Why So Many People Playing Fender Basses?

[Muddslide]

When I bought my first bass, the salesman said what type of music do you like. I said rock and he handed me a P bass.

...and if you'd said soul or country he would have handed you the same.

 

[BigBadBen67]

I'm not really a techie when it comes to neck shapes, width, pickups, active v. passive, etc. (I get that active basses have a battery powered pre-amp, but hell if I know what that does to the sound.) I just like to play. And I play P basses because they just have the Goldilocks feel and sound for me.

 

[funkmaster p]

Fenders are readily available even in small town music stores. You can forget any hopes of seeing any Musicman, Rickenbacker, Warwick, etc. in the 3 stores where I live.

 

[Wfrance3]

Because they’re awesome....

 

[dennis james]

Why? My first pro bass was a new '66 Jazz Bass like this one.
View attachment 3117998

The second was a used '63 PBass like this one.
View attachment 3118003


So off and on I've been playing one or the other for over 50 years. Both are solid effective basses that have been used on thousands of recordings and gigs and are probably just as popular now as they were then. The two I have now are as good as any I've ever owned including the first two. They get the job done.

drooling over that jazz bass drool.

 

[Iridescentone]

Because to play music, you don't need anything "more" or "different".

Fender checks all the requisite boxes for the largest sector of players, and they're competitively priced.

No mysteries or sinister corporate mind control involved, just the marketplace doing what it does. Oddly, that seems to irritate some folks.

 

[ppiluk]

I love Fender guitars and basses and I might even go so far as to say I have a touch of Fender snobbery in me but the fact is there is no other bass manufacturer on the planet that represents the bass guitar better. You might not care for the tone but you cannot deny how important the P-Bass and Jazz Bass have been to the last 60 or so years of contemporary music.

This is in no way to imply only Fender can make a good bass. Over the years I have owned many basses and with most of them, you can clearly see the influence the P-Bass and Jazz bass have had.

 

[selowitch]

I don't play "Fender Bass's"; I play Fender basses.

I play them because they sound good, play nicely, and are physically comfortable. They are also a familiar, prestigious brand recognized by other musicians, sound people, managers, venue owners, fans, etc. It may not be fair to other brands, but quite honestly when I pull out a Fender bass or guitar I feel like I am taken more seriously (not addressing whether that's a good or right thing).

 

[bassstrangler]

Why I play Fender and Squier basses:
I love the look
I love the feel and comfort
I love the sound

I can take a Squier bass I bought on CL for $100 and turn it into an awesome playing and looking bass with a little bit of time, a little bit of work and a little bit of money.

If I get tired of the look of one of my Jazz or Precision basses I can order a $10 pickguard and in a matter of minutes I have a different bass.

Quality matters to me. Fender and Squier have that for me.

I have played other brands and just don't fall in love with them like Fender.

Other than the two Thunderbirds (which I am selling), and a Westone Rail I own, the only two other basses I have are Fender inspired, a Music Man Stingray and a 1984 Ibanez Roadstar II.

Fender to me is the quintessential brand for bass. Squier is a great alternative and an excellent modding platform

I recently picked up a used mint condition Squier CV 70s Precision Bass for $200. It is perhaps one of the finest and highest quality basses I have ever owned at any price level.

In my opinion Fender is the best.

 

[selowitch]

Music Man and G&L also contain ample amounts of Leo Fender's spiritual DNA.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

Why So Many People Playing Fender Bass's ?
change is scary to some folks.


i see more on TB than in the objective world.

And some people change for no good reason.

 

[B-Mac]

I was never into them until I bought a 2014 American Deluxe Precision because it was such a deal. After that, I understood all the hoopla.

 

[Nashrakh]

We wouldn't take our coffee table basses to a bar band gig, now would we?

 

[Muddslide]

And some people change for no good reason.

I can only speak for me, but I went through a serious GAS period in the early-mid 90s where I scored all kinds of basses...active (still don't care for them), passive, fretless, various numbers of strings, plus a ton of amps, pedals, off board EQ components, etc., etc.--only to (re)discover that the whole time I was taking the long (and expensive) way around just to get back to what a P does naturally and with no frills...

 

[Holdsg]

In the beginning....Leo got a lot right.
Others have sought to improve the designs and functionality, and many have succeeded, while Fender made minor innovations too.
There is as much variety in basses as ever these days, yet many players still play the big boss.
Find what works for you, and play the snot out of it.

 

[PWRL]

I just wanted to copy the cool kids.

 

[MonetBass]

Because I like the feel and sound and it's what I can afford.

And the plural of 'bass' is 'basses'.

 

[gard0300]

One of the most recorded bass in music history is my guess.

 

[Leocapri]

In the beginning....Leo got a lot right.
Others have sought to improve the designs and functionality, and many have succeeded, while Fender made minor innovations too.
There is as much variety in basses as ever these days, yet many players still play the big boss.
Find what works for you, and play the snot out of it.

... well put.

IMHO: There are a lot of nice brands who take the original design and make some minor changes, have better production quality, add some fancy colours... but in the end they are just a "copy". So why should I play a copy (of a copy), if I could use the real thing? If you hear a bassguitar in a recording, you can either hear the unmistakable sound of the classics - the Jazz-Bass honk, the P-Bass growl or the stingray snap, the hollow Ricky twang or ... just a bass (drastically put). All of the archetypes do their thing so good that, for me, there is simply no need for 5 different pickup configurations, body-types or other experiments. The remarkable standard sometimes is just enough (for most people and me), you simply can not go wrong with it. If you are in a recording situation and your superbassmachine does not quit fit, you mostly will be handed the raunchy old P-Bass thats been hanging around there for decades. ;-) (be gentle, I'm not a native speaker. )

 

[higain617]

Thank you Fender for inadvertently creating this internet feedback loop.