Period? I don't think so. I'm as big a Fender-hater as anybody (but do own two (MIM J & Squier P) and I totally agree with the GNL thing (own three!). BUT
Since I'm also a drumber, I get a chance to go to a lot of drumb clinics (I don't know why there don't seem to be nearly as many bass clinics?) And there you have an array of drums made by various manufacturers across the stage and you get to hear them one against the other live and in living color. Among drums DW has a rep like Fender. Expensive. Lots of marketing hype, and everybody wants them. And as much as that kind of idea sits in my craw, you can hear why right on stage. Those Darn DW drum very clearly HAVE SOMETHING that sets their tone apart from many others. And that is part of that reputation. They can do the job.
And that's what you hear here about Fender. People (me too!) recognize that there is SOMETHING about those original design Fenders that sets the tone apart. They do the job! So it's little wonder that Fender has been so reluctant to change the "magic formula" over the years. Of course the name on the headstock thing helps too. If your daddy went on and on about a Fender bass you may have a bit of the headstock thing. But if it didn't have that certain indefinable "SOMETHING", I don't think history alone is enough to do it. There are lots of basses in the dustbin of history.
Please tell me "drumb" is intentional
That aside, I'm not sure your drum analogy works here. DW is a new comer to the drum world, relatively speaking. DW certainly didnt play any role in inventing the modern drum kit. Ludwig would be more appropriate, as would Slingerland, Gretsch, and even Premier or Sonar if we look beyond the US market. Even if none of these companies remains as dominant today in the drum market as Fender is in the electric bass and guitar markets, all of these companies were involved in the early manufacture and sale of what would become the modern drum kit. The reason is that drums aren't as easy to patent or trademark since the basic format of a head stretched over a cylinder evolved over centuries. The drum kit concept itself originated from numerous DIY efforts of combining tradition percussion instruments normally played by several percussionists into an arrangement that one percussionist might play. The first bass drum pedals -which were a critical component of this integration, were seen in the late 1800s, and the first patents date to around 1900. Those originating companies are also much older than Fender, and patents expire. Honestly, since the introduction of synthetic heads, there hasnt been any revolutionary innovation in acoustic drum technology. In the last 50 years, the only real significant innovations have been evolutionary- improvements in materials and manufacturing technology, hardware, improved mechanisms, etc. Again, I said acoustic, so excluding electronics / synthesis / sampling / triggering.
Furthermore, there are dozens of brands of drums, which almost any non-drummer would be hard pressed to tell apart without a logo. You see it all the time on Craigslist, with Remo and Evans brand drum kits frequently coming up for sale. These are all low end sets displayed as only a non-drummer would arange them, and the brand listed is just what they saw on the head (Remo does market kits, but Evans does/has not). As for sound differences, sure to a drummer we can hear the difference between kits, but it has less to do with brand than price point / materials / heads / consruction / tuning. So as for which brand would have the most acceptance amongst non-drummers I think you could pretty much show up with just about any well tuned kit, as long as it sounds right for the music, and [DEL]the resonant head on the bass drum doesnt feature goatsie[/DEL] it doesnt look in some way objectionable. Assuming you can play, the brand of your kit isn't going to lose you the gig.
Right or wrong, the Fender bass thing is a different animal entirely.
Hey at that point I would have played a giant four string penis-bass if it meant I had a gig. That guy had a lot of weird ideas about what it took to sell in the 90's. But then again this was Berekely, CA and standing out for being non-conformist took considerable more effort than it might elsewhere. What can I say, I never had a bad trip and it was fun while it lasted. Dumb as the counter-comformity side of this might be, my point was just to share an example I experienced. 
