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I Just Don't Understand Fender!

#81
Rocky said:
It's actually quite hysterical how much emphasis is put on the actual instrument. A good player with a decent 4 string Fender can play anything needed to be played on most of the material out there as the tone really is in your hands.
Fenders precision bass have, and can get the job done as good anything else out there. It's the inadequacies of most players that leads them to search for something else.
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I completely disagree with that. Not everybody likes the same string spacing, and other factors. The reason people search for something else is because the specs aren't what they enjoy. If you like a tighter string spacing, a 18mm fender 5 string is going to feel like a gorge. Everybody's tastes differ, it's not inadequate to look for something that feels better in your hands.
 
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#83
Dr. Cheese said:
If can comment on the sound, you can't comment on the most important thing.
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Hmmm - if a bass plays poorly, I don't care how nice it sounds - it just plays bad and I'll never hear it. It's not all one thing - that's my point. It has to be a good combination of qualities to be a good instrument. This applies to all instruments from all manufacturers.
 
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#84
SanDiegoHarry said:
Hmmm - if a bass plays poorly, I don't care how nice it sounds - it just plays bad and I'll never hear it. It's not all one thing - that's my point. It has to be a good combination of qualities to be a good instrument. This applies to all instruments from all manufacturers.
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Lots of instruments are uncomfortable and awkward for lots of people, that does not mean those instruments are not well made or sound good. The Internet is full of people sounding fantastic on basses I would not buy.
 
#91
At risk of sounding all businessy...

I think we may be witnessing Disruptive Technology in action. Local distributors/shops are fast becoming an out-dated concept: a number of instrument manufacturers already offer internet sales direct to consumers, cutting out the local distributors/shops (e.g. Carvin). Traditional marketing is also an out-dated concept: a number of instrument manufacturers already provide the option of custom-designing instruments from a standard library of components via internet website/smartphone app (e.g. Sandberg). Basically, consumers using websites to custom-design their instruments are doing market research for the instrument manufacturers free of charge.

I suspect that Fender and Gibson are big companies with soon-to-be-out-dated business models. I suspect they have no choice but to rationalise their product offerings, move towards smaller production volumes of semi-customised instruments and adopt some new sales and marketing/direct sales methods if they are going to compete with the smaller and nimbler companies. Maybe their low cost production centres (China, Indonesia) will still do mass production.

Back to reality...

Here in Australia, the Dimension never seemed to strike a chord (pun intended). I have never seen one being played live, and none of my bass-playing friends has one. Maybe I should try one before it's too late. It can't be any more un-ergonomic than a Precision, can it? ;)
 
#93
You can make hammers our of exotic woods with hand carved handles etc, but at the end of the day a hammer is still a hammer,and everyone of them will drive nails.. I think this applies to Fenders because they just work. Its what millions of people, musicians, producers, etc have known since the beginning, and it really doesnt need to be fixed because it isn't broken. The others exist for various reasons like personel perference, exotic woods, specific tonal goals, etc, but Fenders are still the default choice that works for many styles, and as a company I don't think there going anywhere anytime soon.
 
#97
Dr. Cheese said:
Lots of instruments are uncomfortable and awkward for lots of people, that does not mean those instruments are not well made or sound good. The Internet is full of people sounding fantastic on basses I would not buy.
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Okay, put another way: If *I* don't like how a bass plays, I'm not going to want to buy it. True, many basses are just set up poorly (or strangely - depending on the player) but many are just bad players. Who wants a bad player?
 
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#98
I've made no secret of how much I like my Squier Dimension, and I was hoping to try a single H MIA model in the future. Don't think I've ever seen one for sale in the UK, tbh.

The HH pup configuration holds no interest for me, as the bridge pickup location is different to the Squire offering. I like that location. A Stingray with a 3 band would appeal to me more than a HH Dimension, for the same reason.

Incidentally, I generally prefer single pickup basses. I like the simplicity of the one Dimension/Precision pickup, and tend to find that the 'set & forget' nature makes it easier to dial in the EQ and distortion that I want.
 
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