ROTFLMAO!!!!!!
i can do it without playing one note,... wet or dry!!!
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.
Is there really a big difference between Squire vs Fender
- Thread starter aasti3000
- Start date
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!
i can do it without playing one note,... wet or dry!!!
Thank you for a voice of reason. Your comment should be stickied.
Point 1 - I will however state that fret sprout in no way is a disqualifier for me in any bass that I actually like otherwise.
It's too easy to clean and shape them with minimal tools and knowledge and when you're done, you've learned something if you haven't done it before.
Point 2 - The basswood argument is a little specious too. I built a GFS bass - not the 'kit' version, but I cherry picked the parts I wanted from their site, and the body wood is one step below balsa for hardness.
After almost two years of using it all the time - daily and most times multiple times daily, there are yet to be any problems with that soft Indonesian cultured wood.
No screws have pulled out and I was REALLY concerned that this was gonna be a day-one problem, but so far everything is right where I put it when I built it.
The biggest advantage to this pithy wood is that it's so light that it's a pleasure to play. That's why I grab it as much as I do.
Point 3 - I cannot understand how people can buy a tuner and actually say it holds a string better and doesn't un-adjust, even a little. Worm and Ring Gears do NOT move when there is a load on them. Period.
If one thinks less expensive tuners are being loosened because of design, I suggest having an exorcism to make that stop.
Point 4- I don't care what anyone says --- ALL strings respond to temperatures and they will contract or relax according to the ambient values in which they are kept. So no-one is exempt of this phenomenon - NOBODY!
The laws of thermodynamics do not change if you put 'better" (read: more expensive) tuners on a bass.
Other than those couple of niggling statements - you made the most sense here ---- right up to that point.
Thanks for not opening that can of excrement about tonewoods!
What the H. You go all Squier this and Fender that and you end up busting out with a Music Man?
@Diesel - well, I like the way both sounded and the advice I was getting was "Get what you like". I had enough for both so from selling some equipment so....I went with my gut (as someone on this thread told me). Now comes the hard part...learning how to play them.
If you are patient... it can come together beautifully. A good teacher & materials can give you a real insight too
@Plunger - I can't afford a teacher. I just figured I could pull out my oldies classic R&B, funk, Rock, jazz cd's and learn. But I do want to learn how to read music. What avenue do I take to learn music if I can't afford a teacher. (they want $200-$300 a month where I live..."pineapples"!)
I'm a guitarist and this intrigues me. I want to switch to bass though. This discussion would be going completely different on a guitar forum. Is there something about basses that makes it harder to tell the difference? With a guitar, it's often very obvious.
To me, it can be very obvious. I played a MIA J at GC and that one blew the rest away. I also played another MIA J and a MIA P at GC, and those were very comparable to the Squier Vintage Modified J I bought. The thing to me about Fender is their lower end basses are getting nothing but better with build quality. And I see a lot of MIM bashing, but I think some of the MIM are just as good if not better than the MIJ. I owned a Roger Waters P, and it was maybe a half step below an above average MIA P. Fender/Squier is very hard to guess on. It's defiantly a brand you have to play all your interested in to decide.
To the OP, I've never been big into the Miller J, but I do own a SR5. If you plan on going big, I think you did very well. Just remember, and I already said it, get a good amp. Don't save money on an average amp.
No offense intended at all george, but these are exactly the sort of vague claims I see made in this thread every couple months. If you can't quantify what's "better" about those pots, those jacks, and those pickups you're just blowing smoke. Would you say that the pots in a MIA Fender fail less frequently? Sound "better" to your ears? Are less subject to dirt and subsequent static? Turn more smoothly? What exactly are you saying is "better"?
Fretwork is a quantifiable difference. While sprout over time is nearly unavoidable, roughly finished frets, and poorly leveled frets in a new instrument are clear and quantifiable indicator of quality, and I'm sympathetic to those arguments.
Just saying something is "higher quality overall" or "better fit and finish", or "better quality" are vague and just plain unsubstantiated claims. If you can't be specific, then you're just stating your personal preference. You're welcome to it, but don't try telling us that your preference is "better" than anyone else's.
If it sounds better, then you prefer that sound. Great. Don't tell us that what you like is "better". It isn't. It's just what you happen to like. What's better about the components? What's better about the fit and finish? What exactly is better about the woods?
Thankfully there are a mountain of good materials online and in print. A great teacher is probably a shortcut, while a weak one might slow one down...
I'd recommend this forum and a few other sites, like scotts bass lessons and studybass.com. some excellent material. Ed friedland has some books . . . I got the Hal leonard method ones. Good for learning to read sheet, come with CD's. They aren't too dear so you can't go too wrong.
Although it's hated by some and feared by others, Bass Grimoire is what I like.
You have to watch it a few times to see what he's talking about but once it clicks, you're in Fat City
You have to watch it a few times to see what he's talking about but once it clicks, you're in Fat City
Hey there's no problem with that. You got a couple really nice basses. But they came WAAAAAYYY out of left field. lol. Good luck with your instruction.
I haven't been vague at all - although I believe you're being intentionally obtuse... If you don't believe what I've said, go compare for yourself - it's pretty obvious when you're holding them side by side...
- georgestrings
You've been exactly vague. You make a claim of "this wood is better than that wood", but you can't or won't say in what way it's better. That's vague. You claim these electronics or those tuners are "higher quality", but you can't or won't say how they're better. You're being exactly vague.
And obtuse? Seriously? You can't be specific, you just "know" one's better, and if I can't simply agree with you, I must be obtuse?
This friends is exactly the religious Fender worshipping attitude a couple folks in this thread have already pointed out. You don't need reasons to believe what you do, you just *know* it's true.
You have your preference, and that's great. Just don't try telling us it's better, because until you're willing to take it out and measure it, it's just your preference, and that's all it is.
Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go to church.
- Oct 7, 2000
- 18,619
- 38,939
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Musicman basses
Gotta throw a tuner jab in here. 
First, I never really understood when people say things like they immediately swapped out the tuners, the ones the bass came with were cheap, or crap, or whatever. Except for 2 basses that I've owned (yep, they both just happened to have been Fenders) I never had a single issue with any tuners. Even on the cheapest basses I've owned. I never really studied them, checked the quality or thickness of the metal or whatever - they pretty much just did the job. They tuned the bass, and they kept it in tune.
Anyhow, the jab... my FENDER modern player tele... 2 weeks after owning it, it gets this horrible rattle. You can hear the rattle amplified, so much so that the bass becomes pretty much useless. I thought it was the truss rod. Low and behold it was a tuner. One of the cloves became detached from it's post. If it were my only bass, I'd have been screwed until Fender sent me a new one. Luckily I had a hipshot detuner on order. When it came I just swapped it out with one of the other tuners, and put the hipshot in.
The other tuner thing I already mentioned with the P deluxe. I don't think they use those particular tuners any more. Mine was a '97 or '98. They were the new lightweight tuners. Each one had like an eighth to a quarter turn of play in it, making it a real beeotch to tune. Seemed as though something just needed to be tightened, but that wasn't the case. They were just defective pieces of garbage. When I brought it to the Fender guy he showed me a little drawer he had with a few broken ones in it. He told me that those tuners tend to snap off, and suggested that I change them. Didn't make me feel too good about things. Can you imagine a tuning peg snapping off at the start of an important gig? Not a worry I wanted to have with an $1100 bass.
So yeah, I'm on the same page as ulynch. When people say higher quality tuners, bridges, etc. I too am curious what qualifies them as "higher" quality. The cost? The tuners on the 2 Fender basses above surely weren't higher quality than on my Squier.
First, I never really understood when people say things like they immediately swapped out the tuners, the ones the bass came with were cheap, or crap, or whatever. Except for 2 basses that I've owned (yep, they both just happened to have been Fenders) I never had a single issue with any tuners. Even on the cheapest basses I've owned. I never really studied them, checked the quality or thickness of the metal or whatever - they pretty much just did the job. They tuned the bass, and they kept it in tune.
Anyhow, the jab... my FENDER modern player tele... 2 weeks after owning it, it gets this horrible rattle. You can hear the rattle amplified, so much so that the bass becomes pretty much useless. I thought it was the truss rod. Low and behold it was a tuner. One of the cloves became detached from it's post. If it were my only bass, I'd have been screwed until Fender sent me a new one. Luckily I had a hipshot detuner on order. When it came I just swapped it out with one of the other tuners, and put the hipshot in.
The other tuner thing I already mentioned with the P deluxe. I don't think they use those particular tuners any more. Mine was a '97 or '98. They were the new lightweight tuners. Each one had like an eighth to a quarter turn of play in it, making it a real beeotch to tune. Seemed as though something just needed to be tightened, but that wasn't the case. They were just defective pieces of garbage. When I brought it to the Fender guy he showed me a little drawer he had with a few broken ones in it. He told me that those tuners tend to snap off, and suggested that I change them. Didn't make me feel too good about things. Can you imagine a tuning peg snapping off at the start of an important gig? Not a worry I wanted to have with an $1100 bass.
So yeah, I'm on the same page as ulynch. When people say higher quality tuners, bridges, etc. I too am curious what qualifies them as "higher" quality. The cost? The tuners on the 2 Fender basses above surely weren't higher quality than on my Squier.
