Why the Road Worn hate?

[MtManiac]

No man, all the mojo is in older, roadworn, authentic breasts that have been manhandled for the past 50 years.

Ha ha! Awesome! :-D

 

[Lowbrow]

Coming late to this chat and all I'll say is that I was/am not attracted to pre-worn basses, yet I now play a Road Worn Precision that is the second-best ever player in a long line of Precisions for me... taking a back seat only to the '62 Precision I played for close to 13 years.

 

[RS]

I also wanted to point out that Mojo is not a tangible quality that can be verified, experienced, tested or proven.

I've used the term myself but by doing so was always implying there was something special about an instrument that really appealed to me on some level. To say that a vintage instrument has more "mojo" than a Roadworn can be easily countered by pointing out that a Roadworn has more "charm" or "innocence" or "coyness" than a vintage instrument. In other words, it's a nonsensical statement.

This.

 

[MrRobert]

It seems like most people who are down on the roadworns don't care at all how they feel or sound, just how they look. When they first came out I thought along similar lines... Fake vintage authenticity etc. Once I played one, my mind was changed completely. I wish the word 'mojo' would just go away because it's a totally useless term. The 2010 strat I just bought off craigslist is easily the best guitar I've ever played, and it feels electric when I get my hands on the thing. I fully expect anyone else who plays it to have a totally different opinion of it, which leads me to believe the only 'mojo' that exists comes from within, and some instruments are capable of bringing that out. One man's mojo is another man's trash.

 

[canadian_man_44]

I'd like to have one so I could "re-finish" it so it looked like new.

 

[peledog]

No man, all the mojo is in older, roadworn, authentic breasts that have been manhandled for the past 50 years.

So why buy relic'd boobs? I mean, saggy - who'd pay for that style?

 

[funkybass]

I had a RW jazz but sold it. Hands down the best feeling bass I've played. Sounded awesome too. I will have another someday.

 

[klejst]

Although I have heard the bass itself is a goody, I agree that buying a factory road worn just seems phony to me. Also it's kinda funny spending the pretty penny on a new bass that looks old.

 

[LiquidMidnight]

No I am not the original, and no it is not the same as picking up RW instrument.

There is a certain character of this bass that can't be duplicated in a RW. Hard to explain unless you actually play it, but 39 years of hard playing on this bass, even though not from my hands has still made this bass something special to play. It plays like butter and sounds just as good. I have allot of respect for this bass and the person(s) that owned in it before me. There was some series playing done on this puppy. And it is not about the looks, all though I would be lying if I did not say it think it looks cool! But you just don't get that in a RW.

I feel the same about my other 1972 Jazz, and that bass looks almost as good as the day it was made.

Even though it is a refin and does not have the battle scars of my Sunburst, it still has a certain character being 39 years old that you can't duplicate in the RW.

I look at it like....you can get a Shelby Cobra replica. Sure it will most likely be a awesome car and drives great. But it is still a fake and does not have the character that a real Shelby Cobra has.

I love the Blues Brothers poster in the background.

 

[MikeBass]

Out of the half dozen or so I've played, all the necks have felt great and because of the "wear" on the body, I didn't feel as if my forearm was "sticking" to it.

Personally (and I'll get flamed for this I know) I'll take the looks of the red RW over a brand new shiny Geddy Lee any day of the week. I think the whole look of that bass is about as ugly as it comes on a Jazz Bass. And don't get me started on that big ol' piece of plastic on the Marcus Miller Jazz.......

You can get IMO a really nice feeling and sonding bass that you really don't have to be overly concerned with getting bumped around.
If your jackwagon drummer bangs a cymbal stand into it and knocks it to the floor, yeah, b!itch slap the crap out of him, but no need to get mad if it gets dinged up. Like I said, it's still mint!

And if a woman has fake breasts, no matter what she tells herself or anyone else for that matter- "I did it to help my self-esteem" crap blah blah blah......she did it for us guys. Period.
And I thank her. A lot!

 

[MtManiac]

And if a woman has fake breasts, no matter what she tells herself or anyone else for that matter- "I did it to help my self-esteem" crap blah blah blah......she did it for us guys. Period.
And I thank her. A lot!

Indeed! :-D

 

[mongo2]

Although I have heard the bass itself is a goody, I agree that buying a factory road worn just seems phony to me. Also it's kinda funny spending the pretty penny on a new bass that looks old.

I'd prefer it if they sold the exact same instrument but with the finish intact and save the cost of doing the faux relic job thereby making them more affordable to the consumer.

 

[TRichardsbass]

Finding a regular MIM under 8 lbs is a thing of beauty. With the Roadworn series, under 8 lbs is the norm. The necks on the Roadworn series are not 9.5" radius, they are 7.25 with a chunkier feel, they are nice. Very nice. So if you like how a Roadworn plays and sounds, you're going to have to get a Roadworn.

All of this conjecture on the moral, societal, ethical and "inaccurate" properties of owning/playing a Roadworn bass are nothing more than a mirror of that person's perspective on what's important and what is not.

Basses are not people (obviously), they are made by people and Roadworns are specifically made by Fender in order to make a profit. So I find it a little silly to apply all of these anthropomorphisms to a bass guitar.

By somebody saying Roadworn basses are wrong/dishonest/inauthentic et al and then list any number of reasons in support of that, they are only communicating their personal views and priorities. Maybe you would feel fake by playing one, or you feel like you're cheating, or you feel like your work ethic is somehow violated...but guess what? It isn't! From reading through this entire thread, it's pretty clear that all of the value attributed to an actual older bass and to have such strong opinions against roadworns is really operating on a more pretentious level than those who don't care.

I don't really care what a bass looks like, if it plays and sounds incredible I'm probably going to pull out the checkbook but of course there are limits. We all have aesthetic preferences, but I've never once found myself having problems enjoying music because I had some sort of disagreement with the instrument being used. I also don't care what any Tom, Dick or Harry off the street thinks about my bass. I don't care if somebody thinks it's old or new or ugly, I'm not a model showing my new line of electric bass wear (on the other hand, I'm much more sensitive to comments about my tone )

So what I think we have here is two camps, one camp cares a lot about what a bass looks like and how it got that look and by doing so they attribute a lot of value to that perspective. The other camp would play any bass that floats their boat (with some reservations I'm sure) but definitely does not care what anybody else is playing.

So you tell me, who's being more pretentious here? The one's who find multiple reasons for a bass guitar to be "wrong" or "inauthentic" or the camp who doesn't care?

...pretentious. I'll take that and wear it.

I agree, older, more radiused necks always feel, at least to me, much more comfortable. That is why I love my Kubicki's with 7.5 necks. My J Bass Plus has a 10 neck, and while it is still fun to play doesn't feel quite as nice as the Kubickis. My Vaccaros are 10s (might actually be higher) with a wide flat profile, so they feed totally different.

I'm not nor would I ever argue that the RWs have playability features that have advantages and you know, it would be great if Fender just issued basses with new style bodies and those features. Call them the Road Warrior series, for guys who like to gig.

My opinion is just that, my opinion. TBers are free to ignore it, listen to it, worship it. I don't care.

I have big problems with all the companies that now make copies of Fenders that look nearly identical, as you are just copying someone elses work. While imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, wouldn't it be nice if they made something new and unique.

The Roadworns reinforce the "price of everything the value of nothing" statement I made. Everyone wants that vintage piece, but the price is too high for them. Why is it that we must have instant, or nearly instant, gratification? What ever happened to working hard and saving up to get that item?

I'll end my posts on this thread here. I like the debate, and it's interesting. I am old school. I love bass and all things bass, and I'm an advocate.

And I just like the old school way of buying a bass and making it your own, or buying a nice used piece and adding to its history.

 

[AMJBASS]

I see quite a few posts here about people wanting a Road Worn, but without the wear. I very much doubt Fender will end up doing this. I think the price is probably too close to the AV Reissues('62 Jazz, '57 P). They would be competing against themselves. You can buy a used AV for close to what you can buy a new RW for.

I will say again, that I think the RW's are a great value. My current RW J compared to the 1964 Fender Jazz I used to own is so close that its scary. The '64 had a more mellow sound, the RW has a better neck. I have to be honest, I have had a TON of basses. I don't really care any more about where it was made, who it was played by, etc. If its a good bass that speaks quickly and allows me to play what I hear in my head easily, that is all that matters.

 

[sohamorrohit]

I'll say this. If the RWs are fake and the owners are posers then the BYOC pedals are fake too. We don't consider BYOC owners posers do we?

 

[SJLee]

Who cares if there's road worn hate. If you like the bass, play it.

 

[devo_stevo]

This is an interesting subject and I found some commentary on another forum that I found interesting.
Official Luthiers Forum! • View topic - I've talked about it long enough

A bit down the page, there is a post by Filippo Morelli where he mentions violins and the finishing techniques for them and other instruments. I hadn't really thought about it before, but what he says makes sense...seems bass and guitar players just like there instruments to look new and everyone else wants them to look old.

 

[sohamorrohit]

I agree with a lot of folks here who feel that it would've been a lot better if Fender issued the RWs without the wear. I new bass that looks like it's 40 years old might seem fake but so does my friend's 10 year old poly-coated Strat which still looks brand new.

 

[georgestrings]

Who cares if there's road worn hate. If you like the bass, play it.

Agreed - although the relic'd thing isn't for me, it doesn't have to be for someone else to be into it... I will say that every RW bass I've played has played quite well, and sounded good, too...


- georgestrings

 

[sohamorrohit]

No man, all the mojo is in older, roadworn, authentic breasts that have been manhandled for the past 50 years.

EPIC WIN!