Here's what I want from Fender:
A passive P-bass with a retainer for the A-string, a pickup that actually sounds like a classic P-bass, a standard Fender-style bridge, a "modern" nut width, a classic C-shaped neck and a 9.5" radius fretboard. Basically a bog standard P-bass with the addition of a string retainer for the A-string. No silly "innovations" like those nasty fluted tuners or the V-Mod pickups with different magnets in the two coils.
Unfortunately they don't currently offer this, and haven't since the American Standard series.
It this really too much to ask for, from the company that actually invented the P-bass? Just a standard, passive, workhorse P-bass that actually sounds and feels like a P-bass, but with a fix for the ONE thing Leo didn't get right: The poor break angle over the nut on the A-string.
They HAVE tried ways to fix this problem of course but why can't they just use a retainer like the ones Sandberg and Yamaha and many other manufactures have been using for DECADES? They actually work. I hate the fluted tuners on the Fender AmPros, I've broken several D- and G-strings at the tuner shaft during setup because of these horrible tuners. And they aren't even needed for the D/G-strings, as these strings already have a string retainer! The stealth retainer on the Ultras are ok, if a bit fiddly, but they come with the premium cost of an Ultra bass, which to me doesn't sound or feel like a classic P-bass. The Ultras are good instruments but not what I want. The pickup is seriously weak in passive mode.
Anyway, these things are far more important to me than a matching headstock, which although it looks very cool isn't really "classic Fender" IMO. It would be nice of they offered it on SOME models though
