Pretty much only the Custom Shop uses single piece bodies.
MIA's are usually 2 pieces, at least.
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Hey Fender- This is NOT cool!
- Thread starter rogerbmiller
- Start date
MIA's are usually 2 pieces, at least.
See my post above and the pictures. Your VM Jazz most likely have a veneer on top of countless parts of wood.
I think its a pretty fair comparison...a cheap bass and an expensive bass made by the same company...and mismatched grain isnt an artistic choice designed to harken to the days of hand assembled parts and vintage mojo. Its just inattention.
But again, some folks wouldnt mind, but i couldnt do it.
But again, some folks wouldnt mind, but i couldnt do it.
I don't know about anyone else but top woods matching unless one is brown and the other is green are way down on my list when looking for a new bass. I would have probably noticed that in trying it out but wouldn't have given it a second though, how it plays and sounds are tops in my book. I have seen so many little quirks in basses in my lifetime that things like that don't really register.
I complained about this a few years ago. Some agreed, some flamed me for my opinion. I agree it stinks for a USA made Fender. G&L and Ernie Ball manage to match the wood on their trans finishes.
This doesn't look like countless pieces of wood with a veneer to me. Seems like two well matched pieces to me...
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
If I get a bass with the grain showing, I want it to look good.
I bought an Olympic White finish .. So I don't know ... Bought a Nat. Ash finish MIJ P bass and the longitudinal joint on the top of the body is almost unnoticeable.
Bought a MIA Am. Elite P bass natural and there are seemingly no joints ... Maybe that particular jazz bass should considered a B stock and be sold as such ...
Yes but the OP made a point in my opinion especially if we consider natural finishes ... If course the effect on the bass tone are very scant but it would be better to try and match the wood grains ...
The reality is that Alder trees are mostly pretty small. I live in an area where Alder grows rampantly, in the wild. It tends to grow in clusters, where trees compete with eachother and do not usually end up with big wide trunks. Instances where alder can grow big and wide, such that you could easily make two piece guitar bodies, are not common. Such stock would certainly cost more.
Now, for an Fender American Deluxe/Elite, it seems like Fender should be rich enough to supply those models with two piece bodies. But, not a lot of brands use Alder, anyway. Maybe that stuff is all around expensive?
Now, for an Fender American Deluxe/Elite, it seems like Fender should be rich enough to supply those models with two piece bodies. But, not a lot of brands use Alder, anyway. Maybe that stuff is all around expensive?
Shame on me, you're right! The 70s Reissue Squier VMs are kind of an exception. They are maple instead of ash according to Fender, but the grain looks like ash to me.
I try to re-establish my public image by stating that Fender seems to care more about matching body parts when it is a natural finish mostly on ash wood bodies. I hope it works out for me
Ah another "my squier is better than any usa fender bass" thread. Listen to me, my fender american standard jazz bass has a pefrectly matched 3 piece alder body, trust me!
here it is:
here it is:
The most blatant lack of caring is evident on the Mexican okoume basses they put out. A bass who's most distinguishing feature is a beautiful vertical wood grain and this is how many of them look:
That's nothing. I forgot the name of the model, but the Fender Custom Shop offers a bass for > 3.000,- that is intentionally made of two pieces of alder and one piece of ash or the other way round. Shame on them
On edit:
These models are called "2-Tone" or "Duo-Tone".
Body 3 Piece Alder / Ash / Alder
This is just guessing on my part, but I suppose that most of the bassists, who complain about multi-bodypart instruments or not perfect matching of the parts are rather younger players, who didn't own or play lots of different instruments.
I remember when I bought my first halfway serious bass, a Yamaha BB1100s, how dissapointed I was when I figured out at close inspection that it was made of at least 4 or 5 parts of alder.
Back then (1988) I thought that all the US Fenders were made of 2 perfectly matched parts.
Before I assumed that the Yamaha would be much better than US Fenders, being active etc.
The weakness of the Yamaha was a crappy pre-amp and a light body combined with a heavy neck and heavy tuners. It wasn't one of the praised japanese BBs, it was made in Taiwan and being nearly as expensive as a Fender US standard, it wasn't as good as the US Fenders, but not due to being made of 5 parts of Alder.
I just own two US Fenders (an all original '78 Jazz and a 2014 US Vintage Series '64 Jazz, they are Vintage White and Daphne Blue, so who knows how many parts).
My MIJ Fenders have nice matching parts.
But I couldn't care less. Everything else is more important to me like pickups, the quality of the hardware and the weight.
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That's ash, not alder like the bass the OP is upset about. Ash is easy to match grain patterns, even on cheap basses. And the boards are available in larger widths than alder, so two piece bodies with a center seam is not a big deal with ash. What you won't normally find on less expensive ash basses, is best-quality wood without any flaws. Like the knots on the back of your bass, which were sensibly kept off the front. There are some who would not like an ash body with flaws, even on the back. And then there are folks who pay extra for tops made from diseased woods like spalted maple....the more flaws, the better! Cheers.
Yes, exactly. It's the whole point of showing the grain through the finish, right?
