Why 70s Fenders Sucked

[Hurricane Jimmie]

Thanks for posting the link....a good look at the inside of a music company. All the manufacturing, marketing, and finance decisions remind of the business cases we studied at University.
Any TB'ers work at Fender?

 

[Laurent]

Any generalization is dangerous.
Some 62 P basses are dogs and some 77 P are magical.
Every instrument should be evaluated on its own merits.

 

[jamro217]

Oddly, 1975 seems to be a good year for the P bass.


I've played a handful of them and each was lightweight and resonate with good tone.

I was just thinking the same thing about 1973.

And 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1977, 1978 and 1979. Post #53 fills in the list.

 

[REV]

Coming from a manufacturing background I would say the Dan Smith interview describes a lot of US manufacturing and not just in the 70's.

 

[mobdirt]

i have a theory
block inlays
i being the key word here

 

[REV]

Any generalization is dangerous.
Some 62 P basses are dogs and some 77 P are magical.
Every instrument should be evaluated on its own merits.

While I agree with this statement I think one of the big problems with Fender guitars is their inconsistency. With the automation available today I think there is no excuse for the variability in their quality.

 

[Mastermold]

I'm partial to pre-CBS but this '74 P is a gem.

 

[Thumpin6string]

I am by no means a Fender fan, but in 1975 when I bought my 73 Jazz, it played and sounded great for the 25 years I owned it. Maybe I got one built on a bad day and they accidentally got it right.

 

[JimmyM]

My 76 Precision required a hell of a lot of work and a lot of modding for it to sound good and play well. The neck pocket is gigantic and required side shims to keep the neck from shifting. The pickup wasn't the absolute worst pickup ever, but there's better. The 79 I bought 11 years ago and sold 6 months later was better built but still suffered from the below average pickup. Personally, aside from the pickups they use these days, I'd much rather have a new one than a 70's model. Folks do buy them and seem happy with them, but I've yet to play a stock one that I truly liked. Sorry.

 

[NOVAX]

Years ago I had a 77 J that was an awesome Bass, but it weighed something like 450 lbs.

I have told you a million times not to exaggerate!

 

[alaskaleftybass]

I played both the J and P basses in the 70's and thought that dead spots (my pet peeve) had to be a given accepted way of life. That is, until I discovered Ibanez. Slim necks, punchy growly tone, and EVERY note was EVEN. I was shocked and immediately sold both Fenders and bought a Roadstar cherryburst. I still have her, she's older now but still excellent. I've moved on to newer lefty Ibanez basses that still don't disappoint.

 

[Mastermold]

My 76 Precision required a hell of a lot of work and a lot of modding for it to sound good and play well. The neck pocket is gigantic and required side shims to keep the neck from shifting. The pickup wasn't the absolute worst pickup ever, but there's better. The 79 I bought 11 years ago and sold 6 months later was better built but still suffered from the below average pickup. Personally, aside from the pickups they use these days, I'd much rather have a new one than a 70's model. Folks do buy them and seem happy with them, but I've yet to play a stock one that I truly liked. Sorry.

Makes me feel even better about my 74! Tight neck pocket, action and playability are great, stock pickup has killer tone and it weighs just a wee over 8 lbs. I've had others from the 70s but I'm keeping this one indefinitely.

 

[48thStreetCustom]

Dan Smith is full of BS. He's the one who thought it was a good idea to remove the football jack and tone knob from the Stratocaster in 1983.

 

[basted]

I had a 73 p bass that was great. Had great tone and stayed in tune well, even after our drummer ran over it! Accidently of course.

 

[MtManiac]

I don't know enough about Steely Dan's equipment, so I'll stay away from that aspect but both Pink Floyd and Iron Maiden were/are a chock-full of pre-CBS Fenders...

Steve Harris's main P Bass is a 70s P bass. Observe the TV logo. Dave Murray played a few different strats, but had one of the large headstock ones in several photos I've seen. David Gilmour's famous black Strat was a 68-69, but bought new in 1970. CBS either way.

It was a long decade, and there was a lot of awesome music made.

 

[Tim1]

Everyone has an opinion, generally boiling down to the fact that on Talkbass we tend to favor whichever is the current bass we own.
I have owned several 68 to 72 jazz basses, none of which really inspired me I would have to say. They were just....bland. The 63 jazz I still have and the sadly stolen 62 precision were tonal delights with wonderful necks and incredibly responsive to touch. So based on my own limited experience I subscribe to the "pre-CBS is better" train of thought.
All that said, it is difficult to go past the new USA Fenders IMO. I would confidently put my custom shop precision and jazz up against any decent sixties or seventies Fender and have no doubt it would be hard to prefer one over the other.

 

[MD Stingray]

Interesting read : " A guy got a raise for the more guitars he could inspect in a day. Each guy that was building guitars had to do at least 50 to get paid".

that says it all.

 

[ajkula66]

Steve Harris's main P Bass is a 70s P bass. Observe the TV logo. Dave Murray played a few different strats, but had one of the large headstock ones in several photos I've seen. David Gilmour's famous black Strat was a 68-69, but bought new in 1970. CBS either way.

Steve Harris' other main bass - apart from non-Fenders that he used in the 80s - is a '59.

Strat that Murray was most often seen with in the hayday of IM - black one with DiMarzio humbuckers - is a '57 that was originally white, and previously belonged to the late Paul Kossoff of the Free fame.

Most of Gilmour and Waters Fender pieces were pre-CBS, or very early CBS pieces. There was an exhibition in the UK last year showing some of PF gear and there's a thread about it somewhere here...don't have the time to look for it now, but it's there.

It was a long decade, and there was a lot of awesome music made.

You won't hear an argument from me in this respect. Fully agree.

Mind you, I don't have a dog in this fight at all. I've owned Fenders from most eras and some were nice, some were junk and some were stunning.

Having said that, I wouldn't buy a 70s Fender of any kind sight unseen, but that's me.

 

[MtManiac]

Steve Harris' other main bass - apart from non-Fenders that he used in the 80s - is a '59.

Strat that Murray was most often seen with in the hayday of IM - black one with DiMarzio humbuckers - is a '57 that was originally white, and previously belonged to the late Paul Kossoff of the Free fame.

Most of Gilmour and Waters Fender pieces were pre-CBS, or very early CBS pieces. There was an exhibition in the UK last year showing some of PF gear and there's a thread about it somewhere here...don't have the time to look for it now, but it's there.



You won't hear an argument from me in this respect. Fully agree.

Mind you, I don't have a dog in this fight at all. I've owned Fenders from most eras and some were nice, some were junk and some were stunning.

Having said that, I wouldn't buy a 70s Fender of any kind sight unseen, but that's me.

Yep I'm very aware of Dave Murray's '57 and the Lado instruments they all endorsed during the 13-month Powerslave tour. I'm completely ignorant of any '59 used by Steve Harris - I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying I'm completely ignorant of it - I do recall seeing one photo of him wearing bell bottoms and playing a Jazz bass, likely from around 1973-4 or so, but never a '59.

Anyway, all of this stuff is documented and easily found online, so arguing about it is dumb, the point is that there was a lot of good music made on 1970s Fenders and I don't get the hate for an entire decade's worth of Fenders - I keep seeing this pop up on Talkbass lately, and it's a weird trend. There was a lot of romanticism throughout the 70s for the pre-CBS Fenders, and hating the CBS stuff, but I don't see that as being any different from people getting ragey today about the gap in the neck pocket of their brand new 2018 model that they have already returned. There were no halcyon days of Fender quality control, the 50s and 60s has some real trash produced, as did the 70s and 80s - and also some really amazing ones. The ones that survived the 50s-60s were the greater ones, the crappier ones having been since smashed by Paul Simonon or Pete Townshend. It's fun to hold an antique instrument in your hands, to feel the wood, and hear the sound, and make it bigger in your imagination that it ever deserved to be just because of its age, and pretend it has a lifespan and a history that you're part of, but personally I'll take a brand new one any day if it plays well.

 

[Mister Boh]

Years ago I had a 77 J that was an awesome Bass, but it weighed something like 450 lbs.

I have told you a million times not to exaggerate!

I feel like it's OK if he rounds to the nearest ten.