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Who agrees?
- Thread starter Ryan Mohr
- Start date
A recent example of this is Gibson bringing back the Grabber. I bought one new back in 75. I can't believe they ressurected what was never that great a bass.
I notice that F bass and MTD have come out with basses that are more Jazz bass styled.
I've heard them described as Fender without the issues.
Speaking of issues, maybe someone can answer this for me: I've seen a Fender Custom Shop Jazz bass relic that has a neck pocket gap. This bass is selling for over $3000 (not including tax). I wouldn't expect this kind of workmanship for that price so I'm wondering if this was done deliberately by Fender to simulate 1960s build quality?
I think that goes to show that Leo offered many fine ideas and it can be beneficial to fuse those ideas with some new ideas and techniques. There's a lot more to a bass than just the sound. I think dead spots, quick decay, variable weight, inconsistent fret jobs, and a few other things can easily be corrected when the focus of the builder is quality, not quantity.
Time tested, proven, design.
Along, with a"Ric", and some Gibson basses.
The Mac Daddies, of old school bass design.
I have only owned Fender basses. I have played several other brands, belonging to other people. With maybe one or two exceptions,
they played and sounded fine to me. With that said, I love my Fender basses. But then, I like the way Mr. Fender approached building his
musical instruments. I have always preferred bolt-on necks. I like solid, well built, simple designs. And yes, I like the way they look.
Fewer "things" mean fewer possible problems in my way of thinking. No matter what instrument/amp combination I play through,
I strive for my sound.
My father, 74 years old and playing more than I am, has never seen a "bass forum" doesn't know the history of musical instruments,
has no idea what a mode is and could care less what some educated musician thinks, he buys his instruments on his personal likes, which include,
looks, playability, and sound. He has a very diverse arsenal of both basses and amps/cabs. But when he plays any of them, he sounds like "him"!
When I pick up one of his basses, the first thing I have to do is reset all of the adjustments on the amp and guitar!
Because it doesn't sound like "me"!
When I was touring, I had literally hundreds of people approach me commenting on how great we sounded or how much they enjoyed our music. Very seldom
did anyone specifically comment on my bass playing. As far as most of them were concerned, I could have been playing a mandolin.
They just liked the music. They could care less that I was playing a 1960's sunburst Fender Precision.
If the first popular bass produced and accepted would have been the Warwick or Tyler, would things have been different? Maybe, maybe not.
Will people continue to build different types of basses with innovations, sure. Will it change music much? Time will tell.
Will I ever strive to change my tone, and quit playing Fender guitars? Probably not, but it could happen. Realistically, my tone has changed
dramatically since I first started playing. But it is still gounded in the Fender tone.
So, do I agree with the statement? Yes, but I also agree with many of the other posts. I enjoy these type of discussions and hearing other
points of view. But, show this discussion to music lovers that don't play bass guitar, and all you will probably get is a blank stare!
they played and sounded fine to me. With that said, I love my Fender basses. But then, I like the way Mr. Fender approached building his
musical instruments. I have always preferred bolt-on necks. I like solid, well built, simple designs. And yes, I like the way they look.
Fewer "things" mean fewer possible problems in my way of thinking. No matter what instrument/amp combination I play through,
I strive for my sound.
My father, 74 years old and playing more than I am, has never seen a "bass forum" doesn't know the history of musical instruments,
has no idea what a mode is and could care less what some educated musician thinks, he buys his instruments on his personal likes, which include,
looks, playability, and sound. He has a very diverse arsenal of both basses and amps/cabs. But when he plays any of them, he sounds like "him"!
When I pick up one of his basses, the first thing I have to do is reset all of the adjustments on the amp and guitar!
Because it doesn't sound like "me"!
When I was touring, I had literally hundreds of people approach me commenting on how great we sounded or how much they enjoyed our music. Very seldom
did anyone specifically comment on my bass playing. As far as most of them were concerned, I could have been playing a mandolin.
They just liked the music. They could care less that I was playing a 1960's sunburst Fender Precision.
If the first popular bass produced and accepted would have been the Warwick or Tyler, would things have been different? Maybe, maybe not.
Will people continue to build different types of basses with innovations, sure. Will it change music much? Time will tell.
Will I ever strive to change my tone, and quit playing Fender guitars? Probably not, but it could happen. Realistically, my tone has changed
dramatically since I first started playing. But it is still gounded in the Fender tone.
So, do I agree with the statement? Yes, but I also agree with many of the other posts. I enjoy these type of discussions and hearing other
points of view. But, show this discussion to music lovers that don't play bass guitar, and all you will probably get is a blank stare!
+1. However, there are those who feel that he got it completely right from the beginning and stubbornly reject modifications. Fender recently started using smaller machine heads on the 08 models, a move I feel was a step in the right direction. A TBer in another thread said that this would cause more problems with dead spots. This ignores the fact that Fenders with the larger tuners still are prone to dead spots (plus, other builders like Dingwall and Sadowsky use smaller tuners with great results).
Deluded?
No.
Ask anyone that's had the chance to play and own a G&L for any span of time. THey're the next evolutionary step in his designs. He got to build on what he had accomplished previously.
However....rock music was established on the Fenders. In the gap of time between Fender and G&L the status by which we became and evaluated music was born and prospered.
I consider the design to be better instruments overall.
However that does not mean that for what you are trying to accomplish a G&L is naturally going to be a better choice.
The "right" selection is what sounds right, and what sounds right may not be what comes from the best designed tool for the job.
My Pbass is rarely the first bass I try when recording something. However, when I can get nothing else to "gel" with a song, the P bass will always fit in the mix just right. It may only have basically one sound, but that sound always works when nothing else will.
The only G&L bass I have tried is the 5 string 2500 I think it is?. That is one nice bass, with a unique sound to it. Its one of, if not the most aggressive sounding bass in passive mode I have heard. Plus they are really cheap when you compare them to other basses of similar quality.
People play viols? I assumed they were all but extinct
I figured the double bass was the closest thing to a viol out there anymore.
On topic, people gravitate toward Fenders because they're time tested, they've been doing their job since they were introduced, and most people are content with that. For the people who aren't, there's a broad spectrum of other designs to choose from. Neither the traditional Fender design nor the more modern designs are inherently better than the other, because it all comes down to what the individual bass player wants and needs to play comfortably.
I'm just thinking about Europe in the late '50s and early '60s.
There was a chance a European company to step up and dominate the bass market there, yet by the accounts I've seen most players wanted the instruments heard on American recordings.
If not for one reluctant bassist who had a hard time locating a bass that could readily be played left-handed, I wonder if even Hofner would have made much of an impact. Later even he switched to an American brand.
There was a chance a European company to step up and dominate the bass market there, yet by the accounts I've seen most players wanted the instruments heard on American recordings.
If not for one reluctant bassist who had a hard time locating a bass that could readily be played left-handed, I wonder if even Hofner would have made much of an impact. Later even he switched to an American brand.
I agree with most of what he said but the point where he said other companies than those 3 models simply come and go, I really don't agree. Rickenbacker has been there for a long long time, Warwicks have been there for more than 20 years, etc... There are room for other models for sure. Like dmrogers said, we only have to play what we really feel will sound good and that's it.
I completely disagree with the quote.
Sure, 95% of popular, radio, or arena music uses the fender or MM tone - it's just that said music represents only a very VERY small fraction of all the music out there.
If every musician were limited to only a select 3 instruments, well, who knows what modern music would sound like today. Probably the same as it did 50 years ago.
Sure, 95% of popular, radio, or arena music uses the fender or MM tone - it's just that said music represents only a very VERY small fraction of all the music out there.
If every musician were limited to only a select 3 instruments, well, who knows what modern music would sound like today. Probably the same as it did 50 years ago.
Isn't it a goal of most pop music to sound the same as everything else that's out at the time?
In my musical formative years the only bass I could hear (when I could hear it at all) came from a tiny, tinny, AM radio speaker on the kitchen counter or in the car or from the itty-bitty speaker in our little B/W TV.
I certainly wouldn't be "conditioned" to favor the basses that produced those weak and impotent tones.
I certainly wouldn't be "conditioned" to favor the basses that produced those weak and impotent tones.
Lol, RondoTroll.
I can see where you're coming from, but I really don't think SX's are all that great.
