pjmuck wrote:
You can spend thousands of dollars on a custom bass (Fodera, Alembic, Ritter, etc), add all the bling you want (or as my 13 year old son refers to it, "drip"), all the bells, whistles, etc. you want, but at the end of the day a stock Fender P or J simply get the job done again and again. They are the benchmark by which all basses have been measured for 70+ years, and still are. Think about it, some of the most iconic bassists in history have not only played them, but prefer them, despite have all the money in the world to buy anything they want.
I did a recording session recently, and I brought along a P bass with flats, a G&L L2000 Tribute, a Stingray, and my Rick. Wouldn't you know it, the P bass killed the others in the mix. They just work. But I'm primarily a J player, and IMO, the Fender Jazz is the greatest bass ever made. So versatile for any application. (Don't know why I didn't bring it, LOL, but something told me the P would work).
I was in a recording studio, doing a demo with a cover band, and usually, I'd have taken another bass, but had the jazz at hand for some reason. I was worried that it wouldn't have the bottom end of my other basses. And on. playback, that bass was pumping. Fantastic lows and clear highs, it's like playing two basses at one time. Since that time, it's become a fretless, and my number one non-ric is the frankenbass I put together from two AmPro JBs.
Agreed!