Will Fender lose popularity?

[MG514]

Why would I make all this up? If you read it, I clearly stated how I noticed more people are moving towards Ibanez and other Japanese brands.

I didn't accuse you of making any of this up.

I am saying this topic is so subjective its laughable. And no offense to you, but IMHO these topics are choking TB.

Fender isn't even my first choice, but nowhere in my observation have they taken a backseat to anyone. In either guitar or bass.

 

[Dallaspezz]

I didn't accuse you of making any of this up.

I am saying this topic is so subjective its laughable. And no offense to you, but IMHO these topics are choking TB.

Fender isn't even my first choice, but nowhere in my observation have they taken a backseat to anyone. In either guitar or bass.

Must've been a misunderstanding. It's hard to tell over text. No worries

 

[Binary1]

Love you too.
Smoochie.

 

[Binary1]

i didn't realise TB made me do this ....

It's in the fine print that nobody reads.

 

[Sid the Kid]

Fender will always be the king of 4 string basses. When boutique builders want to sell more basses they start making Fenders.

 

[mojomike001]

Out of all the bass makers, the only company that would be devastating to lose would be Fender. That says it all.

 

[Funk³]

What I mean is, are these basses better than Fender?

I'm sorry, I genuinely can't tell if you're trolling, or if you've just worded your question(s) very poorly.

People play different brands of basses because, well, they're different...

 

[Minirehak 212]

Well, the upright bass is a few centuries older than the Fender bass and is still widely used everywhere, in many musical genres.

Simpler is better. Why mess with perfection? Some people may "need" fancy electronics or pencil-sized necks, others don't.

And your wishing about "Fender falling off within the next decade or two", I don't think it's gonna happen.

The double bass and electric bass are two totally different things. There isn't much more you can improve on an acoustic instrument besides the shape. You pretty much just got the wood and strings to worry about. But when you're talking about the electric I think of it like cell phones. The first cell phones were huge bricks with buttons. All you could do is call. Now phones are just a few centimeters thick. You can still call but you also have countless other things it can do as well. As time goes on we get more efficient ways of building instruments and today the entry level stuff you buy is sometimes better than the vintage stuff some people praise. Things change, it's all part of living.
You bring up the whole "Simpler is better" thing so let me ask you this, are you still walking around with that brick or do you have a shiny new smartphone in your pocket?

 

[Atshen]

I don't even have a cellphone!

 

[newmusicmichael]

I've noticed there's still a big Fender following on this forum and with some of the veteran bassists. But I feel that the younger crowd is moving towards the other brands I've mentioned. But it could be a location thing, here in Canada, I rarely see Fenders being played.

Huh. Here in Edmonton, at least, Fenders still pretty much rule the roost if you look what bands are playing on stage.

 

[Antisyzygy]

The double bass and electric bass are two totally different things. There isn't much more you can improve on an acoustic instrument besides the shape. You pretty much just got the wood and strings to worry about. But when you're talking about the electric I think of it like cell phones. The first cell phones were huge bricks with buttons. All you could do is call. Now phones are just a few centimeters thick. You can still call but you also have countless other things it can do as well. As time goes on we get more efficient ways of building instruments and today the entry level stuff you buy is sometimes better than the vintage stuff some people praise. Things change, it's all part of living.
You bring up the whole "Simpler is better" thing so let me ask you this, are you still walking around with that brick or do you have a shiny new smartphone in your pocket?

Let's use a furniture analogy. Ikea makes a bunch of mass produced minimalist stuff people seem to like because it's A) Simple, B) Functional and C) Easy to assemble, D) Can be reconfigured for various uses and E) is inexpensive.

Some people like minimalism. Others want something like a automatic reclining couch with butt warmers and fold out cup holders.

For me, a P-bass is basically the bees knees because it seems to produce a well rounded bass tone and there isn't much to mess with. They're easy to maintain, reconfigure, dial in a tone, etc. It's just a slab of wood with a pickup and two standardized knobs.

You might not like P-basses because of the lack of top-end, or lack of onboard EQ, but there are pickups and pedals out there that can re-EQ your tone. P-basses can be reconfigured easily is the point.

Less isn't always more, but in some cases having less teaches you to be resourceful or to break a problem into different steps or operations. If I need some other tone I can always add an effects pedal or different amp, but I can keep the same P-bass.

I don't know, it's just the way I think. I work in a field where we break complicated problems down into simple steps (AKA programming). It's easier to remember simple things and chain them together to solve a complicated problem than it is to remember a bunch of complicated formulas or software packages/libraries that solves the whole problem at once.

 

[Mastermold]

Fender basses are simple, sturdy, sound good, look good, and easy to play. I think they'll be around a while.

 

[Flaked Beans]

I don't even have a cellphone!

I smashed three Iphones last year! Now I have 2 cellphones and the big samsung works just fine! The other (smaller) one has a quad core processor and 1 GB ram and it works pretty good too.

 

[bucephylus]

The double bass and electric bass are two totally different things. There isn't much more you can improve on an acoustic instrument besides the shape.

Hmmm. I'm sure you didn't actually mean what you said. Are you aware of the intensity (and cost/effort/materials) that goes into upright construction? Just because the shape is the same in no way means that any two uprights sound/perform the same. Not even close.

 

[lewink]

Nope.

 

[Minirehak 212]

I don't even have a cellphone!

I'm not gonna lie that made me laugh. All I've had was a flip phone up until a year ago when I found a Galaxy note 4 in a park. After turning it in to the police and posting on Craigslist nobody claimed it so it became mine. Still use the flip for calling! Smart for everything else

 

[Dallaspezz]

Well, I think we've killed this thread. Thanks to everyone who gave some good answers. This was fun

 

[Minirehak 212]

Let's use a furniture analogy. Ikea makes a bunch of mass produced minimalist stuff people seem to like because it's A) Simple, B) Functional and C) Easy to assemble, D) Can be reconfigured for various uses and E) is inexpensive.

Some people like minimalism. Others want something like a automatic reclining couch with butt warmers and fold out cup holders.

For me, a P-bass is basically the bees knees because it seems to produce a well rounded bass tone and there isn't much to mess with. They're easy to maintain, reconfigure, dial in a tone, etc. It's just a slab of wood with a pickup and two standardized knobs.

You might not like P-basses because of the lack of top-end, or lack of onboard EQ, but there are pickups and pedals out there that can re-EQ your tone. P-basses can be reconfigured easily is the point.

Less isn't always more, but in some cases having less teaches you to be resourceful or to break a problem into different steps or operations. If I need some other tone I can always add an effects pedal or different amp, but I can keep the same P-bass.

I don't know, it's just the way I think. I work in a field where we break complicated problems down into simple steps (AKA programming). It's easier to remember simple things and chain them together to solve a complicated problem than it is to remember a bunch of complicated formulas or software packages/libraries that solves the whole problem at once.

I feel like I need to post this pic

This is my 2 string P bass with pickups straight to the jack, you can't get any simpler than that. I'm not going to hate on anyone's opinions and I'm sorry if it may have sounded like it. I do enjoy more of a simple bass and I have a lot of fun playing the 2 string. But I enjoy my active basses more. The highest band I got is a 3. I just think it's fun to experiment with different bass lines with different eq from everything. I'm always messing with my amp, 7 band eq pedal and on board eq to just play with all the sounds I can get. It's my personal opinion that the newer generation of musicians will gravitate to the more versatile, modern bass than the classic Fender.

 

[tfer]

Out of all the bass makers, the only company that would be devastating to lose would be Fender. That says it all.

Completely disagree. Fender hasn't advanced anything for years, aside from buying competitors. Ibanez (especially) and others are actually trying to advance the instrument, while Fender would prefer to sit on their history, and release reissues of basses that are older than I am...

Fender's idea of R&D is a visit to the paint counter at Home Depot.

 

[Jaze Bass]

Thinking on it... at some point, Fender will be utterly forgotten. It might be decades or centuries from now, but they will. So yeah - at some point, they will be less popular.

It's been over 65 years, and Fender is still one of the more popular brands going strong.