Except for recording a demo and the engineer not liking my Rickenbacker (he wanted me to play a P whose strings were +1/2” above the fingerboard,) no one has ever cared what I played between 1985-2020.
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Stigma for not playing Fender
- Thread starter dwagner
- Start date
I once played in a band that insisted that I play a Fender Bass. I brought a Sadowsky to rehearsal. The Sadowsky sounded amazing.
I switched to a Nash P Bass and they were very happy.. until I told them it was a Fender clone.
The band leaders argument was that Fenders just sound better as they age. I agree with this .. but not all Fenders are good instruments.
We played a live show and I had my Nash and had some cheat sheets on the top of my amp with some notes about a few different tunes. He gave me a hard time for this.
I didn’t last long in this project.
I switched to a Nash P Bass and they were very happy.. until I told them it was a Fender clone.
The band leaders argument was that Fenders just sound better as they age. I agree with this .. but not all Fenders are good instruments.
We played a live show and I had my Nash and had some cheat sheets on the top of my amp with some notes about a few different tunes. He gave me a hard time for this.
I didn’t last long in this project.
I've never owned a Fender..... I have two Fender shaped objects with Fender bodies but the necks, electonics and all hardware are not. The only questions I get about my Pbass is "what is it?" and "why is the headstock the wrong way?"
I used to get a hard time with the Thunderbird, I read that a few studios in Nashville wouldn't even hire you without a Sadowsky ...
Just tell everyone at the church gig that only god can judge you.
I can remember a lot of that back in the 70's in studios, you either played a P bass or a P bass and DON'T bring that Rickenbacker in here but I think that stuff has pretty much gone away during the past 20 years or so, I think what counts today is how good you can make whatever you bring in or whatever you're playing sound. But yes it was definitely real some years ago.
Never got any guff or side eye for not bringing a Fender. But I do still get comments and side eye for my pedal board.
I sometimes forget about these, not sure why they're not bigger than they are, but they seem to be a lot of bass for the money...more so than some other basses I won't name.
I definitely like the orange one, and having two pickguards is a nice option that other companies could try out.
I'm an atheist. I only go to church when I'm subbing for a friend (a church-going keys player). Although I play a Fender now, I never got any grief when I previously turned up with an Ibanez SR. If anyone had, I'd have turned up with one of these:
Schecter Hellraiser
Ampeg Devil Bass
or this "pentagram" shaped model
Schecter Hellraiser
Ampeg Devil Bass
or this "pentagram" shaped model
Attachments
In my 30+ years of playing in churches, studios, stages, college jazz bands, bars, clubs, breweries, back yards, garages, and a bunch of other places, I've never experienced any stigma for not playing Fender. Yes, I've had a few Fenders over the years, and some good ones, but I've played many other things in all of those settings in all those years. I wouldn't worry much about it. Play what works for you.
It’s an older attitude, for sure, but still around. There’s a reason a lot of builders make basses that look almost exactly like Fenders in every visible way, so that they sell to the look that’s expected of a bass on a bandstand. The idea at first with Sadowsky was to make a bass that looked like a Fender, but was superior in all the details, kind of a ‘super Fender’ that no record producer or fellow artist would notice as being ‘not a Fender’- no fear of being spotted as it came out of the bag, then rejected based on some random notion that a Fender bass is needed here on this project, not ‘what ever that is this bass player just pulled out of that bag.’ But one would hope we are moving past all that by now. Now there are producers and artists who have worked with a variety of various bass brands and looks, not like the old days.
From my experience it’s mainly a cosmetic/image/listening with their eyes kind of thing. I think it’s funny that by changing the pickgaurd on my Dingwall NG2 which is a signature model for a metal bass player, It seemed to totally change how the bass sounds to some people lol.
If you shred in the right style ppl will forget about the bass you play. The only instance I can think of where the bass you're playing actually matters is if you're gigging with an artists/band that requires a specific look/clothing, endorsement reasons, or studio gigs where the producer/engineer wants a very specific sound.
It's good to own one in case anyone ask for it...but all my others sound better 
I usually play a Stingray 5 in the church band. Lots of instruments besides Fender get used by the bass players in the rotation.
