Unless you lived in Woonsocket, RI in the late 1970s. There, all round covers were for person-holes.
Americana: Nonsex
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What if Leo didn't get it exactly right the first time around?
- Thread starter Just Wrong
- Start date
Unless you lived in Woonsocket, RI in the late 1970s. There, all round covers were for person-holes.
Americana: Nonsex
Leo did get it right! For me! The Fender Precision is the perfect bass for me and my style of playing. I can find no flaws or issues.
So, this is truly subjective, but I'm damned grateful to have Fenders in my stable of basses and as my primary players!
So, this is truly subjective, but I'm damned grateful to have Fenders in my stable of basses and as my primary players!
I have been waiting for someone to use the word ersatz correctly. Well played.
If nothing else, the present Internet architecture continues to show us the power of unlimited distribution for spreading misinformation.
Here, we have 8 pages of discussion with not a single reference to support any kind of response to an unsubstantiated OP. Debate is fine, and can be a healthy way to gain perspective. But, doing so with scant to complete disregard for well researched, edited, and articulate existing literature sounds kind of like an eighth grade popularity contest debate. Come on TB; you can do better.
Here is just one reference, which remains credible after 22 years:
https://www.amazon.com/How-Fender-B...sprefix=How+the+fender+,stripbooks,107&sr=1-1
Spending just a little time READING goes a lot further to understanding how Fender basses fit into our music than a bunch of misinformed banter in threads like this one.
Or, just keep clicking and typing uninformed tribal banter. Ignorance is apparently bliss.
Here, we have 8 pages of discussion with not a single reference to support any kind of response to an unsubstantiated OP. Debate is fine, and can be a healthy way to gain perspective. But, doing so with scant to complete disregard for well researched, edited, and articulate existing literature sounds kind of like an eighth grade popularity contest debate. Come on TB; you can do better.
Here is just one reference, which remains credible after 22 years:
https://www.amazon.com/How-Fender-B...sprefix=How+the+fender+,stripbooks,107&sr=1-1
Spending just a little time READING goes a lot further to understanding how Fender basses fit into our music than a bunch of misinformed banter in threads like this one.
Or, just keep clicking and typing uninformed tribal banter. Ignorance is apparently bliss.
As an Amazon Associate, TalkBass may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via links on this site.
He continued to change his designs and make updates and upgrades all throughout his life. Leo Fender himself would disagree that "Leo got it right the first time". He didn't stick with the 1951 Fender Bass or the original 25W Bassman amplifier.
I don't know what were the last instruments he designed in his life, but you can guess that they are very different from even the late 50s ones that people insist can't be improved upon.
I don't know what were the last instruments he designed in his life, but you can guess that they are very different from even the late 50s ones that people insist can't be improved upon.
A square cover could fall into the hole and be hard to retrieve or injure the workers; a round cover can't go through the hole.
The good news there is that Woonsocket is about as far away as is possible in RI from Westerly, where Guild were building fine guitars in the late 70s.
'Got it right' is not the same as 'got it perfect'.
I play Ibanez basses. I like the neck. I like the pickups. I like the versatility. Are they better than a P? I wouldn't like to say. But I know that bass would be different if Leo had designed it differently. The fretted guitar was not an obvious choice for bass. Yes. Mexican music had that large guitar but. Was it rickenbacker who'd tried it earlier?
If you think about it the obvious way to have made an amplified solid body bass probably would have been to make some kind of upright. But he reasoned that the guitar was more transportable and easier for more people to play. Also the thud of the p was perfect for country music at the time. When he improves (?) or maybe changes (?) the design with the j, things become more interesting again.
You note that Gibson, Gretsch, Rickenbacker etc bass all their designs on the P or J but put their own innovations from bridge type, pickups, controls to colours and body shape.
So no. He didn't get it perfect. No one could. But he got it right. And we should all be grateful.
I play Ibanez basses. I like the neck. I like the pickups. I like the versatility. Are they better than a P? I wouldn't like to say. But I know that bass would be different if Leo had designed it differently. The fretted guitar was not an obvious choice for bass. Yes. Mexican music had that large guitar but. Was it rickenbacker who'd tried it earlier?
If you think about it the obvious way to have made an amplified solid body bass probably would have been to make some kind of upright. But he reasoned that the guitar was more transportable and easier for more people to play. Also the thud of the p was perfect for country music at the time. When he improves (?) or maybe changes (?) the design with the j, things become more interesting again.
You note that Gibson, Gretsch, Rickenbacker etc bass all their designs on the P or J but put their own innovations from bridge type, pickups, controls to colours and body shape.
So no. He didn't get it perfect. No one could. But he got it right. And we should all be grateful.
My only gripe about Fender basses is The Dead Spot.
But still, it's remarkable how effectively the '51 Precision answered the question of how to make an electric bass. Tutmarc may have been first, but the team at Fender figured out how to make it really work, and get it accepted by the community. What they didn't get quite right the first time, they fixed for the '57 Precision (except for the dead spot).
But still, it's remarkable how effectively the '51 Precision answered the question of how to make an electric bass. Tutmarc may have been first, but the team at Fender figured out how to make it really work, and get it accepted by the community. What they didn't get quite right the first time, they fixed for the '57 Precision (except for the dead spot).
Got news for you, the dead spot is nowhere near exclusive to Fender.
Leo did pretty well, to any non-bass player standing ten feet away a 50's Precision is identical to a current Precision (actually, as someone who's never played a Fender they would probably be identical to me unless I put some effort in). But - meh. He's an amateur.
Stradivarius? Okay, that dude nailed it.
Stradivarius? Okay, that dude nailed it.
"Wrong - did you know that Stradivarius actually stole his design variant from a shoemaker named Giuseppe…"
Beat you to it.
One last thing: manhole covers are round so that giants can use them to play Frisbee. Look it up.
