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To Me, Fender Is.......

#181
...the brand I wanted but couldn't afford when I started playing as a starving college student in the '80s.

...the brand of the first bass I bought when I started playing again five years ago (with a bigger budget) and joined TB.

I'm actually going to sell that bass soon. It's still excellent (an '83 '57 RI Precision), but I found a brand I like better--Lakland. Their necks suit me incredibly well (especially those small frets, and the amazing fretwork of the US models), they have great customer service and they're a local business for me.

I still consider Fender to be a pretty solid builder overall and I'm open to owning one again in the future.
 
#183
Some people are so blind. I don't want to fuel fury, but a set-up not only changes the complete feel of the instrument, but sound as well. I wouldn't pass off an instrument because it may not be set-up to your specifications. I'm sure 99% of Squier's, yes the cheapest line Fender makes, play great with a proper set-up. It's completely different than if there's a problem/ undesirable quality inherent to the bass. If you just don't like Fender's, no one said you HAVE to play them, which is great, because it allows a variety of companies and luthiers to exist and offer their taste of bass and hopefully match up to what you want to get in the end product: music.

Don't be close-minded.

Best regards,

Brooks
 
#185
Bryan R. Tyler said:
You've told multiple people they were wrong when they said there are better basses out there, and that one day they'd figure it out. Quite a few of the biggest names in studio recording (Kaye, Stubenhaus, Jackson, Clarke, etc.) haven't used Fenders in decades. You're making it sound like you know something they don't, or that they're wrong in finding basses they find better than Fenders.
Click to expand...

most of those players havent been on pop/mainstream sessions in ages;)
 
#186
millsbass5 said:
The root of a lot of stress...... Definitely!!! Especially in your case!!! But, when it's all said & done, I bet my left nut that there's no regrets on you about owning what you own. I know damn good & well that I'd go thru hell n' high water to get what you stumbled across. That story STILL amazes me to this very day. Unreal.......
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Lol, yeah definitely a stressful few months in the beginning and no by no means am I complaining just stating what I think about when I read the OP's question.

I am more grateful than words could EVER express to have not only found a Fender from 62 but one with the story it has and on top of all of that something that put the spark back into me to start playing again.
I had really almost stopped playing guitar and now I'm playing both bass and guitar and happier than I have been in a long time.

I'd do it all over again ten more times w/o hesitation, but it was quite the headache at first.
Honestly I didn't even really appreciate it until I had it almost a month or so.

I've met some great people here, around my area, and even the daughter of the basses original owner has become a pretty regular acquaintance.
Definitely more joy than stress.
 
#187
faulknersj said:
What's the story??
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Lol, how much time do you have?

Its a very long story but here's the short & Curly version.

Basically, a friend sent me a text as a joke saying that he had found a pretty pink guitar for me to play since he knew how much I liked pink.

To his surprise I actually did like it and was told it was for sale, I asked how much and was told to make an offer, NOT KNOWING what it was I offered $100.00
Long story short the offer was accepted the bass was picked up and I started researching what my hundred bucks just bought.

Then I joined Talkbass for help and all hell broke loose for the next month or so.

The bass was a Shell Pink 62 J bass in
untouched condition.

If your wanting to hear the rest shoot me s PM and I'll try and fill you in.
 
#189
Omg!! Unreal!! I have fantasized about just such a scenario...you actually lived it!!



1SHOT1HIT said:
Lol, how much time do you have?

Its a very long story but here's the short & Curly version.

Basically, a friend sent me a text as a joke saying that he had found a pretty pink guitar for me to play since he knew how much I liked pink.

To his surprise I actually did like it and was told it was for sale, I asked how much and was told to make an offer, NOT KNOWING what it was I offered $100.00
Long story short the offer was accepted the bass was picked up and I started researching what my hundred bucks just bought.

Then I joined Talkbass for help and all hell broke loose for the next month or so.

The bass was a Shell Pink 62 J bass in
untouched condition.

If your wanting to hear the rest shoot me s PM and I'll try and fill you in.
Click to expand...

Leon Transaxle said:
...synonymous with basd guitars.
When I close my eyes and picture a bass it is always a Fender I see.
This includes the twenty or so years I had sonething else.
Glad to ehen I finally got one I wasn't fdsappointed.
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#193
Clef_de_fa said:
once you have the income and are willing to buy a Sadowsky you have done a big enough part of your learning and your are ready to move to something else.

Many people got a Fender as their first instrument, so they learn basic thing, past a certain level they seek out what won't hold them to attaint the next level

Many people also have a Fender learn to mod to suit their need ... and mod so much that only the body or the neck is still a Fender.
Click to expand...

So, all those skilled, professional an highly respected musicians that play Fender basses don't count?
 
#194
Everyone knows the quality of a bass is proportional to the number of knobs and switches.

[This invalid link has been removed]
Fender P bass = 2

bassfront_00204.jpg

Lowenherz = 13

Case closed.
 
#195
An Icon

The Standard

What 'Producers' Want, only if it let's them NOT think any harder than they have to.

What people will pay thousands and thousands of dollars for if it was born before 1968, even if it blows

What works on a stage and studio (with or without all kinds of outboard gear) whether we like to admit it or not.

But not keeping me from getting a Bongo 6 or playing my Ray5 HHs that work even better
 
#196
...is a company, a brand, and a marketing strategy that relies on heavily on nostalgia and consumer-worship to flourish as it does. That said, they make some nice guitars. Just stop masturbating over the company as an ideal, it's ridiculous.
 
#197
1SHOT1HIT said:
The bass was a Shell Pink 62 J bass in
untouched condition.

If your wanting to hear the rest shoot me s PM and I'll try and fill you in.
Click to expand...

Pictures?

And -- I think your story is one that all TB'ers would enjoy. It's not like mint-condition '62 J basses are boring to us. You should start a thread -- or point us to a thread you have already discussed it in.

P.S., as my avatar shows, I'm not a Fender purist. I think the highest-quality hands-down best bass I possess is my Spector NS-20004, actually. That being said, I have two Squier VMJ's (the maple '70's version, and the fretless '62 version) and they are fantastic too.

To me, Fender is one of many options in a very colorful palette. I'm very into the Jazz bass sound, I'm REALLY into the sound of my fretless. I have played several other fretlesses, and I have owned a Univox 'Lectra fretless since 1988, but until I ran into that Squier VMJ, no fretless bass had ever literally jumped off the wall at me and said 'BUY ME NOW, TAKE ME HOME, LEARN ALL YOUR SONGS ON ME' quite as commandingly as that VMJ. It is one of my most prized instruments.

But Fender is also not the end-all of bass for me. Right now I'm back to playing my Ric which will probably last until my butterfly-like affections flit over to another instrument on my wall. I am seriously considering buying the Squier VMJ in olympic white, as I've never, ever, ever owned a white instrument and just kinda want one. And, I like the vibe of a '62 J bass and want to see if it is as nice with frets on it.

But after that I'm also dead-set that I will, one day soon, possess a Spector Euro, because I've played one and it made me sick with GAS.

I'm just not a purist. There's too much variety in music and sound to not explore.

Oh, and PPS, since Fender went public, I don't have much hope for their future. Perhaps people don't understand how toxic the Wall Street, casino mentality is to actual good business practice. I'm planning on acquiring all my Fender-ish wants soon, before they go sideways and become some kind of McFender abomination.
 
#199
dmusic148 said:
So, if I stay with a Fender, it will 'hold me back from attaining the next level,' is that what you are saying? You're serious? Ever heard of a guy named Jaco Pastorius?
Lol. Just lol.
Click to expand...

I know Jaco, I played some of his music, but if one day you feel like playing a 24 frets to pull out the music your hear in your head, it isn't going to happen on a Fender. If you want the extended rang of a 6 strings bass it won't happen again unless another endorsement like Steve Bailey.
 

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