Has Fender also "lost it's way?"

[bbottom]

ive played a fender j for decades..as much as I love the look and sound of a rick or any other bass [I consider the rick to be fenders greatest competition] there is no better bass than a fender bass.

I've been playing an American Fender P bass for like ten years. I love that bass and I'll never sell it.

I also have a Ric and dig the shit out of it as well. 

However, like someone else has already stated, G&L makes some really kickass stuff. I haven't played enough of their line to give up on Fender though.


As much as I like Gibson basses (especially the newer SG bass) the quality of their instruments isn't worth what they go for

[jibberish]

^that sort of corner cutting to cause what I hear makes sense.  I want to try wiring it direct sans any tone/vol some time to see what I get. maybe I have to fac off somewhere between there and the amp, but who knopws

haha sunno.    yes you do. they are fast nice little players. plus if there was some kind of a guitar sound/tone scale, tele offsets a LP nicely. bright and sharp vs rich and resonant, or some such shit like that.

Plus, important to me also,  if one does not have rick wakeman sized meathooks, certain necks work better. I started on a LP
copy(old cortez black beauty) with the fat neck(59 style) which is actually still a compact neck and not too wide, so I can do thumb around stuff and freakazoid chords.

I remember always playing the musicman at GC when I used to go through the guitar wall on a regular basis.  it had the best sized neck I had picked up until that time( I did not really like anything else about it though).
I was having problems with the wide flat shred type necks like Ibanez/Jackson/certain schecters.   ok, as time goes on you get used to the feel of many guitars, but still the tele neck and that musicman are really the only other necks I consider nicer to work than the LP (hagstrom neck is like a LP to me)

that new schecter I got is definitely harder to play than all my other guitars, but it is still awesome. I used it to dickfinger my way through the shred solo on that sasquatch comedy song. i'm sure you could tell about 2/3 through, I gave up and just tremolo picked down through the box to try and land at about the right timing to end the phrase. haha. I may have even closed my eyes in despair, praying I ended right on time. ...channeling victor wooten all the way" fuck the notes, just hold the phrase baby". the point to this was, that it probably would have gone more under control had I used the tele for that shred.
I wanted to use the active pups to make that little tube amp puke for all it was worth heh

[Jake]

I almost bought one of these Schecters.

[jibberish]

^ haha. killer   a schele....

[AgentofOblivion]

My guitars:

2010 50th Anniversary 1960 ES-335
Fender Lone Star Strat (2 texas specials, 1 duncan pearly gates)
2 Dean MLs (Far Beyond Driven and 1-of-50 Slime special run)
1990's Gibson USA Explorer
Other non-notables

95% of the time I play the strat.  It looks beautiful, it feels great, and it sounds far better than anything else.  The custom shop ES-335 plays more effortlessly, but that's the only thing it does better.  I could have bought 3 or 4 strats/teles for the price of it too.

[VOLVO)))]

My guitars:

86 Neck thru BC Rich mockingbird
90s Jackson Kelly
00s Jackson Dinky
Two Westone Dimension IVs
Peavey T-60
05 Mexi tele with EMG tele set, graphtech saddles, and a tooled leather pickguard.

Tele gets 99% of my play time. Ive tried out for numerous metal bands with it (that I ended up quitting because they ended up being garbage.)

Either way, I got nothing remotely Gibson in the stable. I wouldn't mind a Fibson, but what I really want is a black strat, black tooled leather pick guard, black pickup covers, no exposed pole pieces.

Maple fretboard/neck. All black hardware. Tuned D standard.
Ugh.

[mortlock]

my bass..a vintage series reish of a 62 fender jazz bass purchased new in 1992 w/ a 1972 tele bass pup installed in 2011.

That is one of the ugliest looking basses I've seen in awhile. You been playing her with drumsticks?

that bass has taken a beating for a lot of years. in the trenches..

[Lumpy]

I'd like to see a black pickguard on there. The silver Jazz knobs guard always looks strange to me, floating on it's own.

[mortlock]

there hasn't been a pick guard on that bass in a very long time. I filled the screw holes with candle wax awhile back..

[jibberish]

sunno, it turns out , my mom had an entire leather craft setup.  shit we are finding all kinds of shit. I had no idea what all the different things my mom was set up to do.   there are racks of little embossing punches and all kinds of jigs and blocks of granite and weird plastic hammers and and and for all sorts of tooling it looks like.   tandy leather seems to be the place all that stuff came from.

maybe I snag some all of that since no one else has shown any interest in it.  besides I actually need a couple belts and a boatload of guitar straps.

[VOLVO)))]

If you're interested in bestowing some of that stuff upon someone, so it doesn't go to waste... holler

[FullCustom]

As far as customer service Fender is the best company that I deal with.

[jibberish]

If you're interested in bestowing some of that stuff upon someone, so it doesn't go to waste... holler

well i'm thinking that maybe we can get some things done. all I know is that there is some money tied up in all that shit. like not a casual setup....didn't really make the connection to look for chemicals like dyes or w/e leather hobby uses but I bet there is all the stuff to make those pick guards and strap ends or w/e.

[VOLVO)))]

Well, if it ends up going into a box in a corner, Ill throw some cash at it. I love buying tools as much as i love buying guitars.

[jibberish]

I keep looking at the schecter picture. I think I want one of those. that whammy rig looks nice. schecter does string thru body a lot anyway, so that isn't exactly uncharted waters for them.

I want to make some leather stuff first before I decide that sucks and sell the stuff.

[Pissy]

Put me down for a tooled tele guard in dark brown. Lots of swirly amoebas and shit. Kthnx.

[jibberish]

I was looking at pick guards. those aren't cheap..like $100.  wow

[The Shocker]

C'mon Fender.  This is crap.
http://www.fender.com/series/standard/standard-stratocaster-hss-swirl-rosewood-fingerboard-swirl/
http://www.fender.com/series/standard/standard-telecaster-swirl-maple-fingerboard-swirl/

[RAGER]

Actually a friend of mine way way back l 80's early 90's had a red and black swirl strat.  We called it the bowling ball.  It was way fukn cool. I will dig up a pic of me playing it.

[Lumpy]

Nothing wrong with selling some swirl paint jobs. These will only be on sale for a limited time (unless they sell a zillion). Doesn't affect the quality of the Fender line. Also, if you read guitar forums, there are guys who complain that Fender is using the same limited colors, "I already have a red strat" etc. I think that the swirl guitar is aimed at collectors.

If you guys have innovative ideas for what Fender could do with their Strats and Teles, lets hear them. It's probably already been done.

[Chovie D]

fender has done alot with the strat and tele. thin skins, road worns, al kinds of reissues and customs.

with a guitar like a tele, you dont want alot of bells and whistles. sme for a les paul. if it aint broke dont fix it right?

Its intereesting to read about the history of fender. they have had a few up and downs.
I think one thing they've grown to realize over the years (i hope) is that people value the quality and classic appeal of their older products (the trad amps like pro and deluxe)more than they value the innovation and modernity of their newer products (cyber twin, gdec)

[dogfood]

Maybe someone from Gibson leaked fake sales of the Zoot Suit line of guitars and someone at Fender got wind of said fake numbers.  "Hey Bill, those god awefull zoots over at Gibson are selling like hot cakes.  We need a hideous guitar to capture a portion of the color blind, bad taste segment."  "Fantastic!  I'll get right on it!"

[VOLVO)))]

Those plywood pieces of shit have to be the ugliest fuckin axes of all time. I passed on one for 300$.

[RacerX]

"Swirl" Fenders > Zootsuit Gibbys.

IMO.

[VOLVO)))]

Swirl ain't got shit on those garbage "chameleon" paint jobs.