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Why does everyone use Fenders?

#621
hover said:
When did this thread become a shift to what jingle producers prefer and the boo hoos who can't handle them not accepting the 5 thousand dollar spalted bookshelf they brought? It's a spec job, you're on hire, do what they ask and like it or eat ramen.

And the "grotesquely conservative" comment and the *knowing, enlightened pity* that followed. Give me a break. Stop trying to make yourself feel better for your choices and being so "awesomely against the grain / edgy / ooh, look at me I'm anti Fender P or J [waah waah, like it matters at all]" and actually wow me with your playing. Do you have something to say musically? You can say it on whatever you want, I play a freakin Fender because I want to play a freakin Fender. I played a G&L first. Then for a while I played bass collections, and italias, and some other stuff. Came back to Fender. What of it? I didn't feel a need to consult anyone on the matter. Didn't occur to me. WHY does it bother so many and raise so much ire and inspire so much apathy in people? It's freakin nuts. It's so nuts that it happens over and over on this forum, regardless the original intent of the thread. The first volley and then the me-too's chime in, and then it's all to pot. It's stupid thinking and wasted energy. Shut up and play.
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Stupid thinking/wasted energy!! This is Talkbass remember!!!

I'm surprised you haven't noticed musicians being grotesquely conservative (with a small c). It's certainly a fact - and many famous elderly ones from the 60s and 70s display this - they have become the very establishment they were fighting against with their radical music ideas years ago! An industry and market which focuses in musical instrument design and choice so far in the past and with so much reliance on nostalgia can only be described as that!!

I just happen to believe that the pinnacle of technology is not in the days before heart surgery and micro computers were invented. Yes, those early electric guitar designs were bold statements and shaped things for the future but then so did the steam engine!!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned business model driving peoples choice in instruments (say rather than consistency of quality). A few pointers:-

Fender make more basses than any other company by a huge margin - they are a high volume mass producer. They require anyone selling new product to stock in multiples of 10 units (I was told) which tends to bias availability in shops and sales people pushing them, especially in tourist areas like Central London.

With this background it's clear there will be more Fender players than anything else otherwise Fender would have been out of business long ago
 
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#622
Doc, your post is right on. Creativity is completely centered around what kind of gear you play, and everyone who uses instrument designs made originally in the 50's and 60's are all under some mass brainwashing scheme perpetrated by the evil people who make musical instruments and control the banking industry. Glad you're around to be the smart one here. Now you should go tell this to the piano players. Holy cow, their instruments have been around for centuries!
 
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#623
Sorry. Late to the party and all that. I started out on a used, but very good Cort Artisan Ltd Ed with a wenge neck that still blows me away. The MightyMite pickups are OK, I guess, and the all active/passive EQ bypass option really gives a lot of tonal options. I still have it.
Going through an old, defretted Ibby, a Peavey with J pups, I decided I had to give that P pup a try. Still being on a low budget, I got a Squier VM Precision PJ, and it was a revelation. Since then I've got a cheap Yamaha PJ and a Squier Jaguar SS PJ. I mainly use the P pup as main pup, though.

So for me it is all about the sound. I have 5 basses, 2 of them Squiers. I play them all, but these days I seem to prefer a P pickup with flats. It is mostly about the sound. I like it. I still have that first Cort, though, and for some kinds of playing styles I still prefer it over the Squiers (which to me are cheap Fenders)

PS. Both my Squiers are made in Indonesia, and have the ICS serial, which means they are probably made by Cort. I guess that even if I have 2 Squiers, I am a Cort player in disguise. ;)
 
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#624
JimmyM said:
Doc, your post is right on. Creativity is completely centered around what kind of gear you play, and everyone who uses instrument designs made originally in the 50's and 60's are all under some mass brainwashing scheme perpetrated by the evil people who make musical instruments and control the banking industry. Glad you're around to be the smart one here. Now you should go tell this to the piano players. Holy cow, their instruments have been around for centuries!
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Nah - keyboard players are still the anti-Christ for me after they tried to take us bass players out in the 80s lol (not really I'm only joking!!) - but they don't all play Steinway either and Yamahas are permitted in studios!!
 
#625
JimmyM said:
Doc, your post is right on. Creativity is completely centered around what kind of gear you play, and everyone who uses instrument designs made originally in the 50's and 60's are all under some mass brainwashing scheme perpetrated by the evil people who make musical instruments and control the banking industry. Glad you're around to be the smart one here. Now you should go tell this to the piano players. Holy cow, their instruments have been around for centuries!
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Must...have...must...play...Fender....:wacky:
 
#626
drTSTingray said:
- but they don't all play Steinway either and Yamahas are permitted in studios!!
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If it were easy to make a case that the instrument unleashed on the world by Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg largely re-wrote the rules of pop music and the target consumer of the bulk of the recording industry, then you would likely have producers and recording engineers more frequently insisting on the branded "Sound of a Steinway".

Fender is unique because of the contribution Fender basses made to the process of literally altering the trajectory of much of the music industry.


BTW I have owned many Fender Instruments, and still own some dandy ones, but I very seldom play a Fender bass anymore, so I'm not being a fanboy here.
 
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#627
Ok, so I guess I need a Fender P to go pro. But which pickups? Ash or alder? Rosewood or maple? Vintage? AmStd? RI? Modern? Rounds or flats? :P

(I jest of course. I'm never going pro, so I don't have to worry about such things. Thankfully.)

It is odd to me that one single model from one single brand is considered the "default instrument" in the music world. Is there any other instrument besides electric bass where this applies? I don't think so - and I hope not.
 
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#629
FretNoMore said:
I'd say the Strat and the Les Paul guitars have a similar standing as a "standard" as the Fender P and J have.
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At least you have two brands with two competing visions.

And it's really not just these two guitars hogging all the spotlight. Don't forget about the Tele and the SG. Plenty of big-bodied Gretsch in the mix too.

I think it's kinda sad that one single bass tone has been established as the default, de facto standard. I never thought of music as a standard-issue thing.

FretNoMore said:
Guitar players I believe "must" have a Strat.
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Hmm, maybe there's one in there **somewhere**.

Link Removed
 
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#630
I'm back in Fender land. Lately when I hear a non Fender bass, it doesn't really sound like a bass.

Currently my only stray from all out Fender purity, is the liking of ceramic magnet pickups. Whoever made the electronics and stuff for Ensenada in 1998-99 knew what they were doing.
 
#632
FretNoMore said:
When you hear a non-Fender, or when you see one? ;)

Would you nail a listening test with the bass in a full mix?
I probably wouldn't.
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With today's recordings...I wouldn't be reliable in that kind of test. Now, back in the 60's and 70's I would be a little more accurate, with there being less available bass companies and all. These days, you think it's a P bass, and it's really a passive high end bass with Fender style pickups.
 
#637
Humbled said:
^^^^^
I wonder if you're singularly devoted to any one particular brand?. :)
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Why do you ask? o_O

I currently have 8 brands represented...................all of which get played regularly................

I just happen to be in favor of a particular one that I choose to wave the flag for.

Addendum: I have also owned at least 9 other brand's products over the years, too.

Multiples of those brands in several cases.....................

You?
 
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#638
Jeff Scott said:
Why do you ask? o_O

I currently have 8 brands represented...................all of which get played regularly................

I just happen to be in favor of a particular one that I choose to wave the flag for.

Addendum: I have also owned at least 9 other brand's products over the years, too.

Multiples of those brands in several cases.....................

You?
Click to expand...

Your sig made me believe you may be able to take a good-natured ribbing regarding your castigation of others' "narrow mindedness".

I obviously overestimated you.
 
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