A rebranded Squier? 
"I don't need no stinking Fender waterslide decal!"
"I don't need no stinking Fender waterslide decal!"
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New Fender Standard P Bass
- Thread starter Memphis Soul
- Start date
Who knows with Fender. The Squier Strat O Sonic have Epiphone branded tailpieces.
4:20 mark
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Exactly! I will never but a squire so this is smart in one way. However, ceramic pickups? Surely the classic vibe squire has better specs? It feels like more money for a better name and worse specs.
It shoes how the entire industry is smoke and mirrors. They sell you the idea of craftspersons working in workshops, but in reality they all buy from similar or the same suppliers.
Wow, you people really hate poplar. As if you could tell the difference between woods on solid finished instruments.
I've read through the treads regarding this "New" version of the Fender Standard bass, and honestly as a Am.Std P bass owner these have a lot to live up to.
After looking at the pictures of the bass it is really hard to see what you are getting, for the amount Fender are asking £545 here in the UK for what really could be called a Super Squier.
The bar was set very high back in the beginning with the JV & SQ Squier's being a quality, made instrument not a million miles from it's American made standard version. And in recent times the MIC Classic Vibe & Matt Freeman basses were getting, praises, for how well they were made and how good they felt to play.
I could be very wrong here but maybe Fender was giving us a tester of what they were thinking of doing, The Squier 40th Anniversary bass was a step up from the other basses in the line at that time, full thickness bodies even though the wood joins on some of them were terrible. So if you change the headstock decal from Squier to Fender & stamp Fender on the back of the machine heads, do you turn a Indonesian made 40th Anniversary Squier into an Indonesian made Fender Standard Bass?
After looking at the pictures of the bass it is really hard to see what you are getting, for the amount Fender are asking £545 here in the UK for what really could be called a Super Squier.
The bar was set very high back in the beginning with the JV & SQ Squier's being a quality, made instrument not a million miles from it's American made standard version. And in recent times the MIC Classic Vibe & Matt Freeman basses were getting, praises, for how well they were made and how good they felt to play.
I could be very wrong here but maybe Fender was giving us a tester of what they were thinking of doing, The Squier 40th Anniversary bass was a step up from the other basses in the line at that time, full thickness bodies even though the wood joins on some of them were terrible. So if you change the headstock decal from Squier to Fender & stamp Fender on the back of the machine heads, do you turn a Indonesian made 40th Anniversary Squier into an Indonesian made Fender Standard Bass?
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D
I guess we will have to test these basses before making any definitive conclusions, but on paper they look less attractive than the Squier CVs, which means you're basically paying a lot of extra money for the Fender logo.
Then again, the same could be said about ANY Fender instrument when comparing their overall quality to similarly priced models from other brands. Don't get me wrong, Fenders can be great instruments, but they to tend to be a bit overpriced for the quality you're getting. These new Indonesian Standards are simply yet another example of this. It just gets even more conspicuous when they're competing directly with Fender's own Squier CV series.
I'm generally not a fan of ceramic pickups in P/J-basses. There are exceptions, like the DiMarzio Model P, but I don't think these pickups will be anything like that. When the CVs offer good sounding alnico pickups for LESS money... I think I know which one I would choose.
The main difference (except for the pickups) will be the neck profiles. This will always be a matter of taste. I happen to love the neck profiles on the current CVs so I will be very surprised if there's anything that will make me want to choose a Cort-manufactured Standard over a Cort-manufactured CV.
Having said that, I'm sure these basses will be solid "workhorse" instruments for anyone who can't live without a Fender logo on the headstock. Cort make great instruments, and I generally find their QC better than MIM/MIA Fenders in any given price range. The pickups can always be replaced, if everything else is perfect. This will add to the cost of course, and bring the total into a price range where you can most likely find something better that doesn't need modding. But then it won't have a Fender logo of course, which seems to matter to a lot of people.
(I'm making the assumption that these new Standards are made by Cort btw. I guess they might also be made by Samick, but all of the above would still apply).
Then again, the same could be said about ANY Fender instrument when comparing their overall quality to similarly priced models from other brands. Don't get me wrong, Fenders can be great instruments, but they to tend to be a bit overpriced for the quality you're getting. These new Indonesian Standards are simply yet another example of this. It just gets even more conspicuous when they're competing directly with Fender's own Squier CV series.
I'm generally not a fan of ceramic pickups in P/J-basses. There are exceptions, like the DiMarzio Model P, but I don't think these pickups will be anything like that. When the CVs offer good sounding alnico pickups for LESS money... I think I know which one I would choose.
The main difference (except for the pickups) will be the neck profiles. This will always be a matter of taste. I happen to love the neck profiles on the current CVs so I will be very surprised if there's anything that will make me want to choose a Cort-manufactured Standard over a Cort-manufactured CV.
Having said that, I'm sure these basses will be solid "workhorse" instruments for anyone who can't live without a Fender logo on the headstock. Cort make great instruments, and I generally find their QC better than MIM/MIA Fenders in any given price range. The pickups can always be replaced, if everything else is perfect. This will add to the cost of course, and bring the total into a price range where you can most likely find something better that doesn't need modding. But then it won't have a Fender logo of course, which seems to matter to a lot of people.
(I'm making the assumption that these new Standards are made by Cort btw. I guess they might also be made by Samick, but all of the above would still apply).
D
Or maybe rebranded Cort would be a better description?
It's not the first time Fender have manufactured Fender branded instruments in Asia. I believe the Fender Starcasters were made in China. But as far as I know it's the first time they have manufactured any of their truly classic models outside their own factories in the US and Mexico (Squiers excepted of course, and please correct me if I'm wrong).
This is a bold move IMO. I'm sure it makes sense from a short term financial perspective, but they also risk devaluing the Fender brand, which is their main strenght vs other brands. For some reason people seem willing to pay more money for an instrument if it says Fender on the headstock. Will people still be willing to do this if the instrument is actually made by Cort?
A rebranded Squier?
"I don't need no stinking Fender waterslide decal!"
It's not even a waterside decal; it's screened black ink. The cheapest of the cheap.
I'm kinda that way. I like just the Fender headstock shape regardless of the name. I have the old VM fretless Jazz with the Ebonal fingerboard. But long before that, I have a few SX basses. A couple Ps with the non-desirable fish hook headstock. Yet when I go to thinking about replacing them with Squiers of some sort, it's tough.
Yes, I know it's a budget bass but the old ones I have have Alder bodies and Rosewood fretboards. Nice neck shapes. After a good setup and playing them for a long time they are pretty comfy. I switched out pickups just to do it and enjoyed the outcome. Model P and 62 CS.
Trying to capture that in a new Squier is hard, especially at these new prices. I bought the SX's at $120 shipped to my door back in the old days (okay boomer
) Maybe I haven't played enough of the new Squiers. I did very much like the CV White Jazz almost bought it after playing it in the store first time. But I already had a nice Jazz (you're no fun )Anywho those Fender headstocks still call me. How shallow of me after playing that goofy SX headstock
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It's not tho. This is what a cheap poplar body looks like. It's not pretty, but it isn't plywood either.
No, it isn't. Poplar is a perfectly acceptable body wood for all practical purposes. I have played excellent basses with poplar bodies, but it does have one drawback, which is that it's very uneven in color. So a poplar body has to have a finish in order to cover that unevenness.
Actually Leo Fender used many types of wood for his guitars, including pine, alder, ash, poplar, and mahogany. Some of the early pine and poplar-made guitars are sought after.
I'm a little embarrassed that I paid the same price for a Squier 40th Anniversary P (Vintage series), but the fact that I really love that bass makes up for it.
Early Telecasters were made from pine. I have a pine body Telecaster and it is a wonderful instrument. I previously owned a G&L JB Tribute which had a poplar body. It had amazingly good tone (only change from as-delivered was DR Pure Blues strings) and I used it on a number of studio recordings. I'm neither pro or con the new Fenders, just stating my experience with two of these body wood types and will keep an open mind. Looking forward to playing one to experience how they are.
I got a chance to put my hands on a few Standard Series models yesterday (a p and a j), and they remind me of the Player series as far as fit and finish goes. In other words, a step above a squire. The store was pretty loud (crap weather = lots of people coming in to play) so I could not get a sense for how they sound.
