I don't have a fender but should I?

[Bassfinger]

Fenders are alright, no more or less than any other brand to me.  I currently have two on the fleet, but have had several others over the years and finally settled on a couple that I really liked.

 

Most of the criticism could be aimed at numerous other brands and models, so little point ticking them off here. Suffice to say if you try one and like it then great then get one, you dont then dont.  They're often grestmin their own wsy, but so are countless other models.

[peteb]

21 hours ago, chris_b said:

Fender started it for me. They were the aspirational instrument for bass players, so IMO find the right one and they are very hard to beat.

 

 

I was exactly the same. I got my first P bass just over ten years after you, but I grew up with pretty much every bass player that I aspired to be like playing a Fender P bass. If I was five years younger, then it might have been different as many pros started using all sorts of other basses. But when I was a kid they all played either a Precision, a Jazz, a Rick or a Gibson EB short scale thing - most of them had a P bass

 

It was a big thing for me to get my first Precision in December 79. I felt that I had crossed a rubicon, that I while I may never be a superstar or even particularly successful, I would always be a serious gigging bass player. Forty three years later, I'm still doing gigs with that same Fender Precision... 

 

Edited November 30, 2022 by peteb

[Lozz196]

I wish I had an instrument (ideally a Precision) with that much history, must be great. I have my fave Precision which I’ve owned new since 2015 and have a lot of great memories/experiences with it but 40 years, I’ll bet there’s some stories there.

[peteb]

4 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

I wish I had an instrument (ideally a Precision) with that much history, must be great. I have my fave Precision which I’ve owned new since 2015 and have a lot of great memories/experiences with it but 40 years, I’ll bet there’s some stories there.

 

It has a bit more history than you might think, but not just with me! 

 

I bought it when it was a year old and I had got my first (temporary) job working backstage in a theatre. It was with me for a couple of bands oop north and then all of my time playing in London. When I moved back, I joined a band that played the 80s rock club circuit all over the north & midlands. After a while, I discovered active basses (it was the late 80s) and sold it through a local shop to a guy in Leeds who used to play sessions. He then swapped it with a studio owner in Manchester for a Squire and enough money to settle a drug debt. It stayed in Manchester for a quite a while and then he traded it to a mate who ran another studio in Leeds, who kept it for many years until he got a 60s P bass. I saw it on Facebook marketplace during lockdown and recognised it immediately (it is quite an unusual colour / neck combination and I had put a Schaller bridge on it) and sold a Stingray five string to fund buying it back... 

 

Edited November 30, 2022 by peteb

[jazzmanb]

On 27/11/2022 at 10:38, SteveXFR said:

I didn't want a Fender because everyone and their mum plays a Fender. I recently bought a Mexican P bass and now I understand why everyone plays them. 

They do play lovely straight from the box ,the Player ones 

 

They are the kingpins for me , it doesn't mean everyone should have one but they are/were the blueprint 

Currently have Sadowsky ,RIc,Cort and 3 Fenders 

[Ed_S]

On 29/11/2022 at 11:47, Tim2291 said:

A lot of musicians/producers/sound engineers have a very narrow view of the bass guitar and Fender is basically all they know and are then very bias towards them because they have used them before.

 

If you don't want a Fender and have no reason (tribute band, pressure from producers etc) to buy one, then just get what bass you enjoy playing!

 

 

Very true, though if you have no objection to playing a P or J at a gig when you're likely to be working with a sound engineer who maybe lacks a bit of experience, then giving them something they feel instantly comfortable with when you only have a few minutes between bands can be a good tactic for getting an overall better result. I bought my first P bass because I liked it, not because I felt I needed it, but I soon noticed the advantage when it came to line-check-only gigs. If playing something else (or simply not playing a Fender) is more important than the chance of that slight advantage, or you just don't play those sorts of gigs, that's cool.