New from Fender

[Dave W]

Flea Signature J

$1200 street price for a roadworn MIM with upgraded pickups? Hardcore Flea fans will probably bite, seems a little steep for anyone else. At that price, I hope they include a sock (but not the one he used).

CS Pete Townshend Strat

A Strat with Lace Sensor Golds, a Fishman Powerbridge Piezo, and Pete's approval = yours for only $6500. 

[Psycho Bass Guy]

It's a shame too. Those Roadworn Mexi J's are KILLER, but $1200??? Fender hasn't been paying attention to the economy.

[Alanko]

A bunch of those Flea basses have been snapped up on Basschat.

I like neither the look nor the tone Pete gets with those Strats. For a guy that would run P90-equipped SGs into Hiwatts his 'new' rig (since 1989 at least) doesn't sound as good. Then again I'm not a fan of the tone of Fender guitar amps under duress anyway. Some naff '80s 'improved' Strat into an MXR Dynacomp, Boss OD pedal and gunned Fender amps just screams of 'deaf old man guitarist' to me. Old-boy rockers who still refer to treble as 'top'.

That signature Strat looks like something a kid in a (guitar) candy shop would cook up circa 1989, right enough. Piezo bridge, Lace pickups, naff active circuitry, jolly ketchup red finish... a tired look on a way overpriced instrument.

[slinkp]

I like Pete's strat + fender amp sound, personally.   Not nearly as much as I love the P90 + Hiwatt sound.  In comparison his "new" rig is a bit bland and generic.   But compare it to the awful scooped live tone he had in the early 80s playing Schecters (through Hiwatts).  I don't know what the hell was going on then.

[Alanko]

I imagine cocaine was involved. Looks like Pete is wearing makeup in that video. 

[Chris P.]

I think Pete's SG/Hiwatt-sound (or LP with Mini-Humbuckers) is one of the best guitar sounds ever. I saw Neil Young last week with Old Black and that's the only one competing. But...

I saw The Who three times the last couple of years and the first two times I wasn't very impressed by Pete's sound. Too thin, not very powerfull. The last time I saw 'm was just after their triumphant shows at Glastonbury and in Hyde Park. It was the only show after that weekend before the summer break of the tour and it seemed they wanted to make one, last big party. They were in the best mood ever, Roger didn't wanted to to leave the stage afterwards and I think Pete cranked up his amps or something. His guitar sound was louder, rougher, better, cruchier, and looser than the previous two times. He sounded a bit like the old Pete and I loved every single second it! I was really impressed.

The piezo on his guitar is a nice addition live. In some songs he can go from sounding acoustic to electric, without changing guitars. Nice for songs like Pinball Wizard.

The Road Worn Mexican Fenders are not much cheaper in The Netherlands than the Flea Sig. And I like the specs of the Flea sig: colour and stacked controls.

[Dave W]

I don't like the artificial wear or the color.

The original road worn J was something like $900, now I see it has gone up to $1100, so there's not much difference here either.

[rockinrayduke]

Did the RW P-Bass thing, sold it. At least it was halfway affordable, this one, meh. Not a big fan of manufactured mojo.

[ilan]

FWIW, a certain MIM Roadworn Jazz (Fiesta Red) I once played in a music store was one of the best sounding/playing Jazz basses I have ever played, old or new.

[dadagoboi]

I don't like the artificial wear or the color.

The original road worn J was something like $900, now I see it has gone up to $1100, so there's not much difference here either.

It's a replica of the '60 (or '61?) bass given to Flea by a fan around 10 years ago...it was pristine then, valued at around $40K IIRC.

The color is Shell Pink.

[gearHed289]

FWIW, a certain MIM Roadworn Jazz (Fiesta Red) I once played in a music store was one of the best sounding/playing Jazz basses I have ever played, old or new.

That's the weird thing about Fenders - you never know when or where you're going to find one that's really great.

[Dave W]

It's a replica of the '60 (or '61?) bass given to Flea by a fan around 10 years ago...it was pristine then, valued at around $40K IIRC.

The color is Shell Pink.

Yep. I don't like it. Reminds me of thinned Pepto-Bismol.

It wouldn't be so bad if they hadn't added the fake wear.

That's the weird thing about Fenders - you never know when or where you're going to find one that's really great.

So true. But I still wouldn't buy anything with fake wear, no matter how good it sounds.

[Alanko]

Flea added a sticker of D. Boon to his original bass. Do Fender include this in the case candy?

Fender made a slight faux pas with their promotional imagery used at events like NAMM. As somebody on Talkbass pointed out, the chosen shot unfortunately aligns Flea's left pinkie finger with one of the inlays, creating the illusion of a pimp nail. Woops!

These seem to retail for £882.00 in the UK, which isn't too bad but is a cut above a MIM Standard. I consider the stack-knob configuration to be quite cool, but still an electrical blunder on Leo's part in its original permutation. Having converted a Jazz to a stack configuration I can say that it is a bit of a pain to use.

The wear doesn't bother me too much, but it is not my thing. I'm put off simply by the fact that the wear is identical on all these basses, which seems contrary to the whole individualist aspect that makes relic finishes appealing in the first place. I wager the finishes aren't 100% nitro anyway, and will be modern nitro formulated with plasticisers sprayed over a Poly undercoat. I don't see how any of these 'improvements' enhance the tone of the instrument.

People on Basschat have had one or two issues with the bass. One unlucky soul found that a factory worker had brute-forced an ill fitting pickup cover onto the bridge pickup, crowning out the screws and distorting the cover.

[Dave W]

All modern nitros are different from what was used in 1961, due to environmental regulations. AFAIK, no way to reproduce old formulas commercially. Besides, Fender stopped using nitro as a sealer coat in 1955.

Despite all the propaganda in guitar literature and forums over the years, nitrocellulose lacquer is a plastic finish. It's the first commercially successful plastic finish.

[Alanko]

I didn't realise it was as early as 1955.  I'm guessing the sanding sealer coat is 'Fullerplast'? That just reinforces my opinion; Leo Fender was using all of this stuff to save costs and produce a product quickly. I do find it amusing that Fender's PR department have claimed that Nitro lets the wood 'breathe' because it comes from plants, or some bollocks like that. Even calling these modern nitro finished 'lacquer' to differentiate them in the catalogue seems fairly deceitful.

At the bottom of all of this I don't see Leo Fender spraying a half dozen different finishes commercially available circa 1951 onto body blanks and then tapping them to see which one resonated more. Had modern poly finishes been available to him he would have probably used those. I think poly gets a bad rap because it is used on cheaper instruments and because some Japanese manufacturers did use legitimately thick, brittle poly finishes in the '70s, at a time when people seem to be trying hard to discredit import instruments.

Maybe, lastly, there is a bit of a gratification element at play as well. Nitro ages way quicker than poly, so it shows clearly that you have been woodshedding on your instrument.