New Fender Standard Series Basses!

[tegs07]

26 minutes ago, Terry M. said:

Just curious if you tried any non Fender P type basses in your quest before settling on the Nate Mendel?

I have a Sandberg California which is a slightly different league. I still pick up the Fender more often though…

Edited February 19 by tegs07

[Grassie]

Some thoughts:

Maybe by making F branded product in Indonesia Fender are considering phasing out the Squier brand. Someone mentioned it earlier and if they’re going to go the far east route with western branding then it actually makes a lot of sense

 

I wouldn’t be surprised if they go back to the OG branding first - the very early Squiers were stamped with a large Fender logo with a small Squier stamp underneath.

 

Fender regularly proclaim that they’re innovating with this that and the other, but other than different body shapes (Dimension, Meteora) their innovations are few and far between. I’d be far more interested in new instruments from them if they adopted some of the ideas they’ve had when building signature models and made them standard across all their ranges. For example, giving us more frets, downsizing the headstock, making the necks shallower, as you’d find on the Flea active jazz and the long forgotten Stu Hamm sig basses. Hell, even reintroducing the Lyte range as a permanent model. 
 

I honestly believe Squier’s days are numbered with this move to making Fender branded models in the far east.

[Stub Mandrel]

31 minutes ago, Grassie said:

I honestly believe Squier’s days are numbered with this move to making Fender branded models in the far east.

 

I very much doubt that.

[Cato]

I'm not sure why Fender get singled out for lack of innovation.

 

I don't think there have been any major innovations in bass design that have actually stuck from anyone since the late 70s/80s when active electronics and headless instruments entered mainstream production.

 

Since then everything seems to be tweaking the same , often Fender inspired, designs.

 

The only other major change in the landscape of electric guitars and basses I can think of in the last 50 or so years has been the dramatic improvement in the quality of budget instruments over the last decade or two.

Edited February 20 by Cato

[mikebass456]

6 hours ago, Grassie said:

Some thoughts:

Maybe by making F branded product in Indonesia Fender are considering phasing out the Squier brand. Someone mentioned it earlier and if they’re going to go the far east route with western branding then it actually makes a lot of sense

 

I wouldn’t be surprised if they go back to the OG branding first - the very early Squiers were stamped with a large Fender logo with a small Squier stamp underneath.

 

Fender regularly proclaim that they’re innovating with this that and the other, but other than different body shapes (Dimension, Meteora) their innovations are few and far between. I’d be far more interested in new instruments from them if they adopted some of the ideas they’ve had when building signature models and made them standard across all their ranges. For example, giving us more frets, downsizing the headstock, making the necks shallower, as you’d find on the Flea active jazz and the long forgotten Stu Hamm sig basses. Hell, even reintroducing the Lyte range as a permanent model. 
 

I honestly believe Squier’s days are numbered with this move to making Fender branded models in the far east.

The Lyte bass was one of the few that I used to own and wish I had never got rid of now.........😉👍

[Terry M.]

1 hour ago, Cato said:

I'm not sure why Fender get singled out for lack of innovation.

It could be because their two most famous designs look virtually the same since inception. A 2025 Volkswagen Golf looks very different from the version released in the 70s to use a motoring analogy. It's interesting that builders such as Sadowsky and Mike Lull don't appear to catch any heat from copying those same designs however and Fender got it in the neck when the Dimension was released for copying the Stingray concept. 

[Muzz]

Just to throw something else out there, and as detailed elsewhere on here, last year I picked up a Squier Sonic P new for £145 on the basis of 'How bad could it actually be?' (oh, and the fact it's very, very light (well under 8lbs)...yeah, I'm a glass-backed owd codger masquerading as a rock star) and it's a very good bass. Some tweaks to make it align more with my requirements (including a DiMarzio pup and one of Fender's own (much better) £35 bridges), and it's my main gigging bass. Now I know at the very bottom end of the model range I may have lucked out with a particularly good one (QC-wise), but it really is a good bass, and a great platform if you, like me, are an inveterate tinkerer, and are old enough not to get hung up on what it says on the headstock...

[JohnDaBass]

And here is another Fender from Indonesia SS KIngman V2

[okusman]

On 17/02/2025 at 17:25, Geek99 said:

I’d get the squier

I went back today and did just that.

Took a “second opinion” to check….but the Squier was head and shoulders a better finished and playing instrument.

[Geek99]

11 minutes ago, okusman said:

I went back today and did just that.

Took a “second opinion” to check….but the Squier was head and shoulders a better finished and playing instrument.

Good work 

now hit us up with photo-pron before we boil over 

[Terry M.]

16 minutes ago, okusman said:

I went back today and did just that.

Took a “second opinion” to check….but the Squier was head and shoulders a better finished and playing instrument.

Which is why I bought the Squier Affinty Active Jazz V. I almost feel like I'm being pranked. It's that good. Good choice on your part.

[kwmlondon]

On 20/02/2025 at 07:26, Terry M. said:

It could be because their two most famous designs look virtually the same since inception. A 2025 Volkswagen Golf looks very different from the version released in the 70s to use a motoring analogy. It's interesting that builders such as Sadowsky and Mike Lull don't appear to catch any heat from copying those same designs however and Fender got it in the neck when the Dimension was released for copying the Stingray concept. 

It's all about what you can trademark. I guess Fender didn't take the threat from copies seriously when they were cheap and bad - they gave people a taste for the guitar and aspire to a Fender one day. The lawsuits started flying when Japanese manufacturers started making products better than the origina and they could no longer own the Stra, Tele, Precision or Jazz shapes as they were ubiqutous, but the scroll headstock was a feature they could control. Must have been an interesteding meeting when they decided they'd be better off licensing out the Fender name and just take a percentage - amazing how quickly a knock-off copy becomes a MIJ. I'm sure there are lots of lessons here.

Edited February 21 by kwmlondon

[DGBass]

Just my tuppence worth on these new standard basses after seeing them in the flesh today at a well kent guitar store down the Trongate in Glasgow. They look well made with good fit and finish, however a few examples of Player and Player II basses hanging next to them easily outshone them for looks and overall finish imho. The Player basses were between £200-300 more expensive but would have got my money if i wanted a Fender logo on my bass. The black Fender logo on the standards looks a little tacky and cheap, and perhaps too reminiscent of budget Squier Affinity models imho, not that i'm knocking Affinity basses. Comparing them to another raft of Squier basses hanging next in line, the Squier basses looked just as good if not better than the standards. Again, the price difference between Squier and Standard varies between £200-300 and it looks like a deliberate pricing structure from Fender to fill a gap. Of course looks, fit and finish are only a small part of it, how they sound and play/feel is probably more important. I would have loved to have reported on the sonic aspects, but of course as a leftie player, Fender have all but removed all leftie Squier options these days (except one black Jazz) and completely removed Player/Player II leftie options. I'll get my coat before a leftie rant ensues😉 Anyway, im sure the new standards sound fine. You can't see the headstock while you are playing anyway so does it really matter to the masses if its a solid black Fender logo or a traditional gold / silver spaghetti logo?

[Terry M.]

1 hour ago, DGBass said:

and perhaps too reminiscent of budget Squier Affinity models imho, not that i'm knocking Affinity basses. 

This. And I have a new Squier Affinty bass.

 

[kodiakblair]

On 21/02/2025 at 14:32, kwmlondon said:

The lawsuits started flying

Urban myth.

 

There was only ever one law suit. Gibson filed against Ibanez over the 'open book' style peghead.

Never saw trial as Ibanez had went with a different shape before any date was set.

 

That's the whole 'law suit' saga in a nutshell.

 

In the 90's Fender tried to retro-file their body shapes as a trademark, but this was in the USA and again never gained any traction. 

[kwmlondon]

8 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

Urban myth.

 

There was only ever one law suit. Gibson filed against Ibanez over the 'open book' style peghead.

Never saw trial as Ibanez had went with a different shape before any date was set.

 

That's the whole 'law suit' saga in a nutshell.

 

In the 90's Fender tried to retro-file their body shapes as a trademark, but this was in the USA and again never gained any traction. 

Really? That's interesting. I didn't know that.

[Terry M.]

On 25/01/2025 at 12:35, AndyTravis said:

I really like the blue.

 

As for the price/origin…

 

if they play right…sound good…🤷🏻‍♂️

Today I was in Wunjos on London's Denmark St. I tried a MIM Fender Player Jazz Bass V and an American Pro Jazz Bass V,both passive 5 strings with the American literally costing double the price of the Mexican. I'm just echoing your point made here. I would have totally taken the Mexican one out of those two examples. The B string on the American sounded awful to make things even worse. Country of origin is so irrelevant if the bass bonds with you.

Edited February 27 by Terry M.

[LeftyJ]

On 21/02/2025 at 15:32, kwmlondon said:

Must have been an interesteding meeting when they decided they'd be better off licensing out the Fender name and just take a percentage - amazing how quickly a knock-off copy becomes a MIJ. I'm sure there are lots of lessons here.

 

I think in Fender's case the MIJ adventure started out of necessity after the buyout from CBS. As I understand it, Dan Smith (who worked at Yamaha before he came to Fender) was tasked with getting the quality to a higher standard, and he decided the US factory had become so sloppy that they had to fully go over their processes and retrain their factory workers. During this period no US Fenders were built. The first JV Series came about because Fender management needed a facility to craft Fenders so they could keep their sales going. The original Fender Japan was a joint venture between FMIC and a consortium of Japanese manufacturers. Starting from 2015, Fender disbanded the joint venture and took production into their own hands. 

 

14 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

Urban myth.

 

There was only ever one law suit. Gibson filed against Ibanez over the 'open book' style peghead.

Never saw trial as Ibanez had went with a different shape before any date was set.

 

That's the whole 'law suit' saga in a nutshell.

 

In the 90's Fender tried to retro-file their body shapes as a trademark, but this was in the USA and again never gained any traction. 

 

Better be careful spewing such reckless misinformation, a certain blasphemous @NancyJohnson of this parish got banned from a Facebook group for that 

[Geek99]

6 minutes ago, LeftyJ said:

 

I think in Fender's case the MIJ adventure started out of necessity after the buyout from CBS. As I understand it, Dan Smith (who worked at Yamaha before he came to Fender) was tasked with getting the quality to a higher standard, and he decided the US factory had become so sloppy that they had to fully go over their processes and retrain their factory workers. During this period no US Fenders were built. The first JV Series came about because Fender management needed a facility to craft Fenders so they could keep their sales going. The original Fender Japan was a joint venture between FMIC and a consortium of Japanese manufacturers. Starting from 2015, Fender disbanded the joint venture and took production into their own hands. 

 

 

Better be careful spewing such reckless misinformation, a certain blasphemous @NancyJohnson of this parish got banned from a Facebook group for that 

Unless I miss your drift, he claimed it was information rather than misinformation 

[neepheid]

Just now, Geek99 said:

Unless I miss your drift, he claimed it was information rather than misinformation 

 

You did miss it - sarcasm is dripping off of it.  "Misinformation" in this context means "facts which don't fit my narrative".

[Geek99]

17 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

You did miss it - sarcasm is dripping off of it.  "Misinformation" in this context means "facts which don't fit my narrative".

Probably.

[kodiakblair]

44 minutes ago, LeftyJ said:

Better be careful spewing such reckless misinformation

What were you were saying? 

 

 

https://vintagejapanguitars.com/the-true-story-of-lawsuit-guitars/

 

https://www.adkguitar.com/blogs/news/what-do-we-mean-when-we-say-lawsuit-guitar#:~:text=THE Lawsuit Guitar,that lawsuits were very rare.

 

https://flypaper.soundfly.com/discover/truth-lawsuit-era-guitars/

 

 

[neepheid]

2 minutes ago, kodiakblair said:

What were you were saying? 

 

 

https://vintagejapanguitars.com/the-true-story-of-lawsuit-guitars/

 

https://www.adkguitar.com/blogs/news/what-do-we-mean-when-we-say-lawsuit-guitar#:~:text=THE Lawsuit Guitar,that lawsuits were very rare.

 

https://flypaper.soundfly.com/discover/truth-lawsuit-era-guitars/

 

 

 

I really think it's sarcasm.  Go read it again?

[Geek99]

5 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

I really think it's sarcasm.  Go read it again?

I think it’s irony as it’s about a situation. I’m 

[kodiakblair]

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

 

I really think it's sarcasm.  Go read it again?

Just had a saw slip, ripped down length of the thumb and bite a chunk out the index finger.

 

Logged into BC while waiting on the blood to congeal, might have affected my sarcasm detection skills 👍