Lobster discovers Fender / Gretsch are telling porkies about spec

[Woodinblack]

Mabye that is the way that videos have to be, like Scott Devine said on that post he did here about getting income from youtube.

[Musicman20]

Whilst he seems like like a genuine chap, a lot of his basses sound extremely similar to me, and the claw gimmick and bizarre nervous laughter is just, well, uncomfortable.

 

I doubt Fender really give a s***. 

 

Probably just need to change the details online. 

[Jonesy]

48 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

You might not think this image is clickbait....

 

 

....but look at his recently views:

 

G+L Series 750 L2500 unboxing - 5.5k

Lakland 55-64 Review - 3.9k

Reverend Triad review - 6k

Inside a cheap Gretsch pickup dressed as FENDER FRAUD - 24k

 

I agree with you and think the vid does go a bit OTT on the whole fraud front............but he's not wrong, a company deliberately misleading the buying public is definitely fraudulent and he has a case. There's no way this is a mistake by Fender/Gretsch and they don't know what sort of pick up they put in there.

 

I still have no idea why they'd do it though. By all accounts, it's a good bass with a big sound. I doubt many buyers would have not gone home with it based on what they read with their eyes over what they heard with their ears.

 

Having a custom image like that is best practice for any YT material and it's designed to grab attention, but I wouldn't say it was clickbait, personally. It's not as if the content is unrelated to image or he's talking about something completely unrelated. Another thing that will help the view figures be a lot higher than those others is the brands he talks about .G&L, Lakland & Reverend are all well known to us in this little bubble, but they're no way near as big a brand as Fender, who are arguably the worlds best known guitar brand. The amount of content and searches for Fender on YouTube compared to the other 3 would be mammoth - hence the vid appearing in more searches, suggested videos and subsequent views.

 

But you're right - that image would help him boost views. Personally I'm not against it. But maybe because it's the field I work in  🙂

 

 

Edited April 13, 2022 by Jonesy

[Mastodon2]

6 hours ago, Ricky Rioli said:

You might not think this image is clickbait....

 

 

....but look at his recently views:

 

G+L Series 750 L2500 unboxing - 5.5k

Lakland 55-64 Review - 3.9k

Reverend Triad review - 6k

Inside a cheap Gretsch pickup dressed as FENDER FRAUD - 24k

 

Perhaps there is just most interest in the topic than in his other videos?

 

I like his channel but I'm never going to bother watching him unbox something or review some generic FSO basses. On the other hand, learning about this deception that Fender have pulled on their customers is something I'd be interested in learning about.

 

I've been following the Talkbass thread since the beginning and his findings are corroborated by other owners. Is it a deliberate fraud, overstating the spec to help sell the bass, or is it an error? The marketing materials could have been made from outdated design documents, there could have been internal miscommunication, maybe it's an mundane as the guy who wrote the spec list for the website looking at it an assuming it's a humbucker because of the size and shape.

 

Either way, it's still a topic that deserves some attention, even if no one will ever be compensated in any form.

 

 

[Vin Venal]

11 hours ago, Jonesy said:

 

I agree with you and think the vid does go a bit OTT on the whole fraud front............but he's not wrong, a company deliberately misleading the buying public is definitely fraudulent and he has a case. There's no way this is a mistake by Fender/Gretsch and they don't know what sort of pick up they put in there.

 

I still have no idea why they'd do it though. By all accounts, it's a good bass with a big sound. I doubt many buyers would have not gone home with it based on what they read with their eyes over what they heard with their ears.

 

Having a custom image like that is best practice for any YT material and it's designed to grab attention, but I wouldn't say it was clickbait, personally. It's not as if the content is unrelated to image or he's talking about something completely unrelated. Another thing that will help the view figures be a lot higher than those others is the brands he talks about .G&L, Lakland & Reverend are all well known to us in this little bubble, but they're no way near as big a brand as Fender, who are arguably the worlds best known guitar brand. The amount of content and searches for Fender on YouTube compared to the other 3 would be mammoth - hence the vid appearing in more searches, suggested videos and subsequent views.

 

But you're right - that image would help him boost views. Personally I'm not against it. But maybe because it's the field I work in  🙂

 

 

I have a hard time seeing why they'd do it too. Can the difference in manufacturing and installation costs be enough to warrant making single coils that look like humbuckers, instead of just actual humbuckers? Apparently so.

 

This bass has always been on my radar, but to be honest, I don't want one with pretend humbuckers in it. It's just a bit sad.

[Woodinblack]

7 hours ago, Vin Venal said:

This bass has always been on my radar, but to be honest, I don't want one with pretend humbuckers in it. It's just a bit sad.

 

I would say that it doesn't really have that much of an effect apart from noise in situations, it is a very riich sounding bass, and TBH, it probably wouldn't sound as good with humbuckers, so I don't see it as a functional issue.

[Vin Venal]

9 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

I would say that it doesn't really have that much of an effect apart from noise in situations, it is a very riich sounding bass, and TBH, it probably wouldn't sound as good with humbuckers, so I don't see it as a functional issue.

Yeah, definitely not a sound issue, I don't mind single coils (although I prefer noiseless ones).

 

Just an aesthetic thing I suppose - I'm OK with humbuckers pretending to be single coils (which is basically what a noiseless J pickup is), but not the other way round.

[NikNik]

Thr clickbait claim us without merit. Seriously,  WTF?

[Woodinblack]

6 hours ago, Vin Venal said:

Yeah, definitely not a sound issue, I don't mind single coils (although I prefer noiseless ones).

 

As you say yourself, a 'noiseless' single coil is just a dual coil stacked top to bottom, so still a humbucker. So more a marketing term than anything else.

 

[Stub Mandrel]

What I think is hilarious is that for ten years no-one has said "these humbuckers sound like single coils".

 

Makes you wonder how much pickup snobbery is just bullshittery....

[ezbass]

7 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

What I think is hilarious is that for ten years no-one has said "these humbuckers sound like single coils".

 

Makes you wonder how much pickup snobbery is just bullshittery....

High fallutin’ opinions about tone in these balanced and reasonable pages? No, I won’t have it.  

[Woodinblack]

Well I had one and wasn't aware they were supposed to be humbuckers, although to be honest, didn't even think about it. 

[Guest]

15 hours ago, NikNik said:

Thr clickbait claim us without merit. Seriously,  WTF?

 

If you can't appreciatr the sensationalism in the labelling a cheap bass having an incorrect spec in uts listings as FENDER FRAUD then  WTF? indeed

[Stub Mandrel]

I heard a rumour that LowEndLobster isn't even a lobster. He's a scampi.

[Paolo85]

I do not understand the clickbait criticism. Lobster is clearly running a business. Seriously, what person owns a Rick and buys a £190 Harley Benton copy? How many people spend their evenings making 20 minute videos (writing down, presenting, recording, editing, all to a good enough standard)? Ask anyone who makes videos for a living: it's actual work. Fun, but work.

He's running a respectful business that helps people like me with limited experience getting an idea of what their perfect bass may be.. within the budget.

As a person running a business he hopes to get viewings and he presents his stuff in certain ways, the same way a small local newspaper bumping into a story that is of impact for the local community would run it in the front page with big headlines. Even if the story would not in itself be remotely worth the attention of a national.

For a channel entirely dedicated to cheap basses, the fact that the Gretsch is cheap does not mean anything. In fact, it makes it even more topical. For some, few hundred pounds is a lot.

I do however understand the "so what, it sounds great" criticism.

[jd56hawk]

A mistake or purposeful misrepresentation, there has been ample time for Fender/Gretsch to respond to the bass community.

That they have not done so, leads me to believe they're trying their best to come up with a plausible explanation that will basically amount to bs.

Edited April 15, 2022 by jd56hawk

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, Paolo85 said:

what person owns a Rick and buys a £190 Harley Benton copy?

 

I would...

[merello]

On 13/04/2022 at 12:23, Ricky Rioli said:

You might not think this image is clickbait....

 

 

....but look at his recently views:

 

G+L Series 750 L2500 unboxing - 5.5k

Lakland 55-64 Review - 3.9k

Reverend Triad review - 6k

Inside a cheap Gretsch pickup dressed as FENDER FRAUD - 24k

I pressed play…..😇

[Paolo85]

3 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

I would...

Ok, I take it back 😁

[Jonesy]

Someone on a short scale bass group on FB has had a look at theirs (earlier single pup model) and it's a humbucker.....

 

 

 

 

[NikNik]

On 15/04/2022 at 16:37, Stub Mandrel said:

 

I would...

I bought a HB double-cut Junior and it's one of my fav guitars. 

[Woodinblack]

Maybe they just recently changed it, but mine was a few years back and I would put money on it being a single coil pickup on it, that is how it acted.

[Jonesy]

3 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Maybe they just recently changed it, but mine was a few years back and I would put money on it being a single coil pickup on it, that is how it acted.

 

Was yours the newer double pup version? Maybe it's just the single pup ones that actually have humbuckers in them?

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Jonesy said:

 

Was yours the newer double pup version? Maybe it's just the single pup ones that actually have humbuckers in them?

 

Yep, mine was a twin pickup one

 

Maybe they only had two coils to go round so that if you wanted two pickups you got one on each

[Downunderwonder]

On 15/04/2022 at 06:18, NikNik said:

Thr clickbait claim us without merit. Seriously,  WTF?

Yes. Clickbait is by definition a title designed to draw views with false or tenuous indication of the actual content.

 

In contrast, he has a genuine grievance and if it serves to inform consumers, or even get Fender Corp to put it right, it's no bad thing.