Precision "upgrades" that should be stock on new model - poll

[awilkie84]

I know exactly what it is. I'm intimately familiar with them. I have three basses (out of seven) which absolutely do not have them. Of those one is headless, one is carbon 35" and one is a wooden five string. All of my Fender style basses have them including one which is carbon. Seems to point at the Fender style headstock as a culprit. Fix it.

The headstock is NOT the culprit. If you know what they are, you should know what causes them. Deadspots are caused by sympathetic resonance that cancels out the string vibration, making it sound dead. EVERY bass/guitar will have them. It's just a matter of finding them. As I said before, it's possible that the location of the dead spot is off the fingerboard, but it does exist. Changing the headstock angle will do nothing to fix them, nor will adding mass. All it does is shift the spot around.

 

[snarebear]

I would like a wood option. Fender already has the bodies (alder, ash, basswood -and mahogany would be nice) and could just price accordingly inseda of having to get a higher priced , artist, or reissue models. Higher angle headstock would be nice too

 

[gfen]

I didn't read all 5 pages, but alot of these options seem frivilous or just out of place on a "stock" bass.

Outside of a string tree, which addresses a fundamental flaw, and the truss rod wheel which is a legacy design option to NOT have; alot of these things are wants, not needs. Perhaps you shouldn't be asking for "Precision upgrades that should be stock" but a "new Fender bass options built around the classic P."

It's a P bass. You know what you're getting. If I wanted a P, I wouldn't want any of this nonsense that effectively changes the insturment or adds options I don't want to pay for or deal with (ie, drop tuners, an additional complication in hardware I actively don't want as tehre's more to fail).

String trees and truss rod wheel both addresses design flaws, and a quality nut isn't just the P but any insturment. Everything else is superficial garbage.

 

[bobba66]

And, I'd like fingerboard radius and vintage fret options.

 

[ComposedFiend]

Jazz neck, body, pickups, pickguard and controlplate. Wait a second...

 

[azureblue]

I have a Yamaha BB5000, which is essentially a PJ bass with 24 frets. If Yamaha can produce a balanced 24 fret P style body, then Fender should be able to, also.

I love the sound of the original single coil P bass pick up. I had an original P bass that had one. I wish Fender could make that pickup in a stacked hum cancel humbucker that would sound like a 52 pickup

 

[azureblue]

Out of all the ideas in this thread, the one I like best is to ship P basses with flatwounds from the factory. I don't like flatwounds at all, but this suggestion makes some sense to me. Flatwounds sound good when other people use them; they just don't work for me.

I'll second this. If I'm in a store trying out a bass, I would like to hear how it sounds with flats.

 

[JimmyM]

Flats are still used by a clear minority of bassists. Fender started shipping them with rounds in the 80's because customers demanded it, and to a large extent, they still do.

 

[MarkoYYZ]

I didn't read all 5 pages...
Perhaps you shouldn't be asking for "Precision upgrades that should be stock" but a "new Fender bass options built around the classic P."

Ahem...

...if you were going to put together your ideal P bass to make it a production model for Fender (or someone else), which mods or upgrades do you think you would want most to be included?

So, you not only didn't read all 5 pages, you didn't even read the Original Post.

Everything else is superficial garbage.

Perhaps if you took 30 seconds to read, you wouldn't have responded with a superficial garbage reply of your own?
.

 

[inframan]

What Fender should do is drop the A string tuner to the lower side of the headstock and move the stringtree to the A-D strings, put a truss wheel at the heal end of the neck. Heck, get rid of the crappy pick-up and ad a humbucker by the bridge, maybe add an optional single coil in the neck position. That would make a better Pbass.

Throw in some active electronics and I think you have something there.

 

[David Jayne]

The headstock is NOT the culprit. If you know what they are, you should know what causes them. Deadspots are caused by sympathetic resonance that cancels out the string vibration, making it sound dead. EVERY bass/guitar will have them. It's just a matter of finding them. As I said before, it's possible that the location of the dead spot is off the fingerboard, but it does exist. Changing the headstock angle will do nothing to fix them, nor will adding mass. All it does is shift the spot around.

Do you just like to argue? I know what I'm talking about. Some have it, some don't. Fact. I know that adding /subtracting mass doesn't fix it because I've tried. A lot. It's a design problem, which is easy to see when a large sample of a particular design has it, and other designs don't. For example you'll find lots of folks here that swear short scales never have them. Fix it. The OP asked for upgrades. I replied with my desired upgrade. No dead spots. That's what I want.

 

[awilkie84]

Do you just like to argue? I know what I'm talking about. Some have it, some don't. Fact. I know that adding /subtracting mass doesn't fix it because I've tried. A lot. It's a design problem, which is easy to see when a large sample of a particular design has it, and other designs don't. For example you'll find lots of folks here that swear short scales never have them. Fix it. The OP asked for upgrades. I replied with my desired upgrade. No dead spots. That's what I want.

You're not listening. You're reading, but not listening. That's fine. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

 

[wisconsindead]

I hear you. People change strings on a new bass anyways so it doesn't really affect people too much.

It affects me. I can never try out a bass and get a good idea of the sound I'll actually have because I hate rounds (and don't know basses well enough to translate between flats and rounds). But if I'm the minority then that's life. Though I was excited to test the jack Casady bass the other day and left thinking two things, that neck is big and I wish it would've had rounds.

 

[NickyBass]

This is why I went 'custom' with my P bass. My personal preference is for lighter basses. I also like the rear trussrod/skunkstripe maple necks and a precision fit neck pocket. I think Fender is making some great basses these days, and I would be very happy playing one, but they didn't have 'exactly' what I wanted.

 

[MovingPitchers]

Orrrrrr just have the basses not installed with strings and you get a free set of strings upon purchase of a new bass...flats or rounds.

Or is that silly?

 

[MarkoYYZ]

Orrrrrr just have the basses not installed with strings and you get a free set of strings upon purchase of a new bass...flats or rounds.

Or is that silly?

It is silly because the factory has to out a set of strings on the bass to get the neck to tension, in order to set it up properly. They're not going to waste time putting on a set of strings, only to take them off. Customers would complain about marks on the tuners, etc...
.

 

[awilkie84]

It is silly because the factory has to out a set of strings on the bass to get the neck to tension, in order to set it up properly. They're not going to waste time putting on a set of strings, only to take them off. Customers would complain about marks on the tuners, etc...
.

Here's the thing. Aside from people who know nothing about guitars, how many of us buy a bass & leave the stock strings on? We all have our personal preferences. Why should Fender offer a choice of strings if we're just going to change them for new strings anyways? Even if the bass is brand new from the factory, I ALWAYS put new strings on.

 

[MovingPitchers]

Here's the thing. Aside from people who know nothing about guitars, how many of us buy a bass & leave the stock strings on? We all have our personal preferences. Why should Fender offer a choice of strings if we're just going to change them for new strings anyways? Even if the bass is brand new from the factory, I ALWAYS put new strings on.

Unless you're super broke after buying that bass!

 

[David Jayne]

You're not listening. You're reading, but not listening. That's fine. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

Which part am I missing? Sympathetic resonance? Yes, dead spot 101. It's off the fiberboard? Then it's irrelevant. I'd like a solution for the ones that are.
I'll say it again : some have it and some don't. Why?
Find a way to eliminate it from the design. That would be an upgrade.

 

[MarkoYYZ]

Which part am I missing?

I think he's saying that as long as it's shaped like a Precision, has a Fender headstock and is made entirely from wood, you're demanding something that isn't possible.

Design a different bass or use composites or whatever, sure, but that wasn't the point of this thread - which was to ask which upgrades or common changes that people have made would they like to see stock on a new Pbass model.

You're not asking for a visible or singular "upgrade" or "common mod", you're asking for a re-engineering.
.