Lobster discovers Fender / Gretsch are telling porkies about spec

[Machines]

I wonder if in the future that these basses will be sought after as 'pre Lobster' versions.

[bartelby]

8 minutes ago, Machines said:

I wonder if in the future that these basses will be sought after as 'pre Lobster' versions.

A new "Lawsuit" era...

 

[Obrienp]

Wow, the debate is getting a little heated here. I thought the pickups in my G2220 sounded pretty good: not like anything else I had tried. I seem to recall they were very hot and I assumed that was the cause of some of the hum. Now I know they are single coil, it explains it. There is a lot of comment on TB about how noisy these basses are and quite a lot of that predates Lobster’s “revelation”. I guess it is a bit underhand of Gretsch/Fender to claim they are humbuckers when they aren’t but I don’t really understand why they did that.

 

Funnily, the pickups are the last thing about this bass that I would have wanted to change. The bridge was the weakest link IMO but easily changed for modern Fender style 5 hole design. The machine heads were a bit vague but functional. I did change mine for Gotohs but it wasn’t really essential. Generally, it is a good little bass for not a lot of money. The fellow BassChatter who bought mine found he didn’t get on with the slab body and moved it on but if you can cope with that (and neck dive), I wouldn’t let the type of pickup put you off. A bit of copper tape shielding should calm the noise down.

[Woodinblack]

2 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

Funnily, the pickups are the last thing about this bass that I would have wanted to change. The bridge was the weakest link IMO but easily changed for modern Fender style 5 hole design. The machine heads were a bit vague but functional. I did change mine for Gotohs but it wasn’t really essential.

 

I had to change the pickup selector switch. While it did work, it made a very bad squeeking noise!

I didn't have a problem with the bridge. TBH you have to put some effort in to make a bridge that doesn't work, but you are right the machineheads were definately down to a budget.

[Obrienp]

17 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

I had to change the pickup selector switch. While it did work, it made a very bad squeeking noise!

I didn't have a problem with the bridge. TBH you have to put some effort in to make a bridge that doesn't work, but you are right the machineheads were definately down to a budget.

You have reminded me that I changed the electrics for Switchcraft and CTS but I am an inveterate tinkerer. I remember the switch being a bit loose but actually the Switchcraft unit I replaced it with wasn’t an enormous improvement. If I were going to do it again, I think I would go for a blend pot. Oh and general warning, if you replace the pots for solid shaft CTS you will need new knobs and the genuine US Gretsch ones are expensive.

 

I just thought the bridge was a bit ticky-tacky, not necessarily that it didn’t do the job. I wondered how long it would last.

[skankdelvar]

I wonder what will happen when the YouTube influencers find out that the Squier Bronco boasts a six pole-piece, single-coil Strat pickup?

[Bleat]

15 minutes ago, skankdelvar said:

I wonder what will happen when the YouTube influencers find out that the Squier Bronco boasts a six pole-piece, single-coil Strat pickup?

 

Hopefully the subsequent video will only take half the time of the first yawn-fest due to the fact it's only one pickup to be outraged about instead of 2.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

The six pole single coil thing has been common knowledge since the bronco's ancestor, the musicmaster bass was first available in 1971, so I doubt many people would be surprised.

[drTStingray]

Duplicated post…….

Edited April 29, 2022 by drTStingray
Post needs deleting - duplicated

[drTStingray]

19 hours ago, skankdelvar said:

Someone should set up a Humbucker Disappointment Survivors group, crowdfund a class action and put the guilty men on death row. It's the only language they understand.

Trouble is there are no ‘guilty men’ - it’s a faceless corporation it seems? Although with the name of the revered CLF (or at least the parent company) !!

 

Apparently these have humbuckers  

😂
 

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by drTStingray

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

The six pole single coil thing has been common knowledge since the bronco's ancestor, the musicmaster bass was first available in 1971, so I doubt many people would be surprised.

I also bet it was never advertised as a guitar pickup, or that actually many people knew

[LukeFRC]

I bought a couple of jazz basses and still couldn’t play jazz - should I make a YouTube video to demonstrate? 

[paul_5]

30 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

I bought a couple of jazz basses and still couldn’t play jazz - should I make a YouTube video to demonstrate? 

I’m having the same dilemma over my fretless precision.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

4 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

I bought a couple of jazz basses and still couldn’t play jazz - should I make a YouTube video to demonstrate? 

The secret to playing a walking jazz bassline is to play a note on every beat. Any note. But never play the same note twice in succession. You don’t need a chord chart or even need to know what key everyone’s playing in. Try it and make a youtube video of the results.

[fretmeister]

Update….

 

 

 

[Vin Venal]

6 hours ago, fretmeister said:

Update….

 

 

 

Now I wish I'd bought one of these before this kicked off. I'd have a cool short scale, plus $100 worth of free stuff.

[Doctor J]

Sure, you get free stuff but you don't get the humbucker which is rightfully yours. Big Noise has FMIC is its pocket.

[wateroftyne]

This popped up in my YouTube and I clicked  it purely ‘cos of the clickbaityness of it (because it definitely is), and was slightly taken aback at how much of a mountain is being made out of a molehill.

 

‘A livestream to discuss our feelings about it’? C’mon, man.

 

The glove is creepy too. 

[skej21]

1 hour ago, wateroftyne said:

This popped up in my YouTube and I clicked  it purely ‘cos of the clickbaityness of it (because it definitely is), and was slightly taken aback at how much of a mountain is being made out of a molehill.

 

‘A livestream to discuss our feelings about it’? C’mon, man.

 

The glove is creepy too. 

And one of the four live streamers put his up for sale on FB. Views gained, bin off this “scam” bass on someone else now without a second thought…

[Vin Venal]

I dunno why so many people think this is a bad thing.

 

Like, if you just wanna be a simp for a multinational, you do you, but the bottom line is, a silly little youtuber just got thousands of people a free hundred dollars worth of stuff, and hopefully made manufacturers think twice before chucking single coils in humbucker covers to save costs in future.

 

Buying guitars is already a minefield for consumers really, with an astonishing lack of transparency about any number of things, like where stuff is made, by who, out of what etc, and the big names get away with insane margins on mass produced stuff of questionable quality, because of a name on a headstock.

 

90% of consumer targeted content about guitars is purely advertising, including on YouTube, where the vast majority of reviews and demos are little more than paid marketing.

 

This probably wouldn't ever have come to light if it weren't for Lobster, and the unique position he's in of being able to review large numbers of basses without taking anyone's money, as evidenced by the fact that it'd been going on for years without anyone noticing, and dozens of other magazines, youtube channels, blogs etc had "reviewed" the bass and said nothing.

 

The less businesses can get away with lying to consumers, the better for us. Seems self evident really.

[Musicman20]

On 02/05/2022 at 07:54, wateroftyne said:

This popped up in my YouTube and I clicked  it purely ‘cos of the clickbaityness of it (because it definitely is), and was slightly taken aback at how much of a mountain is being made out of a molehill.

 

‘A livestream to discuss our feelings about it’? C’mon, man.

 

The glove is creepy too. 

This exactly. 

[skankdelvar]

TBPH I can't bring myself to feel any great indignation about what would seem to be a simple error of cataloguing but it's nice that Humbuckergate™ has brought so much excitement into the lives of so many people.

[TheRoth]

Just received my $100 worth of Fender goods - Thank you Lobster!!!

Whilst replacement humbucker pickups for my G2220 Junior Jet Bass would have been nice I didn't see that as ever happening, so I'm pretty pleased with the $100 of goods. Just followed Lobster's advice and contacted customer support. Chose $99.97 of goods from the Fender store and it was delivered today via Fender UK.

I went for the wide "Swell" neoprene strap, a "Laurel" capo and a mini guitar stand.

 

Also just finished installing full copper shielding and a John East Uni-Pre 3 preamp in my G2220 (https://www.east-uk.com/product/uni-pre-3-knob/?v=79cba1185463) which really makes it interesting....