They seem pretty darn popular in TB threads, yet Fender invented them but doesn't even sell an American Standard version. Is there really not enough market today for this bass for Fender to give it the love they give their split coil P-bass?
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Why not American Standard single coil Precisions?
- Thread starter Mastermold
- Start date
I understand why there is no American Standard (the single-coil was replaced by the split coil) but I DON'T understand why their is no American Vintage...
Maybe too costly to use that much wood and the shape (body) is not usable for any other basses...
Maybe too costly to use that much wood and the shape (body) is not usable for any other basses...
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yep - S&D
it isn't cheap for a large company to bring a new instrument into production, and without a guaranteed return it's easier to focus attention on sure bets that forcast a larger, longer production run
and it leaves room for several other companies to fill the gap
all the best,
R
it isn't cheap for a large company to bring a new instrument into production, and without a guaranteed return it's easier to focus attention on sure bets that forcast a larger, longer production run
and it leaves room for several other companies to fill the gap
all the best,
R
Jim Carr
Dr. Jim
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I am predicting an AV '68 Telecaster Bass someday before those who knew them are too old to remember them. 
Chef
In Memoriam
I am predicting an AV '68 Telecaster Bass someday before those who knew them are too old to remember them.
An AV '51 P would use fewer pickguard screws and a decal already in production so it might be a bit cheaper to produce...
Jim Carr
Dr. Jim
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+1
MIJ '51 RI P-basses were recently blown out, too...hmmmm...soon to be discontinued?
Sting P's sell pretty well, no?
Gone.MIJ '51 RI P-basses were recently blown out, too...hmmmm...soon to be discontinued?
No.
These are just contract stuff from Dyna Gakki, so FMIC can just order up more whenever they want.
The obnoxious schoolbus yellow '51RI was that color explicitly to protect the Custom Shop SCPB's market share.
BTW, it's never been cheaper to design and introduce new models than it is these days -- which is the main reason why there's such a ridiculous number of them.
Selling them is the problem.
I wouldn't look for a lot of new high-end stuff until the market gets some more money to blow.
I thought it was an attempt to look like aged yellow/blonde. The butterscotch yellow on the current version looked closer to that to me than the earlier versions which look more banana yellow to me. The polyurethane finish on the CIJs is enough to keep people after the nitrocellulose CS version.
No.
Fender knows what that looks like but they wanted to make sure you didn't get it at that price point.
What you got at that price point was a parody of the right color.
Jim Carr
Dr. Jim
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I'm afraid Bongolation is probably right, but they can't have much volume for the "the nitrocellulose CS version" of the '51, can they? I realize that protecting the CS's business is important--it is too expensive to just be a showcase/credibility tool, and too risky not to have it do those things. Yet I wonder if the single coil market couldn't support an MIA AV of the '51 or the Tele?
Was the original Tele (model I) such a flop? It seemed like they were popular in 68-69 when I started college...yipes I'm a fossil!
Was the original Tele (model I) such a flop? It seemed like they were popular in 68-69 when I started college...yipes I'm a fossil!
I agree that long productions of the same Product configurations are hard to stray from, but with computer technology it shouldn't be so overwhelming. Any small time luthier could figure out a way to make this happen, why can't "Regular Consumers" get this from Fender? That's the real mystery I guess? I like the option too, and would love to try a few. It's Custom at this point, meaning a buyer can't walk into GC and try 6 or 7 basses configured this way. I'd like to see the pickups loaded at the Marcus Miller location, or slanted. Dreams? They cost...unfortunately.
Enough to protect apparently.
There's no reason why they couldn't produce the same color as the '52RI Telecaster guitars but no...
I had a horrendous public row with Fender over this issue a few years ago.
Bottom line: False scarcity of desirable colors is no accident, and the computer-generated "right" colors could be dialed in and put in production in a matter of hours at almost no cost.
Cheaper versions have to look wrong. That's marketing.
They had problems mainly with the disintegrating plastic used on the pickguard.
I had a '68 in 1970. It was a handful.
Which brings us to the point: The reason this won't happen is that real SCPBs are a pain in the neck. Everyone wants one until they have it for a while. The bridges are a massive nuisance, the pickups are noisy, the backwards machine heads are a hassle for some people, etc. They have to "mod" them out of their original configuration, and by doing that the whole purpose is defeated.
SCPBs just didn't sell after a while. My local GC had three '51s and four '54RI/"Sting" basses for over a year and didn't sell but one, as I recall, even at long discount. The '51s would still be there if it wasn't for the final blowout at, what?, $350?
Jim Carr
Dr. Jim
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I'm posting these just for reference.
It is a '91 CIJ '51 RI P-bass.....Wow, what a mouthful of code. It feels like I am shifting and masking the contents of an address register in an 8080, LOL!
Note, this is not school bus yellow. Is it fairly close to the 52RI Tele guitars?
It is a '91 CIJ '51 RI P-bass.....Wow, what a mouthful of code. It feels like I am shifting and masking the contents of an address register in an 8080, LOL!
Note, this is not school bus yellow. Is it fairly close to the 52RI Tele guitars?
Which "Custom Shop" '51 Ps are being protected since '90 (when I bought my first MIJ '51 RI P)?
Other than customer ordered individual versions, the only one's I'm aware of were a very few made in a special run during the '90s (no more were made so there's nothing to protect) and the 50th anniversary CS copies of which there are no more being made and therefore still nothing to protect.
If "protection" were the rationale, why are there still MIA versions of P and J basses being made instead of halting production to protect the Custom Shop versions of those models as well?
Other than customer ordered individual versions, the only one's I'm aware of were a very few made in a special run during the '90s (no more were made so there's nothing to protect) and the 50th anniversary CS copies of which there are no more being made and therefore still nothing to protect.
If "protection" were the rationale, why are there still MIA versions of P and J basses being made instead of halting production to protect the Custom Shop versions of those models as well?
No, but at top it looks pretty close to the original color of an original '51 prior to age yellowing. I think the '68 "Telecaster" bass was not far from the original color as well.
There's a fascinating picture floating around the web of a new '51 or '52 that was locked in its case for many decades and did not experience any change in color except for blackening from the outgassing of the rubber mute. Looks sort of like the now-extinct Fender "White Blonde" color...at least on my monitor.
Anyway, the early '90s Fuji-Gen Gakki '51s are a lot more realistic and better instruments than the recent Dyna Gakki examples.
Sounds like the consensus is there's just not enough of a market for these notwithstanding the love they get at TB. 
