fender dissapointment

[bassjim]

so.... a recent move up a gear and I now need a back up bass. i have a great fender american deluxe. nothing wrong with it. its a fantastic instrument. its my bestest bass in the whole world ect. I thought, well they all must be as good if not better for the more expensive ones. Ive now been to three well stocked, nice people guitar shops and tried a lot of basses out. compared to mine, they are very dissapointing. its almost like hand finished neck = fred in the neck department gives it a quick one two with a bit of sandpaper= finished by hand.

i had it in my head that a machine does most of the work so the consistency would be about the same?

ok no two are alike but compared to my own off the shelf fender they are all total sh*t. even the £2500.00 + models.

Been on the phone since and ordered a custom build by a well known uk builder to solve my problem. Budget wise its in the same ball park as I would have happily spent on a fender so obviously the way to go from here on. I'm going to get exactly (or as near dammit,possibly even better?) what I'm after and as I know exactly what I want,how i want it, where i want it, plus the builder knows what I mean when I say what i want ect its a no brainer.

So there you go mr fender factory. you dont care anymore so from now on nor do I. My money is not going in your account so how do feel about that for the sake of a bit of quality control?

Really had no idea the quality had become so dire. One music shop guy said he can sell whats in there all day long to those not so much in the know and his buying budget allows him to fill the wall with fenders but cant justify spending a his budget on one or two great basses that no one can afford.

fair enough but a fender from £1500.00 up should be really great already. I know many here have been saying this for years but can now happily eat my hat as I now whole heartedly agree with them!!!

[FinnDave]

I have a couple of recent US standards (a P and a J) and they are both bloody good instruments.

[bassjim]

sadly none that I tried (probably about 20 between the three shops) were any where near bloody good. It may just be that by complete fluke I got a good one and made an asumption this was a typical fender.

once one has tasted champange one doesnt want cheap wine......

and yes a bold statement but no smoke without fire and all that....

Think what I'm trying to say here is Fender doesnt = crap. I know this because I love mine a whole lot. It really is the dogs. Its just the recent trip out to find a back up has proved very dissapointing. Oh and I tried a few music man basses.....toy town stuff to be frank....god, what have i started??

Edited July 6, 2016 by bassjim

[discreet]

Just goes to show that you need to get out there and try basses for yourself. I know buying online is the only option for some people, but it is very much a lottery. I've had a one or two mediocre Fenders but my current Precision is the best I've had in 40-odd years and it's a Mexican.

Edited July 6, 2016 by discreet

[Machines]

My 2005 MIM is excellent.

[paul h]

I've had Japanese P which I loved and a Mexican J which was so, so. Oh and an Aerodyne which was pretty nice.

I've never actually found a US Fender that I liked enough to buy. I did try a P a few years ago that did have something about it. It sounded great but the action was ridiculously high and that and the £1000+ price tag put me off.

[Muppet]

All my latest Fenders - guitars and basses, US and Mexican - have been excellent. I think the QC has improved greatly over the past ten years or so. I've never had a CS though.

This is a QC issue though is it, rather than a setup issue?

[machinehead]

Mine are all fine - even the Mexican one is really very good. You must be very unlucky.

As a matter of interest, what faults did you find in general?

Frank.

[Grassie]

I once had a US deluxe Jazz V, 50th anniversary model with the big pole pickups - good bass, but the Mexican 4 string jazz I had after that was a real player, light and punchy, classic jazz bass. Fenders are horrendously overpriced IMO.

[CamdenRob]

I've had four Fender basses over the last couple of years, two MIAs and two MIJs, three were excellent and one not so great..

I did have an MIM strat for a while though and that was superb - Bought it blind and it played / sounded great straight out of the box.

[wateroftyne]

*warning - predictable post alert*

I'm through with Fender now. I got exactly what I wanted from Maruszczyk for around the cost of an off-the-shelf Fender.

I reckon this gorgeous pair would have totalled £6000+ if I'd gone down the Fender CS route, and even then I probably wouldn't have had as much control over the spec.

[discreet]

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1467804678' post='3086361']
I do wonder how many of the supposed faults that put the OP off were down to set up issues rather than QC.
[/quote]

Shop basses are generally set up badly. The first thing I do when I get a different bass is replace the strings and set it up to my own preferences. I don't let action, intonation or other set-up issues put me off what is otherwise a good bass. They are temporary and adjustable to the [i]nth[/i] degree. Also, strings make a HUGE difference to the sound and playability of a bass. Something that seems to get overlooked for some reason. I don't let crappy strings put me off, either.

Edited July 6, 2016 by discreet

[MacDaddy]

how can any Fender be bad, now that The Edge and Bono are on the Fender board of directors?

[charic]

What if your definition of good doesn't match fenders? Or ours for that matter?

[Lozz196]

There`s always likely to be an iffy instrument or two out there, but imo the post 2012 Fenders, both US and Mexican, are the best I`ve had/played, aside from the Road Worns which seem to have just been awesome since they came out.

[Beedster]

[quote name='bassjim' timestamp='1467801341' post='3086326']
so.... a recent move up a gear and I now need a back up bass. i have a great fender american deluxe. nothing wrong with it. its a fantastic instrument. its my bestest bass in the whole world ect. I thought, well they all must be as good if not better for the more expensive ones. Ive now been to three well stocked, nice people guitar shops and tried a lot of basses out. compared to mine, they are very dissapointing. its almost like hand finished neck = fred in the neck department gives it a quick one two with a bit of sandpaper= finished by hand.

i had it in my head that a machine does most of the work so the consistency would be about the same?

ok no two are alike but compared to my own off the shelf fender they are all total sh*t. even the £2500.00 + models.

Been on the phone since and ordered a custom build by a well known uk builder to solve my problem. Budget wise its in the same ball park as I would have happily spent on a fender so obviously the way to go from here on. I'm going to get exactly (or as near dammit,possibly even better?) what I'm after and as I know exactly what I want,how i want it, where i want it, plus the builder knows what I mean when I say what i want ect its a no brainer.

So there you go mr fender factory. you dont care anymore so from now on nor do I. My money is not going in your account so how do feel about that for the sake of a bit of quality control?

Really had no idea the quality had become so dire. One music shop guy said he can sell whats in there all day long to those not so much in the know and his buying budget allows him to fill the wall with fenders but cant justify spending a his budget on one or two great basses that no one can afford.

fair enough but a fender from £1500.00 up should be really great already. I know many here have been saying this for years but can now happily eat my hat as I now whole heartedly agree with them!!!
[/quote]

Two thoughts occur here, firstly that if you are very used to playing one bass and one bass only, many if not all other instruments might feel, play or sound less well than does that bass that you are used to. I have never been entirely happy with a bass that I have just bought - and that includes some very high spec instruments - it's always required a combination of changes to those structural factors I need to be different (such as strings, action, PUP height, nut height etc), and of getting used to those factors that I can't change. A perfect bass is often perfect simply because you are used to it. Second if you have struggled to find a bass you like in all of the shops you've been to, what makes you think that you will like a custom built instrument that you by definition cannot play before you buy? The list of folks who've spent shedloads of cash on a custom bass only to find that it doesn't work for them is not short.

[JTUK]

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1467802741' post='3086335']
I very much doubt whether they will give a toss quite frankly.

I know Fender's QC has a reputation for being a bit hit and miss, but I've never experienced this and I've had quite a few.



That's quite a bold statement. You're basically saying that all CS basses are total sh*t. I'm going to disagree with you there.
[/quote]

Are we talking about CS tho..??
Having said that there seems very little diff between AM Del and CS in terms of hardware... in fact I can't see any, but
I've just had the pre swapped out as I thought it the weakest component and the first thing to change, and the difference
is pretty apparent.


The conclusion is that you are paying MASSIVELY for the name... and more fool anyone for doing so...??

If I look at a CS and the cost, and relate that to other luthiers, I'll bet that plenty of luthiers work will blow the Fender version out
of the water by some margin, IME.

[karlfer]

Talk about light blue touchpaper and run

[bertbass]

I found that out in 1972. Being lefthanded I couldn't try before I bought and had to order one, but, it's Fender, it's going to be fantastic. It wasn't, it was total rubbish. Still being lefthanded, I still can't try before I buy so I shall remain Fenderless forever.

[ivansc]

My 2005 Fender American `62 reissue Precision bass is not as nice as the fond memories I have of my original `62 Precision that I bought in `63.





That said, it is a very nice instrument and improves with playing.

[stingrayPete1977]

Lauren Taneil is actually in the UK right now, she could chop in those toy town Ray 5s while she is here for a UK custom built bass to save her struggling for the rest of the Beyonce world tour! Lol.

Edited July 6, 2016 by stingrayPete1977

[thebassist]

Post-2012, I think they're relatively consistent. I played probably close to 20 American Standard Jazz Basses in 2013. I'd say maybe 5 were average, 10 were good and 5 were great.

[bassjim]

yes i must be more specific about what was not good. 1. the necks. all of em felt, by comparison to mine, really thick. I tried a pre CBS 60s bass prior to this down at Bernie Goodfellows place. Lovley guy there called Jim has a collection of pre CBS basses and let me check out all of em.

The 60s jazz was fantasic. Played well, had a lowish action but the neck.....so playable. absolute ease. so musical sounding. inspiring. but........... thousands of pounds. well past the 10 grand mark so obviously im not going there. He has a few from the same stable and they all feel as nice to play.

Now Fender claim they have made several "reissue" basses based on this model. well so far, based on what i have recently tried in the shops,either the model they have based the reissue on is a donkey or they are using the wrong bass to copy.

2. weight. again by comparison not really close. a lot heavier than the original to the point I can see a shoulder/back problem on its way with a friday night function followed by a saturday night function followed by a sunday afternoon pub gig. this is most weekends for me by the way so I'm going to pick up on this factor quickly.

3. sound. who would use these pickups on their basses as a prefrence? (shop ones) . No punch. kinda dead? remember thats three different shops through three different amps and nothing inspirational at all. remember this is compared to what I have at home. I paid £1250.00 for it btw so this is not a you pay for what you get thing.

to be fair there may have been one bass but the guy didnt want to remove the bell plates so i couldnt really play it like that. but even so the neck was still chunky.

bit like when you pick up any beginners instrument and the neck is chunky and deep. ok if you have hands like a gorilla but your average hand not so enjoyable

Edited July 6, 2016 by bassjim

[paul h]

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1467804678' post='3086361']
Really? That can be adjusted you know.
[/quote]

Yes it can...but a high action can hide all sorts of problems with the neck and the frets. I'm not spending that kind of money on a bass not knowing whether I will be able to set it up to my liking.

I've had many a bass where I've lowered the action only to discover high frets that need levelling...or that the neck needs shimming. £1000 is a lot of money to me and I don't want to be dicking about if I've spent that kind of money

[paul h]

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1467811532' post='3086437']
I am aware of the issues that COULD be present, but if I found a bass I liked, I wouldn't let a high action stand in the way of asking it be lowered and hoping there aren't any other issues. I don't think a decent Fender salesman would let that get in the way of a potential sale either.
[/quote]

Well I clearly didn't like it enough to bother with. If you want to go back in time and get the sales guy to set it up, go for it!

My problem is that I've got two Chinese made Fender copies. An SX jazz and a Retrovibe Aero2...which is an Aerodyne copy...and they were both awesome out of the box. If I ever play a Fender that feels as good as either of those I will buy it on the spot.