What might have been ... The Tut-o-caster !
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
IF LEO FENDER WERE ALIVE....
- Thread starter BigAlBass69
- Start date
-
- Tags
- fender bass g+l musicman
What might have been ... The Tut-o-caster !
SOOOOOOOOO.....what would Leo pick looking back on all of his successes? One always gravitates to the very first creation for sentimental value but the reality it would his most recent accomplishment...the Paul Tutmarc reissue
I think Leo would pick the P Bass because it literally changed the course of popular music altogether... probably as much or even more than any other instrument in history. Rock n roll as we know it (as well as many other styles) wouldn’t even exist in the forms they do today without it, because it allowed the bass to be heard over a loud rockin’ drum beat. Before the P bass, it was jazz kits and uprights only. I’ll bet most people think the electric guitar is what lead to harder rock music, but really it was Leo’s P Bass that changed everything.
Couldn’t name me after a pre CBS bass dad!?
If Leo were alive today, he wouldnt’t pick the P, the J, the Stingray, or any of his G&L creations as his best work. Leo was an innovator, and if he were still alive, he would have created several more designs that advanced the state of the art. One of those would be his proudest moment.
Great G&L advertizing flyer, man I miss the glossy one sheets that companies used to release. Tactile, colorful and you could hold on to them to dream about your next purchase. I had an original G&L L1000 never really got close to it. Always regeted trading my 1966 Fender Jazz for it. If I remember correctly, the Rickenbacker Electro Bass was a very early EUB released @ 1936. Not many of those still around.
Last edited:
Curious where his mind may have taken him... despite also being a capitalist, in his seemingly unending quest for more treble, would he have maybe happened upon CT's 38" basses and started pushing some nineteen fret six string singlecut monster with J-sized triplebuckers? The Leostrings Djent Bass?
To get back to the intent of the thread. I have read several interviews of him over the years and will second the opinion that he was always most proud of whatever his latest models were, as he felt they were improvements over his previous creations.
Leo benefited from timing as much, if not more than anything else. It's doubtful many people heard a P bass for a few years after their introduction. The amps weren't enough to fill a room, and uprights were preferred for recordings. It capable amps had been available 30 years earlier, someone else would likely be credited for "inventing" the bass guitar
I remember seeing a prototype that he was supposedly working on when he passed.
I think he might be quite proud of the fact that some of his most basic manufacturing innovations (the bolt-on neck, the straight headstock, the control plate or pickguard, the split coil pickup etc.) have persisted and have made high quality instruments affordable to make and for players to buy.
Bryan R. Tyler
TalkBass: Usurping My Practice Time Since 2002
Staff member
Administrator
Gold Supporting Member
Supporting Member
- May 3, 2002
- 28,948
- 20,936
- Disclosures
- Reviewer: Bass Player Magazine
Ok, after deleting nearly 100 posts, the thread is reopened. If you have a personal axe to grind that you feel compelled to talk about rather than discuss the thread subject, please, feel free to get off your computer and go shout it at the nearest brick wall. We don’t need it here.
Fender notoriously did not invent the inline headstock. Look up Stauffer+headstock, Stauffer+Martin+headstock, tamburica+headstock, and most importantly Bigsby+headstock.
[EDIT - ...Unless by "straight" you meant flat, non-angled. In that case you're right, to the best of my knowledge.]
Way less notoriously, Leo didn't invent the bolt-on neck either; the (proto-Rickenbacker) Electro-Spanish Model B, one of the earliest (1935) solidbody electric guitars played thumb-behind-neck, had a bolted-on, detachable neck:
View attachment 3053437
Rickenbacker ELECTRO SPANISH MODEL B 1935 Black
He did adopt both systematically though. As for front-accessible controls and circuitry, and the split coil pickup,
I'd lean towards something recent, probably G&L. However, I doubt he would be indifferent to the legendary status and ubiquitousness of his earlier designs, StingRay included.
Last edited:
I think after all this time that Leo would have been most proud of the P Bass. Sure, he would probably think his G&L basses were better instruments. But assuming he’s been retired in the intervening time, and has the temporal separation from the creation all of his basses, he would probably be most proud of the legacy of the P Bass.
If Leo Fender was still alive, he would be so old that he might not understand the question 
