the worst wood was used for the black bodies. I asked him what he meant. He said that they were structurally sound but the wood looked visually like crap. Hence the choice of black color. He also mentioned that you shouldn't strip down a black body because the wood was as he said "scary looking". (Yep like I mentioned above my current P is black. LOL)
I can see the OP's point but Fenders are mass produced. A lot of CNC and other automated machines are used during production. A machine has no soul or eyes. It cranks out whatever it's programmed to do. The products are made as fast as possible and then sent to a human who screws the whole mess together and sets it up. Again as fast as possible. So visual defects (if you can call it a defect) do happen. If the human who sets it up notices it, what are they supposed to do? In the old days Fender took those bodies and sprayed a solid color over them. Today IMO they just box it and ship it. If the bass the OP saw plays great, it will sell. There are those like myself who don't or won't care. They just want an instrument that plays great.
Just saw the pics again and yes, OP's sunburst j looks terrible but look at these lovely mismatched bridesmaids! 
Blah blah blah, Fender is the worst and other companies are better, blah blah blah...
Just saw the pics again and yes, OP's sunburst j looks terrible but look at these lovely mismatched bridesmaids!
Could we see them with the transparent finish before we judge?
...responding to a thread about the very subject. So the farthest thing from a random selection of opinions!
Why you gotta make me look stupid in front of my friends like that? You're so embarrassing
Blah blah where did I or anyone else make that assertion blah blah blah?
People vote with their $$$$$$$$...The consumer's perception is Fender's reality.
General Motors stop caring about the details, look where it got them.
At this point, when the staining process reveals the final look, Quality Control kicks in and the builder sets the piece aside as a lesser grade piece. Then one of the many people here who likes the look can snatch it up for the proper price, which is not the premium price.
Did I say you or anyone else did? I just wanted to poke my head in with my commentary. Nothing to see here. Move along.
This Fullerton reissue has visible pieces and a knot or mark in the wood near the top. Fender has had basses like this for years.
That's a fact. Dunno if you can make it out in this old pic from the eighties, this minty '58 P bass (not a RI) of mine had a knot in exactly the same place as on your Fullerton RI.
They have been selling basses with obvious multi-piece bodies since the 50's so it doesn't seem to have been affecting their bottom line too much. People have been raving about Fender's quality since they made updates in 2008.
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You are serious? No special introductions needed. Those people are already in place, just not doing their job. It is called QUALITY CONTROL.
If you are just as happy to fork out 1200 for something that is flawed then you are lowering the standards of what's acceptable. If you don't point out to the sales guy the flaw and ask for a reduced price, you work against your own best interest. I don't get this. Don't you people value your money?
Need a partner? I think we can make a go of it.
