Fender "innovation" launch

[Chrishi_J]

3 hours ago, Beedster said:

Man I've been looking for one of those for ages.......

 

That makes me feel bad for my silver one... sitting in it´s case for ages 😥

[Beedster]

3 minutes ago, Chrishi_J said:

 

That makes me feel bad for my silver one... sitting in it´s case for ages 😥

 

Sell it to me, it'll make it feel better 👍

[Beedster]

3 hours ago, Chiliwailer said:

I got very lucky, posted a wanted advert and @hiram.k.hackenbacker sold me his. 
 

Don’t want to rub it in Chris, but I’m having so much fun with it, the tone is outrageous and just makes me think of his live tone, and some tunes from Dream Canteen. The pickup is very well designed IMO.  I only bought it as my other basses have flats but I like to jam to RHCP with rounds sometimes - so job done 👌

 

Do you know which PUP and circuit they are Dan? As I mentioned the other day, I'm planning to out-innovate Fender on this with a Jazz body routed for MM PUP and a Status Graphite Jazz neck; it'll sit somewhere between the Modulus Flea and the Fender Active Flea Jazz sig you have - give it 5-years and Fender will release it as the Beedster Signature model 👍

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

Something just occurred to me - this is "innovation"... for Fender.  Seen in their own bubble (the "Fenderverse"?) these changes could be seen as "innovative"?

 

I'm trying to be nice here.

As far as I can see, there are no 'new' features as such, just a collection of previous ideas put all together for the first time (not sure it would be the first time either).

 

I guess it's hard to be innovative when you're such an icon in the industry, as every time they have gone 'off piste' they've not really sold that well. It's not their fault, it's stick in the mud players. Whilst not nearly as bad as guitar players in this respect, bassists are not a lot better. We didn't exactly go mad for the Millennium or Meteora. "How many guitarists/bassists does it take to change a light bulb? 50. 1 to change it and 49 others others to talk about how good the old one was."

[Chiliwailer]

29 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

Do you know which PUP and circuit they are Dan? As I mentioned the other day, I'm planning to out-innovate Fender on this with a Jazz body routed for MM PUP and a Status Graphite Jazz neck; it'll sit somewhere between the Modulus Flea and the Fender Active Flea Jazz sig you have - give it 5-years and Fender will release it as the Beedster Signature model 👍

It has a Fender pup designed by Tim Shaw, and the Aguilar OBP-1 preamp.

 

 

[prowla]

3 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

I'm having a pickle and cheese sandwich.  Yes - I put the pickle down first then put cheese on top!  Innovative?  It's borderline debauchery!

Interestingly, I did that yesterday too!

[neepheid]

Just now, prowla said:

Interestingly, I did that yesterday too!

 

It's a race to the patent office!

 

[chris_b]

Sales of a superlight range of Precision and Jazz basses, with top quality build, components and materials, wold tap markets Fender are ignoring. The "oldies" have the cash, have played Fender in the past and would probably buy a Fender again, if it suited their requirements.

[itu]

...but if F has bought timber for the next 200 years, a lightweight bass is coming in the near future. As an innovation.

[Wolverinebass]

Meanwhile, Ernie Ball prove they have mastered innovation "with 6 new finish colours."

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/gvMW8ACSygqzjzQJ/

 

I await the autumn colour collection from other manufacturers soon. Possibly in association with Kevin McCloud, Dulux or Crown.

[Beedster]

25 minutes ago, Wolverinebass said:

Meanwhile, Ernie Ball prove they have mastered innovation "with 6 new finish colours."

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/gvMW8ACSygqzjzQJ/

 

I await the autumn colour collection from other manufacturers soon. Possibly in association with Kevin McCloud, Dulux or Crown.

Or Ford 👍

[Kev]

2 hours ago, Wolverinebass said:

Meanwhile, Ernie Ball prove they have mastered innovation "with 6 new finish colours."

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/gvMW8ACSygqzjzQJ/

 

I await the autumn colour collection from other manufacturers soon. Possibly in association with Kevin McCloud, Dulux or Crown.

Note how they don't claim innovation though! 😅

[Wolverinebass]

10 minutes ago, Kev said:

Note how they don't claim innovation though! 😅

I did indeed notice that Kev. Just as well really!

 

We both know it's a slippery slope though. First you're announcing sparkly colours, the next you're trying to suggest a bass which looks like a crushed piece of rocky road cake and saying it's "technological wizardry greater than sending the first human being to Mars." Before you know what's happened, you've went full robo-tuners and you've went bankrupt. It's a tightrope. Or you could just crank out another slightly different precision.

 

I wonder who will announce their new sunburst finish before the end of the week? Maybe all manufacturers have a calendar and they all do it in the same week? 

 

I'll get the popcorn ready as this is going to be high octane entertainment.

[Beedster]

12 hours ago, neepheid said:

Something just occurred to me - this is "innovation"... for Fender.  Seen in their own bubble (the "Fenderverse"?) these changes could be seen as "innovative"?

 

I'm trying to be nice here.

 

Fair point, not unlike the Ric 5'er or EBMM shortie then? 

 

It's probably worth calibrating our expectations of Fender by comparison with what is (or has been) considered innovative in the case of other instruments? Double bass for example, um, graphite end-pin? Acoustic guitar, bowl backs? Drums, um..........?

[Stub Mandrel]

13 minutes ago, Wolverinebass said:

I wonder who will announce their new sunburst finish before the end of the week?

 

I said Antigua counted as an innovation (first turdburst guitars).

[neepheid]

2 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

I said Antigua counted as an innovation (first turdburst guitars).

 

I call it "snotburst"

[MichaelDean]

7 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

Drums, um..........?

I've seen some that tune with a metal wire instead of tension rods. Seems pretty cool. You just twist a thing that looks like a machine head and it alters the tuning of the drum quickly and evenly. 

 

https://www.welchtuningsystems.com

[Cosmo Valdemar]

41 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

I call it "snotburst"

Pub toilet burst

[Wolverinebass]

19 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

Pub toilet burst pipe.

Fixed, my dear boy.

[tauzero]

16 hours ago, eude said:

There could be a job for you at Fender HQ in the “secret plans and clever tricks” department...

 

"I know - we'll put the neck at that end and the body at that end!"

[Delberthot]

And all the while there's a Fender exec laughing their ass off because there's a UK bass forum with 52000 members having an 8 page thread discussing their basses. Likely the same scenario over at Talkbs.

 

I call reverse physchology! Fender are clevererer than this  - the whole innovation thing is surely tongue in cheek as they know they are just making some tweaks to a 60+ year old design because that's what they make their money on. And all the while we're also talking about other models, not just the ones they are currently churning out. It's money in the bank I tells ya.

[eude]

33 minutes ago, Delberthot said:

And all the while there's a Fender exec laughing their ass off because there's a UK bass forum with 52000 members having an 8 page thread discussing their basses. Likely the same scenario over at Talkbs.

 

I call reverse physchology! Fender are clevererer than this  - the whole innovation thing is surely tongue in cheek as they know they are just making some tweaks to a 60+ year old design because that's what they make their money on. And all the while we're also talking about other models, not just the ones they are currently churning out. It's money in the bank I tells ya.

I guess if this is an exercise in seeing what they should've done, then yes, they might well be laughing their asses off I guess?

 

I think there's a lot more people over on TalkBass who are happy to drink Fender's Kool-Aid, but I think is Brits aren't convinced 😎

[Beedster]

1 hour ago, Delberthot said:

And all the while there's a Fender exec laughing their ass off because there's a UK bass forum with 52000 members having an 8 page thread discussing their basses. Likely the same scenario over at Talkbs.

 

I call reverse physchology! Fender are clevererer than this  - the whole innovation thing is surely tongue in cheek as they know they are just making some tweaks to a 60+ year old design because that's what they make their money on. And all the while we're also talking about other models, not just the ones they are currently churning out. It's money in the bank I tells ya.

I think you're overestimating their ability to play psychological games in the marketplace (which would anyway amount to Russian Roulette), and underestimating the level of hard-wired groupthink in Fender. Much as the engineers at Apple used to be somewhere between tears and hysteria at the unveiling of a new model that was at best an incremental improvement on the previous model, the folks at Fender see this Innovation Series as innovation plain and simple.

 

I imagine there's a sign placed directly over the entrance to the Fender Boardroom, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it....'. 

[Beedster]

Fender aren't alone after all  

 

[wateroftyne]

Here’s an exclusive look at the brief for these new Fenders: