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why does everyone use fender?

#61
A lot of this sounds like inertia. Fenders were the first electric bass, and pretty much established the standards - of sound and tone, weight, shape, neck and feel, studio mix settings, even beauty. Kind of like the IBM PC for so many years - you could buy some competitor, but the byword was "IBM-compatible" and if it wasn't, you were asking for trouble. And the philosophy on this thread is much the same - nobody ever got fired for buying IBM, nobody ever got booted out of a studio, audition, or gig for buying Fender. It's SAFE. Almost anything you use for so many long hours becomes comfortable, and Fenders have dominated those hours.

Conversely, non-Fenders present risks - you may not be able to get the expected sound, your sound may be not what others have grown accustomed to, different looks are always a bit suspicious. From an outsider's perspective, Fender wrote the book, and remains the environment you either adapt to or take your chances. To somone who grew up with his Fender, it's like an old shoe that never wears out. Nothing else could ever quite match up.
 
#65
lemur821 said:
Fender's just feel more right to me than other basses. Same for guitars too, actually. I can barely stand to play a Les Paul.
Click to expand...



+1 my fender 5 just feels dead, but my yamaha...I can feel it





As for les pauls, don't get me started...No doubt the heaviest guitar I ever played & it becomes uncomfortable very fast
 
#67
Two pages of answers and many things were said in many different ways. Let me make it real concise:

Why do so many people play Fender? Because Fender was the first company to successfuly make and market an electric bass. They didn't invent it, but they were successful in both design and marketing, so they're now the standard.

You folks complicate your answers too much. :p
 
#68
Blackbird said:
Two pages of answers and many things were said in many different ways. Let me make it real concise:

Why do so many people play Fender? Because Fender was the first company to successfuly make and market an electric bass. They didn't invent it, but they were successful in both design and marketing, so they're now the standard.

You folks complicate your answers too much. :p
Click to expand...

Please see post #36 ;)
 
#70
Bingo my aunt Fanny. Fenders are so well used for no other reason than they sound and feel great. It has nothing to do with being first, or being cheap and plentiful, or any of that nonsense. Fenders are just plain terrific basses that can be used on any gig in the universe. That's all. End of story.

And BTW, I totally agree with the guy who says that you can't be a pro if you don't own one, though I think there needs to be some clarification. There are people who play their whole careers without ever playing a Fender or even a copy, and they can make very good money never touching a Fender. They are what are known as "stars," and nobody tells the star what kind of bass to play. There are also people who play in a band with people who like their sound just fine without a Fender and they never play out of that band, so they don't use them.

Then there are people like me, going on call for gigs with people I've never worked with before, playing anything from old 60's rockers to disco to country to Nirvana and Dave Matthews Band and anything in between. I also get an occasional studio call. The only bass I have that will work with any of those situations without fail is a Fender. I've got a couple other basses that will work in some of those situations, and even one non-Fender that will work in most situations, but only the Fender works with every single thing. And many times people who call have requested that I bring a Fender, especially for sessions. So if you're in a situation like mine, what are you going to do? Demand to only use my favorite non-Fender and then they get someone who will bring one without complaining and I lose out on a payday? Hell no! I'm going to bring a Fender. So if you have a pro career like mine, you can play any bass you want, but you better have a Fender in the closet because someone is going to request it at some point. The amount of money I've made from people over the years who wanted me to play a Fender is in the thousands, and it would have sucked to miss out on that money because I didn't own a Fender.

I don't understand why the people who don't like Fenders or their high and low budget copies make such a big stink about them. You can get a Fender that's capable of handling any gig for a few hundred dollars, or if you refuse to play a bass that costs less than $3000, you can get one of them, too. And nowadays people are used to the copies, so showing up with a Lakland or Sadowsky or even a Squier will work for most people who demand Fenders. Even in countries where actual Fenders are expensive, you can find Fender clones made in other countries that are just as good as having a real Fender. And you folks who complain about bandleaders and producers wanting Fenders really ought to be glad they're not demanding Alembic Series II's!
 
#72
Whatever dude. I don't know what kind of music scene they have in Brokeback Kentucky, or Hershey Highway Pennsylvania, but out here in
LOS ANGELES, if you show up to a session or an audition with some 6 string bass made out of wood that looks like grandmas china hutch, you get laughed out of the building.

One thing I can tell you is that the guys who show up with those things are like guys who drive Ferrari's. They think they're better than everyone.
And the guys with the Ferrari's usually can't drive worth sh*t. Know what I mean?

I'll tell you one thing that is universally true. Next time you get the urge to spend 3 grand on a bass, spend 3 hundred on a used Fender and put the leftover $2700 into lessons. You'll be much better off.



/end rant
 
#73
P.S. You want to talk about dumbest thing I've ever heard? That would be comparing Fender to to domino's pizza.

When top players can either 1. afford any damn bass they want-
or, more importantly 2. Can get any damn bass they want FREE, and they choose to play Fender, that tells you something.

But I guess Jaco, and Geddy, and Marcus are just dumbasses trying to look like the guys in the magazines, right?

:rolleyes:
 
#74
Availability.
Back in the day, my uncle had a little mom and pop music shop. Gibson, Gretsch, or Rickenbacker wouldn't sell to them because they were too small and could place a large enough order. Leo didn't have a problem with size. Right next to the $59 Kingstons were the $249 P basses. They sold hundreds of Fender basses and Stratocaters.
What I am trying to say, Fender was everywhere and they had the best product at the time. It turned out to be good old BRAND LOYALTY.

GM
 
#75
JimmyM said:
Bingo my aunt Fanny. Fenders are so well used for no other reason than they sound and feel great. It has nothing to do with being first, or being cheap and plentiful, or any of that nonsense.
Click to expand...
While they may sound and feel great, of course being first is important. If it becomes the standard, people know it, and will buy it. If the price is more affordable than the latecoming competition, then people are going to stick with what they know will work, much like yourself. That is not nonsense.

Good luck on your pro career, and I hope you get calls for the right reasons :smug:
 
#76
Wow, OK, I'll give it a shot:

Most questions can be answered simply:

Q) Why do people play Fenders when they can play boutique?
Q) Why do people use SS amps when tubes sound better?
Q) Why do people use flatwounds when rounds have more zing?
Q) Why do people play passive when active is so much more versatile?
Q) Why play a 6 string?

A) Because different music requires a different sound. Just because you don't play that particular style doesn't mean that nobody plays it. Damn, there are so many great instruments out there, each with it's own sonic character. Let's embrace this fact instead of turning it into an agruement.
 
#77
It all started with the upright bass, and that must have been their point of reference. The design is obsolete, the newer basses are better, and allow for more lively tone and intonation. You have more versatility and head room with using less power with a newer non-fender design. If you want to get a calm deep easy playing upright feel then set your bass up for that, and use different strings and pickup combinations. They were good in their day but they're too retro for much of todays music. If you set your bass up very carefully, you can acheive the same easy play, with superior string response. Good news for techs! Bad news for fender. Muddbass.
 
#78
i've played several brands of bass in my shortish bass career.

indeed, as someone said, i started with a fender, then moved on. i really never got to grips with the american jazz i had. the neck was just too narrow, felt really awkward to play. i've since moved onto ibanez, warwick and musicman (in that order) and have to say i'm happier with my stingray than i was with any of the other brands. aesthetically, the stingray is a thousand times prettier than a jazz (or, IMHO the particularly dull looking p.).

overall, i never got into the fender's (lack of) playability, made me feel more inadequate than i actually was, plus the sound was too 'pingy' with no real grunt, whereas the stingray has plenty 'ping' and loads of grunt..
 
#79
i havent read anything in this thread because i know what people are going to say....


so at the risk of repeating someone else...if you get it right first time ..whats the point of trying to improve on whats essentailly a good design...its a great classic range of guitars and leo was a genius....and people will buy a good product and stick with a brand if it does the job and looks the part and isnt too pricey.:bassist:
 
#80
Are we supposed to bow down just because someone mentions the "LA Music Scene?" I guess we back here in hicktown USA just are not elite enough to understand why our Ibanez and Yamahas don't measure up. So give me a good ole Hershey bar rather than the snortin and shootin LA music lifestyle.
 

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