Just watched Jonny Dibble’s latest video, and I can relate so much that I simply have to post it… 
Some of you might remember why.
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I really hate when I have to crank my volume for a YouTube video, so that I can forget and get obliterated by the next one with good levels (apparently he gets louder voice-wise later)
I had this same experience with a several hundred dollar Indonesian Ibanez, too, a GWB35. Nothing when plugged in, or it was crackly. The build quality was noticeably below the first one I got that Fedex lovingly managed to punch a hole in the finish of.
…loool was typing as I listened/watched, and his second one dies mid-video 
Good lord…
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Damn that’s hilarious.
The pearl white version could look great but it’s impossible to tell what they might sound like when working. I think I’ll pass.
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Yeah that is harsh. But lets be fair. Fender owns Squier. But Squier basses are made in Indonesia or sometimes China.
Fender on the other hand is made in either USA, Mexico or Japan. So the title should be The Squier Experience, no?
Anyway you slice it, that’s really poor QC.
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That second burst was hideous
I mean in addition to being suicidal halfway through the first usage. And the tone while alive was nothing special. I had pretty high hopes for a H+P too.
No, the title is exactly what it should be. I had the exact same experience with two MIM Fender Duffs, had to return both.
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Eh. I’d stack all four of the Indonesia-made basses/guitars I have owned up against any MIM or MIJ Fender, quality-wise, and two of them against MIA. And the bass I have that was made in Taiwan is as good or better than MIA’s.
Fender owns Squier. They are responsible for its quality.
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Fair enough. The latest figures I could find for total guitar/bass sales in the US alone was $1.67 billion for 2020. Unsurprisingly, some of those are gonna be rubbish. I’m sorry two of those were yours. But add in Covid affecting the labour in factories, record demand and I can’t believe there’s not more of this sort of thing.
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Yeah. I think there’s a lot more quality variance in the last year or so than I remember seeing people complain about, coupled with the weird demand spike in the US driving supply down and prices up. It’s not like that here, plenty of availability, everything is stocked, especially for domestic brands like Yamaha and Ibanez, or the MIJ Fenders. Not sure about Europe.
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I bought my SC-607 from Sweetwater when it was the only one and they didn’t even have pictures of it up, yet.
Right after that, they got 4-5 more in and had them all up. I think they were gone a week later? 5 $1250 guitars, poof, like a fart in the wind.
Mine was made in June or July 2021 and they just got it in January 2022. It’s pretty wild. zZounds had one Daniel Firth Hellraiser-5 in stock, and it’s gone, now, too, and nobody really seems to have it. A $1650 bass.
Even Fluence told me they are having trouble stocking their pickups to people. It’s crazy.
And Fender has the absolute conceit balls audacity to raise prices by $250 on their American (Professionals?) and sell $600 Squiers, and $900 MIMs.
The world has gone insane. If Schecter raises the price signifigantly on that Firth, I simply won’t get it. I’m already waiting for the stars to align and for Musician’s Friend to have it in stock during a 15% off or better sale. Or put it on a card with a large account behind it so it can hit when it hits. But so far Schecter seems to be fairly kind on all the price gouging inflation/supply and demand. I think anyway, unless I missed something.
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Here’s the thing. This is capitalism. Companies price their product for the maximum amount of profit. Are there better basses for the money than a Fender? Yes absolutely, @howard could easily reel off 10 better basses from his neck of the woods without breaking sweat (see countless other threads about this very subject).
Nobody is forcing any of us to buy this stuff. Don’t like it? Don’t buy it. However, there are still reasonably priced alternatives; Look at Harley Benton, they’re practically paying you to take the bass from them.
Fender isn’t the Salvation Army, they’re a business. Period.
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I think there’s a lot of room to argue/complain about Fender’s pricing. It’s literally my only beef with them. They are like a Ford F-150; an excellent, solid choice no one would really argue with - not perfect for every use case but generally good overall and with a lot of utility.
The problem is when the F-150’s price is jacked up to Audi and BMW levels. At which point it is competing with them, and often on their home turf.
Which is of course also capitalism
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I quite literally said I wouldn’t buy a very specific Schecter if they did the same sort of thing, so I definitely “don’t buy it if I don’t like it.” I’m quite aware of how capitalism works, and that Fender is a business and not a charity. A business that I think is getting to be pretty full of itself, and possibly even abusing their reputation in order to sell guitars, which is the intended tone behind my comment. Of course, trading on reputation to release an inferior product is also capitalism.
Fender, like Nestle water, is on the low end of companies I would purchase from. I was actually left feeling kinda let down when Fender bought PreSonus because I liked that company a lot. I won’t stop using Studio One over it, but it’ll probably make me think a lot more on a v6 upgrade once that comes out.
Harley Benton is definitely not paying US customers to take them when shipping from Thomann adds 50% to the cost 
(I’m being facetious here, please don’t take that one seriously)
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Sure, I don’t take much seriously. But the US isn’t the only country in the world. I know some of you think that it is 
but there’s a lot going on outside of it.
I don’t see the point in complaining about a product’s price that you don’t want to buy. I have no interest in Gucci clothing. Is it expensive? Probably, but I don’t care about it so it doesn’t bother me.
Example Harley Benton P Bass copy $140 US plus $10 shipping to the UK.
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Wow. I bought my PB20-SBK not two weeks ago and it was much cheaper. That was quick. Even with shipping, it was less than a Squier.
With shipping, a DiMarzio Relentless pickup, and a Fender HiMass Bridge, it’s cheaper than the Squier Classic Vibe and Paranormal basses, and without shipping it would be cheaper than the Affinity basses with all the upgrades.
The world is mad.
I got an Ibanez SR600E last year, and lost the signal if you adjusted the mids. Like lost it completely. Also got an ESP LTD GB4 with no treble. It totally stinks when the bass you wanted fails out the box. Feels for Johnny, and turn up the volume mate!
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I have to say the Fender I have does have some issues. It has a weird problem where I get bone crushing fret buzz, but only when I play an octave on the 8th fret of e string and 10th fret of d string. I get no buzz other than that. Its a flea Jazz bass and he uses that octave in a ton of songs…
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Sounds like truss rod or string height adjustment not QC.
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I have 9 Fenders.
5 MIJs - no issues
1 - MIA - no issues
1 - MIM - no issues
2 - MII Squires - no issues
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I’ve had 5 Fenders and none of them had an issue.
I have a Charvel now which is perfect.
Don’t know.
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I have a couple fenders. They are on my truck. Well, i guess all vehicles have them. Again, i tried but i ain’t special. I played the one the guy down the hall has. It wasn’t for me. after about 30 minutes i realized i didn’t like it at all.
I’ll pass on the fender experience. There are many brands out there, and i like several models made by them.
Isn’t refusing to do things the way everyone else did the basis of rock and roll music? And specifically punk rock?
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