I'm confused

Not for everyone . I really dont like jazzes , i play a p bass right now there all right in my book, there is better basses there just the "standard".

 

i love my two fenders,
fender jaguar
and 80's fender precision lyte deluxe.
they get more airtime than my 'wick
live and in studio.. =-O
so i'm in with they hype..
sorry.

 

They're not the "ultimate" bass. But they do work for most situations. They've been used for years and for good reason. The biggest problem with playing any basses at GC or any chain store like that is that the basses aren't set up properly and usually have old strings. It's very hard to really judge a bass properly in that case.

 

how long have you been playing bass? for me, when i first started there were all these cool boutique basses and stuff and i thought the same thing: "whats the big deal about fenders?" then after i owned thousands of dollars worth of gear, that was nice, but never as nice as the price would lead you to believe, i bought my first american fender for $1000. and you know what, it played like a thousand dollars, sounded like a thousand dollars, and looked like a thousand dollars. i felt good about my purchase, great bass, great price. it was that feeling that gave me a sense of loyalty to fender. later i realized that all of those boutique basses (sonically anyway) were trying to be p's and j's (and sometimes stingrays).

 

+1

 

Whether or not GC set up the basses properly I believe it would be a bad move to refer to any bass brand as the "ultimate".

The reason Fenders are so popular is because they have a diverse range of basses and tones that can be used in just about any style of music. The only reason one would call them ultimate, I believe, is because of their popularity.
There are plenty of other basses out there that have a similar range of great tones but just aren't as popular, take Lakland for example: from my experience with a few of their models they have an extremely broad range of tones and great playability, in some cases maybe even a little more so than Fenders, but Fenders are just so popular and are therefore sometimes wrongly referred to as the be all and end all of basses.

The notion of an "ultimate bass" is a purely personal one: the longer you play bass, talk on talkbass, watch and listen to other bass players the more you understand this.

Edit: I own a Fender and I love it. It's not my personal ultimate bass, but it'll do until I find something better.

Edit 2: I just realized that due to GAS, you can never own you're ultimate bass. As soon as you buy the one think is the ultimate, you'll GAS for something else.

 

Just wondering what more you were expecting or what it doesn't have that you're looking for?

Fenders are like the toyota or hondas of basses. They good reliable instruments. No they're not like ferarris,and beautiful and super fast,or like a Mercedes rich and luxerious loaded with tons of stuff most people never use on a daily basis. But they're good solid instruments,that are affordable,and fit the majority of peoples needs.

 

Ummmm....did the OP say 'crapped up to be'?

Almost all bassists come back around to Fenders. I don't own a Fender, but I do own a SX P/J bass that's really fun to play. Simplicity is usually the best policy.

 

I myself have to disagree with this notion. I highly doubt anyone who loves the P sound thinks their American P is a Toyota of basses. People tend to be far too harsh with their opinions both good and bad. Trust me, there are people out there who are die hard Fender J fans saying "Stingrays are the Toyota of basses" it's all non sense. OP is most likely just a soap bar pup guy..

 

My Fender P is very similar to the '86 Toyota pickup I used to drive. Old, reliable, sorta smells funny.

 

The ultimate bass is the one which ultimately chooses you.

 

That "little more" that you were expecting will never be found in any bass--it's in YOU.

A well set up and good sounding musical instrument is merely a conduit to one's creative soul.

It doesn't matter what you play, as long as you do...

 

They may not be the ultimate BASS by instrument standards but over the past 50 some years...there have been so many HIT and CLASSIC recordings where a Leo Fender bass was used...many of our favorite bass driven songs were with Leo Fender Basses..so there is a search for the Ultimate Jazz Tone, the Ultimate Stingray Tone..the Ultimate P bass Tone.
The TONE of those basses set the standard of how many players and PRODUCERS believe a bass should sound!

 

i dont know about them being the ultimate bass.but when i started playing bass in the late70s there were not as many basses out there as there are today.the most popular
back then were fender and rickenbacher.i had both and ended up falling in love with
fenders.what it really comes down to is what you like.and back then it was like it is today you wanted to get what your idol was playing or whatever everyone was talking about at that time.and that was p basses,jazzbasses,ricks and sometimes gibson.i know having a real nice fender back then was the deal and ive liked them ever since!

 

I find it's best not to paint things with such a wide brush.

I own 2 fenders right now as well as a few other brands.

The two I own. I love. I have a J that sounds exactly the way I want a J to sound and a P that sounds exactly the way I want a P to sound.

That being said. I've played at least 1000 other fender P's and J's that I liked and disliked to many degrees.

They are not all the same. Every piece of wood is different. Every construction has its own personality.

I would imagine that 1 out of every 500 or so Fender basses sound the way I would want them to sound. And the 1 out of the 500 I pick might not be and in all likelyhood would not be what you would want sound/charater wise.

Point is. You can't judge all of them by the couple you picked up. And as someone stated earlier is a less verbose manner. The bass picks you and not the other way around. So keep an open mind when you pick up a bass regardless of what it is and judge it first and foremost on whats really important. Not its lineage but if it connects to you. If you walk in with brand blinders you might pass up a perfect deal on your soulmate and never get another chance at it again.

-Rav

 

I am a fender lover, I used to have 4 jazz basses and a precision bass at the same time, now tehse days are over but I still have a marcus miller sig , a classic 50 p bass and a jaco sig jazz fretless.
And I know a new fender am standard is in my future.
It's not that they are the ultmiate bass, heck there's no such thing, except if you like a brand and believe that about that brand.

But fender are the first who made electric basses, so they were there before any brand and we all grew up with that sound in our ears, I know for sure that every pro bass player or bass player that are financially ok have tried one.

Their force is that the fender tone can fit any style of music, why? because the invention of electric bass allowed new sounds to happen.

and some music were born with the fender bass,

the british blues boom, soul music, funk, r&b, fusion, hard rock, heavy metal...
so yes they are not the ultimate bass, but they are good in almost every style of music.

But I remember a time, when boutique basses were not that known in the bass community, that when you had a "real fender" (meaning a US fender), that was considered as a high end instrument, and people were like (at least other bassists or guitarists) "oh, you have a fender!!!"

I play high end instrument (fodera) but I can tell that I'll always play a fender also, sometimes when I'm at home, two basses are rotating in my music room, my monarch and my classic 50 pbass.

if I have to audition for a gig, I bring a fender, so no they are not the ultimate basses, but yes they are so great that IMO, if you a pro bass player, you always need at least a pbass or a jazz bass.

 

I understand that the are close to producing their 1 millionth jazz bass. They are doing something right.

G

 

They're awesome J/P-basses, and I own one; I don't feel the reason to be ALL Fender, like some people here.