Traditional ("F" word) design basses.....why?

[Winton]

I was watching one of Rufus Philpot's amazingly educational YouTube videos and noticed him playing his Moollon jazz bass. I began to think of high end guitar companies specializing in period-style instruments like Moollon, Nash, G'7, and Supro (then there's the period-esque ones like Serek, Xotic, Wilcock, and Sandberg). Why has there been a resurgence in these "period instruments"?

I understand the legitimate argument that it's cheaper, easier to purchase, and more reliable than actual vintage Fenders, Gibsons. But seems like there's been a resurgence recently, where as the 90s had a lot of artists using more "progressive" and new designs by Modulus, Ibanez, Ken Smith, Warrior, etc. Again, why is that?


Disclaimer: This is neither a complaint nor a negative rant against traditional designs. Just would like to hear all of your opinions (and we're all quarantined so I need some sort of communication with bassists, dangit!). Also, I currently own a Carvin SB5000, a pseudo 70s jazz bass, and a Nash PB63 (along with a Fender Japan '87 P-bass and a 70s Japan Flavor short scale).

 

[bucephylus]

In the 70’s, Alembic opened the door; and during the 80’s and 90’s a bunch of talented luthiers walked through it. Tobias, Smith, Modulus, Pedulla, Spector etc. We benefited from a huge expansion in designs and effort by a bunch of talented luthiers.

Meanwhile, studios continued to prefer Fender-ish tones; and luthiers such as Roger Sadowsky and Mike Lull pushed forward with improvements to the Fender designs. Since Fender was pretty much standing still.

In addition to studios, many players found that showing up with Fender-ish instruments at auditions was a good thing, since other musicians tend to be less savvy about basses that deviate strongly from the Fender paradigm.

Nowadays, we have a lot of choices in both directions. Yay. But, the thing is that the same studio and audition comfort factors exist. Don’t expect that to change any time soon.

 

[chanson]

Just wait several years and the non traditional basses will have a resurgence again in mainstream popularity, or whatever you want to call it. Then it will flip the other way again after a while. "Vintage" becomes cool again, then it falls out of style...then comes back.

I remember when I first started playing somewhere around 2006 or so, and all of the highlighted pros I remember seeing in videos, magazines, etc were all Fodera, boutique stuff. Nowadays it seems like lo fi, vintage, flatwound, etc is pretty popular, among the "internet crowd".

 

[M.R. Ogle]

No matter what the bass design/shape/construction/electronics, old-school or wildly radical, the most often desired and imitated "sound" is most simply produced by those traditional design instruments.

Sometimes, the wheel doesn't NEED to be reinvented.

 

[Bill Whitehurst]

In the beginning, when Leo first considered build electric instruments he decided it would be a good thing to use simple, easily replaced parts.
Just as soon as some one else started to offer replacement parts, part swapping began.
More aftermarket parts came alone to cash in.
In no time someone realized you could build a Fender using all 'not Fender' parts.
That lead to folks trying to build better Fender shaped objects
and others trying to build cheaper FSOs.
Now, we assume that that is just how it's done.
If you count all the bolt on neck/general Fender recipe basses ever made I would guess they would be over half of all basses.

 

[smokescreens]

No one ever asks why a violin is shaped like a violin

 

[Chicory Blue]

I’ll admit I egregiously misinterpreted what this thread was going to be about.

--^@

 

[Peteyboy]

No one ever asks why a violin is shaped like a violin

An acoustic instrument's sound is largely determined by its shape. So that's Ampegs and Oranges here.

 

[Volker Kirstein]

Tradition!

​

 

[Stevorebob]

It’s what people buy. Simple as that.

 

[Raoul_Duke]

I wonder if piano players have similar discussions about why different pianos look similar. Or acoustic guitarists, because they’re mostly dreadnoughts.

I’m guessing they do not.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Ampegs and Oranges

I see what you did there....and I'm currently stealing that line

 

[mongo2]

No one ever asks why a violin is shaped like a violin

My son asked his violin teacher that question and the answer was because it's played primarily with a bow.

 

[smokescreens]

My son asked his violin teacher that question and the answer was because it's played primarily with a bow.

Touché

 

[Geri O]

Why not?

 

[DigitalMan]

There have been a lot of different bass shapes brought to market in the past five or six decades. The ones that sell continue to be made.

Body and headstock shapes are just aesthetics. Generally speaking most new body and headstock styles do not qualify as innovation - in my opinion. There are exceptions.

 

[4stringfarley]

When I navigated to the recent posts page 2 threads below this one was titled "Fender has sold more in 2020 than throughout their history". That's why there's so many traditional "F" word copies out there, it's what people want and are buying.

 

[Guild B301]

I wonder if piano players have similar discussions about why different pianos look similar. Or acoustic guitarists, because they’re mostly dreadnoughts.

I’m guessing they do not.

Oh yes, they do.

 

[Doctor Morbius]

Why do donuts look the way they do?!

 

[Stevorebob]

Why do donuts look the way they do?!

So the middle is not raw and the exterior burnt.