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LAKLAND 44-75??? New model pops up on website!!

#21
Bass_Thumper said:
Great, another Fender copy. I love my 5501 and I wish they would put a little more energy into original designs. I'm sure it's a great bass if that's your thing.
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I wonder about this viewpoint. Of course, everyone has the right to but it's pretty curious. Taking quick look at your profile, the basses you own currently borrow pretty heavily from the Fender aesthetic. Look at Lakland. Did you really expect som big departure from what they've already done? As far as design options go, I think the bass world has just about hit it's limit of what the majority of folks will take to. Sure there are builders out there like Cliff Bordwell, Carl Thompson, Aries, and Ken Bebensee (to name a few) making strange and unique designs out there but even if you were to make those as cheap as a Squier, I doubt folks would actually take to it.
 
#22
While I agree to both points / sides of the argument... if that's all you can do is just refine fender designs.... why bother? Surely the market cannot sustain yet another fender clone. Not necessarily just this model but just in general...there has to be a limit... a point where enough is enough.... where even the "improvers" of the Fender design cannot sustain further improvements... or further new players on the market
 
#23
Mugre said:
^^^^^^^^
This

Ever more refined copies, ever more facets, ever more curlicues, ever more plies in the neck are not the same as innovation.
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Innovation is a term that's usually reserved for features that actually have a practical application. Ergonomics are really the only practical feature that bodies have so exactly where could innovation be made? I'm not saying that it's impossible but You'd be hard pressed toi see something that hasn't been done in regards to comfort and accessibility when it comes to bass bodies.
 
#25
hover said:
While I agree to both points / sides of the argument... if that's all you can do is just refine fender designs.... why bother? Surely the market cannot sustain yet another fender clone. Not necessarily just this model but just in general...there has to be a limit... a point where enough is enough.... where even the "improvers" of the Fender design cannot sustain further improvements... or further new players on the market
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Think so? I don't. I mean, look at cars (as much as I dislike using the car analogy, lol). They've been around for quite some time but even the stuff coming out today doesn't look all that different from the Model-T. Actually, look at acoustic guitars. Those have been around for centuries and what do you see when you look at a wall in Guitar Center? Dreadnauts and classical guitars. The dreads are newer but have still been around for ages. I don't see bass bodies as a whole really changing all that much. Sure, custom builders are doing it but Lakland isn't one of those kinds of companies (that pushes the envelope on the aesthetic front). At least, I don't see them that way and I'm cool with that.
 
#26
hover said:
Not only that but if that is your only drive in the market is to just be another j-clone company what is the drive beyond just being another " yeah me too me too" company..
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Because there's a lot you can do with a bass, haha. I mean take my basses for example. My Brubaker is very much a jazz bass but it won't sound a like a Fender. My Clement is a jazz bass in body shape only. The headstock is different, pickups are different, positons are different. You can take a jazz body and do whatever you want to with the pickups to meet whatever goal, right?
 
#27
Right, but again, that's variation not innovation, and just about every pickup variation out there has been done to death...and the headstock shape is very low on my list of concerns / considerations....I mean Alleva Coppolo (?) Headstocks look like such an afterthought it almost seems incomplete.
 
#28
Lakland isn't the only bass manufacturer that has products that look similar to Fender. Go to a NAMM show and you'll be floored buy the number of cheap and expensive Fender-inspired basses. The design works. I've seen some really ugly basses that sound great and some beautiful basses that inspire a ho-hum from me. fro my money, Lakland products look right, although I'm not a fan of the Decade. I was a big fan of the Steinberger L2 because of sound an looks. I've never been a fan of Gibson basses, except the original Ripper, because of sound and looks. I don't know how much innovation is left for basses.
 
#29
Now that you mention it what real innovations are left to be made with basses? Just about everything has been done and body styles have seemed to hit the point where what's popular now has a very low likelihood of changing (my opinion, of course). I mean, some stuff that's already out there is cool but doesn't seem like it's being adopted. Just to name a few there's Brubaker preamp modules and one bolt preamp access, multi-scale instruments, fretted/fretless switchable basses, Lightwave's optical pickups, basses with XLR jacks so that their preamps can accept phantom power. Stuff is out there and people aren't buying into it so why would establish companies take the risk. Sure, I wish most of that stuff would be more widely adopted but I can't say I'm unhappy with the way things are now. On the tone and tech front, everything I could want exists and as far as aesthetics go gimmie a jazz (body style) and I'm happy. But, I'm simple like that ;).
 
#30
But that is exactly what I mean.

Everyone already makes a variant or soon will to get a sale as their original design wares aren't gerring them enough market share. Look at Spector's Coda. As much a straight clone s G&L's or whomever. Same basic wood recipe. Sure a pre variant here, a construction doohickie there, but you gotta figure some of these compnies resigned to offering P's and J's instead of being their original m.o. And that has to be disheartening...at least it would be to me if I was in the market toiling in obscurity with what I felt was a truly original concept and design...languishing in a climate of buyers no longer interested in anything more than following in their guitar player bretheren's taste preferences....same thing cand be said about only needing so mny strat and tele and les paul clonerz. Who knows, I'm probably alone here and certainly not trying to change minds
 
#31
Kwesi said:
Actually, look at acoustic guitars. Those have been around for centuries and what do you see when you look at a wall in Guitar Center? Dreadnauts and classical guitars. The dreads are newer but have still been around for ages. I don't see bass bodies as a whole really changing all that much.
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This is the best analogy yet. I had a luthier shop for 10 years.
All customers wanted were copies of classic old Martin's and Gibson's. So guess what I made them. It's just what the market will bear. You are in business to make $$$$$.
 
#34
hover said:
But that is exactly what I mean.

Everyone already makes a variant or soon will to get a sale as their original design wares aren't gerring them enough market share. Look at Spector's Coda. As much a straight clone s G&L's or whomever. Same basic wood recipe. Sure a pre variant here, a construction doohickie there, but you gotta figure some of these compnies resigned to offering P's and J's instead of being their original m.o. And that has to be disheartening...at least it would be to me if I was in the market toiling in obscurity with what I felt was a truly original concept and design...languishing in a climate of buyers no longer interested in anything more than following in their guitar player bretheren's taste preferences....same thing cand be said about only needing so mny strat and tele and les paul clonerz. Who knows, I'm probably alone here and certainly not trying to change minds
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Well, considering that the bass guitar hasn't even been around for a century yet, I think we've come pretty far :D. Look at just about any classical instrument. Around for centuries and very little change made. The bass guitar is one of the youngest and most widely used instruments around and builders and done a helluva lot in such a short time. Even if you compare bass guitars to our electric 6 string brothers who aren't that much older, we've still come even further than they have. Every market is bound to reach a point where change slows. I figure now is as good a time as any to do that. I keep saying it, but look how far we've come in such a short time:).

I'm sure it is tough for a small builder trying to get into the biz but that's what happens with everything when you get into a market of any kind late. Not their fault, of course, but I find it pretty hard to believe that an up-and-comer would bring something to the table that someone else hasn't tried already at this point.
 
#37
Kwesi said:
Well, considering that the bass guitar hasn't even been around for a century yet, I think we've come pretty far :D. Look at just about any classical instrument. Around for centuries and very little change made. The bass guitar is one of the youngest and most widely used instruments around and builders and done a helluva lot in such a short time. Even if you compare bass guitars to our electric 6 string brothers who aren't that much older, we've still come even further than they have. Every market is bound to reach a point where change slows. I figure now is as good a time as any to do that. I keep saying it, but look how far we've come in such a short time:).

I'm sure it is tough for a small builder trying to get into the biz but that's what happens with everything when you get into a market of any kind late. Not their fault, of course, but I find it pretty hard to believe that an up-and-comer would bring something to the table that someone else hasn't tried already at this point.
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You nailed exactly....
 
#38
Kwesi said:
I wonder about this viewpoint. Of course, everyone has the right to but it's pretty curious. Taking quick look at your profile, the basses you own currently borrow pretty heavily from the Fender aesthetic. Look at Lakland. Did you really expect som big departure from what they've already done? As far as design options go, I think the bass world has just about hit it's limit of what the majority of folks will take to. Sure there are builders out there like Cliff Bordwell, Carl Thompson, Aries, and Ken Bebensee (to name a few) making strange and unique designs out there but even if you were to make those as cheap as a Squier, I doubt folks would actually take to it.
Click to expand...

I hear you, believe me. I guess that I'm thinking that with all of the talent that these guys have for making basses and the proven ability to produce top-shelf products, I'm waiting for the next "classic" design. I think that the Decade was an honest attempt but I don't think that it sold very well. Could be wrong there and I hope that I am but I've never seen one in person. I tend to lean toward the classic as you've seen from the basses that I play but I do like that when you see them, they aren't confused for their obvious cousins. I see both the 55xx and the Sterling as a push forward but not too far. I suppose that when it comes to looks, the Sterling could be viewed as a push backwards from the Stingray towards the more traditional Fender design.

Maybe I just need to accept that if you're going to base your design off of a figure eight and maintain the double horn element, there's not a whole lot of room to wiggle in. After all, only a very small portion of us are willing to accept the daring and if a company wants to pay their employees a fair and honest wage, you've got to move product.
 
#39
Just ask Jon Maghini of M Basses who makes a killer playing, sounding and original looking body and headstock why he put his original models on hold to build his Fender inspired models?


Link Removed

His custom models.

Link Removed (M Bass dealer)
 
#40
That is a very interesting dialogue, and I feel both sides have merit. IMO, the next innovation will be a plug module that accommodates an iPhone with an app that will provide the virtual equivalent of stomp boxes, synths, EQ, amp models, tuners, recording, playback, signal outs, loops, other app interfaces etc. I know it exist in various forms on the iPad, but this will take it to a whole new level. Nothing new, but just technology convergence.

Gibson has made a run at it on the dusk tiger (?) and the firebird x, but has not gotten much traction it seems... People HATED the dusk tiger. I thought it was kinda cool..
 

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