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Is It Really Too Much to Ask?
- Thread starter Snakeman1066
- Start date
I am not going to read through this whole thread to listen to people tell you should buy another brand, clearly you want Fender. So, what I would suggest is that you create group that caters to the trading of interchangeable bass parts. They have groups that do this for people who have only one foot so they can get just a left shoe when they don't need the right one.
Unfortunately, as someone already said, I think what you are going to find out is that there really isn't that much demand out there. Yes, there is demand, but probably not that much. I myself like reverse headstock Fenders, so I am constantly on the lookout for left handed necks to put on my right handed basses. I don't want replacement necks, I want an actual Fender left handed neck. Not a needle in a haystack, but elusive nonetheless.
In Fender's defense, every time they try something new, the reaction is lukewarm at best. Something tells me that they could come up with the greatest game changing bass since 1951 and people would not buy it. People don't want revolutionary change from Fender, hell they barely want change at all.
Unfortunately, as someone already said, I think what you are going to find out is that there really isn't that much demand out there. Yes, there is demand, but probably not that much. I myself like reverse headstock Fenders, so I am constantly on the lookout for left handed necks to put on my right handed basses. I don't want replacement necks, I want an actual Fender left handed neck. Not a needle in a haystack, but elusive nonetheless.
In Fender's defense, every time they try something new, the reaction is lukewarm at best. Something tells me that they could come up with the greatest game changing bass since 1951 and people would not buy it. People don't want revolutionary change from Fender, hell they barely want change at all.
This may indicate that combo isn't used by any artist significant enough to be worthy of being a Signature Model - maybe this is more of a Talkbass issue than it is in the real world...
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To each their own, I suppose - to me, the weight would be strike two, as I've owned an SB-1 and have played a few L100s, and just don't like the sound of their pickups that much... Pretty much the same thing goes for the ASAT I had and the '83 L2K I currently own - very well built and very playable, but their sound just doesn't do it for me... The ASAT was also a nightmare to gig with - worst neckdive I ever experienced, and I own a Gibson T-bird...
I’ve always had a lukewarm feeling about G&L myself. I prefer MusicMan for my Post-Fender Fenders.
I hear ya - I've really wanted to love G&L, because I truly love and appreciate the genius that is Leo Fender... It was never a problem with Music Man, because they do their own thing, tonally speaking - which works really well in *many* circumstances - and IMO, their QC is as good as it gets for mass produced...
IME/IMO, G&L's *average* QC is typically better than Fenders - in other words, they put out less dogs - BUT, I don't see a good G&L as being any better than a good Fender... Tonally speaking, while G&L pickups are typically hotter than Fenders, it makes for somewhat of a generic sound that just doesn't work as well in a band mix for me as the Fender sound does... Build-wise, G&Ls are typically heavier than Fenders or Music Man - which is not a point in their favor, either... Also, their necks are frequently thicker front to back(like a Warwick) than I care for - especially their imports...
But Fender is not blameless either. Fender is a big enough company with enough money and enough really smart and experienced people working there that they could revolutionize bassdom many times over. And here's the sad part. THEY HAVE! Every time they come up with something revolutionary as mdogs says it receives a lukewarm response. But then Fender management steps in and discontinues it long before the time needed for it to really catch on. The management rule seems to be if it's not an immediate fad selling out, just move on to the next fad idea. The end result of Fender doesn't even sell a 5 string PJ unless you buy it from Squier. Steve Bailey 6 string...gone. And the list goes on and on. So the really big Fender revolution in instruments seems to be their idea of putting baseball team stickers on there! Wow!
This is where Leo and current Fender management split company. Leo understood, if you make something special it takes a while for word to spread. So you have to dig in and actually have faith in your own ideas and wait for the world to join you. If you build things by taking a poll of what your customers SAY they want, you end up trying to sell Edsels.
The thing I like about G&L vs Fender is that I think the former out-Fenders Fender. Note that these comments are about the Fender-esque models. I dislike the humbucker models like the L-2000, etc, they just don't do it for me.
For a long time I wanted something pretty simple: a jazz bass that sounded like the '65 I used to have. That bass was actually kind of crappy, with a bump in the neck, but it had that sound. So I went to Fender, and they just didn't sound right, at least not fully. I had a 2017 USA and a couple of Mexis (which came the closest) and even a Squier, all with which I struggled, changing pickups and other stuff to make the sound happen. It just didn't. Then I tried the G&L and there it was - the proper amount of clank and growl and general passive jazzbassiness. Not to mention, the JB4 plays way better than every Fender I tried. The G&L wasn't perfect, because the PLEKed frets weren't right and it had to go back to G&L. But out of the box, the JB4 was better than any of the many Fender jazzes I have had.
And then you can get whatever you want from G&L without an upcharge, including a selection of woods. Mine is Empress and the bass weighs 7.5 lbs, with a quartersawn neck to boot. It cost a little more than a USA passive Fender, but you just can't get those options from FMIC without going to the custom shop and paying about double what I paid for the G&L.
For a long time I wanted something pretty simple: a jazz bass that sounded like the '65 I used to have. That bass was actually kind of crappy, with a bump in the neck, but it had that sound. So I went to Fender, and they just didn't sound right, at least not fully. I had a 2017 USA and a couple of Mexis (which came the closest) and even a Squier, all with which I struggled, changing pickups and other stuff to make the sound happen. It just didn't. Then I tried the G&L and there it was - the proper amount of clank and growl and general passive jazzbassiness. Not to mention, the JB4 plays way better than every Fender I tried. The G&L wasn't perfect, because the PLEKed frets weren't right and it had to go back to G&L. But out of the box, the JB4 was better than any of the many Fender jazzes I have had.
And then you can get whatever you want from G&L without an upcharge, including a selection of woods. Mine is Empress and the bass weighs 7.5 lbs, with a quartersawn neck to boot. It cost a little more than a USA passive Fender, but you just can't get those options from FMIC without going to the custom shop and paying about double what I paid for the G&L.
I hear what you are saying. But, until you are the guy writing the checks to keep unprofitable product lines in production, you can’t really appreciate the difficulty of the decision.
There are more Fender basses out there from failed ventures than there are total basses from every other bass builder. They try more things than anyone! They have 2 levels of instruments that will give you pretty much whatever you want with the Fender logo on the headstock. But, it’s just never enough for people.
Maybe the small handed guys should stick to short scale bass offerings instead of complaining about the adult sizes?You huge handed Jazz with P neck guys are certainly a breed of your own. Hats off.
Maybe the small handed guys should stick to short scale bass offerings instead of complaining about the adult sizes?
Hey, I never complain. I just don't play 'em
I have a Warmoth jazz neck (on a jazz bass) with steel reinforcement which I got to fix a jazz bass with a dead spot. Sadly, the Warmoth neck also has a dead spot, so I was underwhelmed. I was able to sort out the original bass, which also had too much relief, by adding washers under the truss rid nut, straightening the neck, abd largely fixing the dead spot. The Warmoth neck ended up creating a bass with parts I already had, but I had to also shave the neck down as it was really chunky (made no difference to the dead spot).
As always, to each their own - I definitely don't see it as G&L "out-Fenders Fender", and I most definitely don't see any of them nailing the Fender sound better - in fact, to my ears, just the opposite - they don't sound like a Fender... Judging by sales numbers, recording and stage presences, I'd say you're solidly in the minority there...
Your last paragraph, I can't argue with, because G&L does do a nice job of providing options to their customers...
