Fender limited edition Mike Kerr Jaguar...Tiger's Blood Orange!

[neepheid]

1 minute ago, Musicman20 said:

Unfortunately it's more true in recent years with how big brands market their gear.

 

It's always been the case - early adopters of anything "new" get shafted, that's the price of having the shiniest, newest stuff.

[Woodinblack]

Actually not for fender - they make a certain load of items and then that is it, move onto the next. Several things I thought might be nice (the paisley jazz bass) that they shipped out then never did again

[Musicman20]

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Actually not for fender - they make a certain load of items and then that is it, move onto the next. Several things I thought might be nice (the paisley jazz bass) that they shipped out then never did again

 

There is a chap, Phil McKnight, who discusses these type of issues on his podcast/youtube channel. He worked in retail for many years as an owner of a guitar store.

 

I agree with him that many guitar brands are going for 'limited edition' more and more in 2023 as a marketing tool. Yes, they may well be limited runs, but the reason for it is to create a false sense of urgency...they could make more, but they don't so they'll sell the batch fast.

[Woodinblack]

Indeed - it makes sense from a marketing point of view, but always a shame when you can't get something because you weren't in the right place / right time to get it, especially it means there are two fenders I would actually buy even though one is a guitar that I don't play much any more and the other is a 4 string bass when I generally only play 5s.

[JohnDaBass]

5 hours ago, Musicman20 said:

 

There is a chap, Phil McKnight, who discusses these type of issues on his podcast/youtube channel. He worked in retail for many years as an owner of a guitar store.

 

I agree with him that many guitar brands are going for 'limited edition' more and more in 2023 as a marketing tool. Yes, they may well be limited runs, but the reason for it is to create a false sense of urgency...they could make more, but they don't so they'll sell the batch fast.

In these times of Lean Enterprise operations,  companies try to minimise their costs including minimising stocks.   So short runs of "Limited editions " or "FSR " are all geared to have fast sell throughs and zero end stock.

This style of sales and marketing has become the new norm and will provide both manufacturers and retailers means of maintaining margins without the need to discount end of run products.

There are plenty of examples where consumers can snag a bargain but "when they are gone they're gone".

Notable examples for me are the termination of Gibson Les Paul Jr DC tribute and the Fender FSR Precision Deluxe. 

It's difficult to be quick to purchase something you real fancy but don't have the cash on hand to allow the acquisition. 

Times have changed and probably won't revert back to traditional purchase environments. 

[jd56hawk]

I forget when this one first came out, 2014 or 2015, but Fender apparently doesn't know what limited edition means, since they're still making them.

[JohnDaBass]

1 hour ago, jd56hawk said:

I forget when this one first came out, 2014 or 2015, but Fender apparently doesn't know what limited edition means, since they're still making them.

Yup I have the earlier FSR version with active 9v preamp. Only 150 were allocated for EU sales, actually only 149 made it because I received the one with the broken neck that was quickly replaced  Fender EU. The low noise bridge Pup was really punchy and well balanced with the neck Pup. It was rumoured in some quarters that the first 9v active FSR batch was only produced to use up surplus stock of Geddy Lee necks left over in Mexico following the transfer of production of the Geddy Lee signature bass. The FSR 9v active preamp run had one of the slimmest, fastest, bound J-necks ever, gloss finished neck and fretboard. Fender were so surprised by the fast sell through of the FSR 9v active basses that they introduced the passive bass shown above. 

Edited August 22, 2023 by JohnDaBass

[Woodinblack]

There are limited editions, which are limited, and then there are the ones they do all the time that started off limited but they didn't stop.

Sadly the only ones that have been interesting are actually limited!

[jd56hawk]

1 hour ago, JohnDaBass said:

Yup I have the earlier FSR version with active 9v preamp. Only 150 were allocated for EU sales, actually only 149 made it because I received the one with the broken neck that was quickly replaced  Fender EU. The low noise bridge Pup was really punchy and well balanced with the neck Pup. It was rumoured in some quarters that the first 9v active FSR batch was only produced to use up surplus stock of Geddy Lee necks left over in Mexico following the transfer of production of the Geddy Lee signature bass. The FSR 9v active preamp run had one of the slimmest, fastest, bound J-necks ever, gloss finished neck and fretboard. Fender were so surprised by the fast sell through of the FSR 9v active basses that they introduced the passive bass shown above. 

As someone once said, "Very interesting!"

As someone else said, "Limited to how many they can sell."

Edited August 22, 2023 by jd56hawk

[jd56hawk]

How disappointing!

Only a few basses with that issue, but...

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/mike-kerr-signature-bass-problems-fender-did-it-again.1618996/

Edited August 22, 2023 by jd56hawk

[Musicman20]

Just heard a few more demos of this. More QC issues and the pickups sound so weak and flat.

[JohnDaBass]

37 minutes ago, Musicman20 said:

Just heard a few more demos of this. More QC issues and the pickups sound so weak and flat.

Mmm not sure I concur with the weak & flat Pups. 

Yup as with all first run production, processes are not fully bedded in so there could be a few issues. 

The Pups are fine ,the neck, body and build is fine. Maybe there is a need to implement some corrective action on the D & G string Pup alignment. 

For me it was simples, I'm not a fan of the 3 screw fixing of the bridge anyway, so I fitted a Gotoh 5 screw gold bridge.

Using the centre screw fixing I aligned the G&D strings and drilled new holes for screws 1 & 5 . Then used the Gotoh screws in 2 & 4 positions and resulted in perfect string/ Pup alignment. 

Yes on a £1500 instrument you would have expected a better standard, but I feel that the stock bridge was the wrong choice since it was a thro body bridge but there is NO thro body arrangement on the bass. And personally  I think the 3 screw fixing is less resonant. 

Any new product will be open to negative views but I have learnt over the years that it's always best to form ones own opinion after physically playing the instrument and not being influenced by unqualified commentry. 

Frankly it's a fine bass with huge range of tones and an absolute dream to play.

But I'm a half deaf ,70 year old Welsh man who doesn't take kindly to people who tell me what I should do and what I should like and not like.

Apologies to our Danish friends. 

[neepheid]

For £1500 I expect perfection, tbh. I should have to do absolutely nothing to the bass save for a string change if I don't like the stock strings and a setup to my personal preferences.

[Old Horse Murphy]

The one I picked up is flawless and indeed all I did was to change the strings and action. 
 

The bridge pickup is akin to the Gibson mini humbucker on the SG bass or similar. It doesn't do it for me sonically on its own and I would never use it on it individually. My choice obviously. 
 

Combined with the neck pickup though it sounds very good but for me, the money shot is the neck pickup. It sounds anything other than weak and flat. 
 

I didn't pay £1,500 and was given the luxury of playing it in the shop for as long as I wanted so I had a real chance to see if I liked it. If it had been for sale at £1,500 I'd certainly have thought about it a bit more but it still would've inevitably come home with me as it's certainly on par with anything else I've bought at that price point. 

[JohnDaBass]

1 hour ago, Old Horse Murphy said:

The one I picked up is flawless and indeed all I did was to change the strings and action. 
 

The bridge pickup is akin to the Gibson mini humbucker on the SG bass or similar. It doesn't do it for me sonically on its own and I would never use it on it individually. My choice obviously. 
 

Combined with the neck pickup though it sounds very good but for me, the money shot is the neck pickup. It sounds anything other than weak and flat. 
 

I didn't pay £1,500 and was given the luxury of playing it in the shop for as long as I wanted so I had a real chance to see if I liked it. If it had been for sale at £1,500 I'd certainly have thought about it a bit more but it still would've inevitably come home with me as it's certainly on par with anything else I've bought at that price point. 

How did you solve the G & D string alignment? The picture on the other forum seems to show that the D & G strings don't sit exactly above the pole pieces of the neck Pickup. 

My OCD simply didn't allow a body thro bridge on a non body thro body.  In my experience 5 screw bridge fixings always tump 3 screw bridge fixings. 

Did your bass have the wrong length stock strings?

[Old Horse Murphy]

They're still a bit off but it's made absolutely no different to volume and in truth I can probably count on one hand the Fender basses (or Music Man for that matter) where the strings have line up absolutely precisely with all the pole pieces. The angle of the photo doesn't help either and it makes it look less lined up than they are.  

[JohnDaBass]

2 hours ago, Old Horse Murphy said:

They're still a bit off but it's made absolutely no different to volume and in truth I can probably count on one hand the Fender basses (or Music Man for that matter) where the strings have line up absolutely precisely with all the pole pieces. The angle of the photo doesn't help either and it makes it look less lined up than they are.  

Clearly your OCD is far less acute mine 🤔

[jd56hawk]

 

 

[Cato]

6 hours ago, jd56hawk said:

 

 

 

Weird video.

 

OK the volume issue on the G String is disapointing but as far as I'm concerned he completely undermines his complaints about the overall tone of the bass because, g string uneven volume thing aside, to me it sounds good every time he plays it, even when he's supposed to be demonstrating how bad it is, and especially good with distortion.

 

Even the G string sounds OK when he's playing on all strings, although obviously it shouldn't be getting louder as he bends it inwards.

 

The tone thing is subjective  but the bass sounds more or less like I would have expected an instrument with a big humbucker in the middle position and a 2nd pickup right up against the bridge to sound.

Edited September 5, 2023 by Cato

[Baloney Balderdash]

1 hour ago, Cato said:

 

Weird video.

 

OK the volume issue on the G String is pretty dissapointing but as far as I'm concerned he completely undermines his complaints about the overall tone of the bass because, g string uneven volume thing aside, to me it sounds good every time he plays it, even when he's supposed to be demonstrating how bad it is, and especially good with distortion.

 

Even the G string sounds OK when he's playing on all strings, although obviously it shouldn't be getting louder as he bends it inwards.

 

The tone thing is subjective  but the bass sounds more or less like I would have expected an instrument with a big humbucker in the middle position and a 2nd pickup right up against the bridge to sound.

Well, he is a bit of an odd reviewer, he tends to repeat himself a lot, with a lot of insertion of repeated expressions that really doesn't add any meaning or serves any real purpose except for making him able to keep speaking without pauses, and then he tends to somehow make all the basses he reviews sound more or less identical (a tone that I by the way personally find rather bland). 

 

Edited September 5, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Woodinblack]

so what he says is that he is dissapointed that the Mike Kerr Sig jaguar he got doesn't sound like he wants it to sound unless he adds some compression or distortion, like, err.. Mike Kerr?

[Beedster]

On 01/09/2023 at 21:20, JohnDaBass said:

Yup as with all first run production, processes are not fully bedded in so there could be a few issues. 

 

Mmm, if Fender were venturing into, I don't know, oboes, cor anglais, or bassoons, then I'd agree. But irrespective of the different (for Fender) PUP configuration, this is nothing more than two bits of wood that are pretty much the same that Fender have been making since 1951 that need to be aligned with a couple of bits of metal. No bedding in of processes required to my mind.

 

Having said that, it's good to see Fender doing something that isn't a J or P derivative for sure, 

[Beedster]

But this is really not good

 

 

[Baloney Balderdash]

Seems like it paid off firing all those people last year, huh?

 

Next time though it might be worth to consider not to base who is fired on who are not cross-eyed, and instead base it on who are.

 

And stop making it count extra on job applications if you are.

 

Edited September 5, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Beedster]

Although his bridge setup doesn't help, bridge doesn't look great?