New Fender Player Jaguar PF Tidepool model for 2018

[Embenny]

And the technology! Jesus Christ. Sure, I like the sound of vintage voiced pickups, but are we really considering that the technology of guitar pickups peaked in 1958 and there's nothing else to be done?

And it all comes through inexpensive soldered components- guitarists can't tolerate the idea of a chipset in there- running right out of a 1/4" mono jack.

Quick: tell me another technology that still uses the 1/4" jack? It works for audio because it's cheap and rugged, and very simple so it can be used by anyone, there's no firmware and shit to deal with.

But in the age of computer recording, why aren't USB ports on electric guitars?

I mean, I don't know, I'm not the visionary here. But it's pretty easy to see that the electric guitar is in a creative and technological rut where conservative outlook has killed off any kind of innovation even possible.

I can't imagine handing my kid my ten thousand dollar 1959 Les Paul reissue and gravely intoning about how this is a period accurate replica of the guitar that Eric Clapton used on the Beano album and him giving any kind of fuck at all.

Larry, have you ever played a Variax?

Digital transmission to amp (in some cases), firmware-driven, can output different tunings from the one you're physically playing in, gets all manners of tones, can access those tones digitally via footswitches with a POD.

I bought the cheap version of their first model, the Variax 300, and the two knocks against it were that it played like shit and the palm muted tones did not sound remotely like a regular electric guitar. It's been a decade since then, so I'm sure the new ones bear little resemblance to it, much like a Helix sounds pretty different from a POD 1.0 jellybean. Some of the guitars they're putting variax electronics into look like high-quality pieces of wood, which is a nice change from the plywood-feeling POS I had.

Anyway, that might be an avenue worth exploring if you can track one down to test drive. I can't think of any guitar more innovative than that in the last 40 years.

[Larry Mal]

.

[leokula]

I think there are too many purists out there with all these preconceived notions or superstitions about what makes a guitar sound good. Makers have tried using synthetic materials to replace some endangered tonewood and purists reject them because using wood type A makes a guitar sound right and anything else is trash. Sort of like people rejecting digital modeling amps in favor of all analog stuff because it sounds better. It doesn't matter if the modeler can duplicate a sound exactly, it doesn't have the "mojo" of an old fashion amp. As long as people hold on to that thought or belief, we will keep getting mostly variations of the same stuff over and over because new and different isn't how things are done. Old stuff is better. (I don't subscribe to that, but that is a mentality I see a lot.) This is the case with shapes of guitars, how they are put together, the pickups, etc. Loads of people would rather have stuff done the same as it was over fifty years ago down even to the type of metal used in wiring and the thickness. People are even willing to pay more for it because it is boutique over modern. People drop a bunch of money on different capacitors and resistors because they are more musical than another type.

Related, I really was impressed with Billy Gibbon's rig rundown I saw. He has a digital eq that adjusts all of his different guitars so they all sound like his number one favorite. The tech just pushes the button for a given guitar and the signal is modified to sound like his favorite guitar. I think A Perfect Circle and maybe Jimmy Eat World have also started using modeling amps for live performances because it uses less space than having all the pedals and heads when you can build it into one digital unit with a programmable stage pedal. Maybe this sort of trend will continue. Hard to say.

My thoughts exactly, mate. I stand by that guitar manufacturers are really trying, but when people are simply not open to anything really new, they fall back to minor twists. Hard to blame them at all.

[Embenny]

Yeah, when they first came out I tried them, but the guitars themselves were of such poor and uninspired quality that I found myself leery of every looking into them again, but maybe I should.

Yeah, mine was one of those POS's. They have some higher-quality-looking models these days, and I've also seen people buy the cheapest current-model variax and have those electronics installed in a guitar of their choice.

As for modeling rigs, I switched to a Kemper 3 years ago and haven't looked back. It's got all the touch dynamics of any tube amp I've ever loved, and I can set patches with small tweaks for each individual guitar I use, so switching between them is completely painless. It's incredible.

I often point out the silliness of all the cork-sniffery surrounding tube amps by anyone who uses pedals for gain. You'll find the same people shelling out hundreds of bucks for vintage Muffs and boutique OD pedals, splitting hairs over the difference of which transistors or diodes or op-amps are going into their solid-state gain machines.

So tube is king, unless they decide something solid-state sounds good. Then solid-state is king, but only for pedals, because transistors suddenly sound like shit when they're put into an amp. But DIGITAL? I mean, they paid hundreds of bucks for digital delays and modulation effects, but digital sounds like shit! Not nearly as good as transistors, except transistors are also shit, except when they're worth spending $400 on a distortion pedal over because they're the best.

[HNB]

Yuup! Spend thousands of dollars on a vintage tube amp to run a solid state overdrive or distortion into. One phrase that bugs me is "there are subtle sonic differences." Basically it means most people can't tell the difference. Some people believe they can hear a difference with the right speakers or audio equipment. Like when you see a youtube video that compares stuff and it says to use high quality headphones when you listen because otherwise it sounds the same. (And even with good headphones it might sound the same.)

[Grey]

And the technology! Jesus Christ. Sure, I like the sound of vintage voiced pickups, but are we really considering that the technology of guitar pickups peaked in 1958 and there's nothing else to be done?

And it all comes through inexpensive soldered components- guitarists can't tolerate the idea of a chipset in there- running right out of a 1/4" mono jack.

Quick: tell me another technology that still uses the 1/4" jack? It works for audio because it's cheap and rugged, and very simple so it can be used by anyone, there's no firmware and shit to deal with.

But in the age of computer recording, why aren't USB ports on electric guitars?

I mean, I don't know, I'm not the visionary here. But it's pretty easy to see that the electric guitar is in a creative and technological rut where conservative outlook has killed off any kind of innovation even possible.

I can't imagine handing my kid my ten thousand dollar 1959 Les Paul reissue and gravely intoning about how this is a period accurate replica of the guitar that Eric Clapton used on the Beano album and him giving any kind of fuck at all.

The "technology of guitar pickups" is a magnet. Magnets from 1958 and magnets from 2018 are still just magnets. All it does is amplify the sound of the strings, and that's all it needs to do. What else does it need to do?

USB ports on guitars, what? What are the extra pins for data and power going to do for the electric guitar? There are a million ways to connect a guitar to a computer that don't involve putting a proprietary port on it. I mean, for all you gripe about Fender's uninspiried ideas, I can't help but picture some hackneyed boardroom meeting full of corporate suits where someone in the back stands up, says "USB ports on the guitars" and everyone claps.

Christ you don't see anyone suggesting they put a USB port on a violin even though that design hasen't been "updated" in over 500 years. I honestly don't understand this desire to "update" the electric guitar. Maybe you just need to pick up a different instrument.

Look at the AxeFX for example, that's an excellent case of modern technology being used effectively in the right component. Or Kemper, by the same token.

[Larry Mal]

.

[mikeblue]

-

[Grey]

1) Is there no other way to transduce sound other than a magnet? I can think of some. Can you think of some?

2) I don't get the question about the "extra pins for data and power" exactly. The data flow via USB is the only thing that would be necessary, right? USB is inherently about data, and sending the audio signal out from a guitar via USB into a computer and modeling software is data. I have no idea what extra pins you are referring to, unless you are complaining about the bandwidth not being used? Who cares about that? There's two extra pins on every MIDI cable that aren't used.

How many people run a 1/4" jack out from a guitar into an interface and then into a computer via USB? I do- all the time I do. Well , I use Firewire. But I would reckon that millions and millions of people run their guitar into their computers through an unnecessary conversion of 1/4" jack into USB. Do you do that? You've never done that?

3) The violin and the guitar are different, right? The guitar is very often used for songwriting, especially rock and roll songs, and these are often done on the fly, so plugging and playing directly into a computer could be useful. The violin is not used in this regard currently. Do you know anyone that writes rock and roll or pop songs on a violin?

Do you think that they way people use violins and guitars typically might lend themselves to different technological needs and opportunities?

I can think of one example, the guitar became electrified and that was successful, and the violin basically never did. So the guitar was updated in a technological sense that the marketplace did not reward the violin with similarly.

4) I play a lot of instruments- thanks.

1) I never said there was no other way, I asked why you would need another way?

2) So you've got USB, but all you want to use it for is audio. You know, the exact thing the 1/4" already does, except you want to replace the 1/4" (which is found everywhere and hasen't changed in damn near a century,) with a proprietary standard that has undergone 5 revisions in 20 years (half of which are still being used concurrently which is a gripe for another time) for what purpose though? So you can plug it directly into a computer instead of a recording interface? Ok, but that's not innovation it's just convenience. I can plug my 30 year old guitar into a modern recording interface and get all the benefits of the modern technology in the recording interface, but good luck doing that with USB-anything in another ~10 years and not needing an adapter.

3-ish) You talk about on-the-fly recording for songwriting but you can already do that with small devices like the iRig that let you record to an iPhone or iPad. It's the size of a stick of gum and if you've got room to carry your guitar and your phone around i'm sure you can throw that in your bag or your case. They make them for electric and acoustic guitars, wow! Is this the future? The latest version is the iRig 2 and there are several versions based on your devices and use scenario. If the technology that powered the iRig 1 was built into your guitar, it would already be obsolete. Small children would probably laugh at you, i'm sure.

There is a benefit to recognizing where the innovation is necessary, and there is a benefit to compartmentalizing these devices rather than looking for an "all-in-one" solution.

4) What other instruments do you play, and what sort of innovations do you find (or not find) in those instruments that you aren't getting from your guitar?

[Stephen_42]

Hi everyone. First post here since forever ago. Anyways, digging through the web I found more info and pictures from these new models. The Jazzmaster and the Jaguar come in 4 colors each:

Jazzmaster:

• On Fender's website (not fully working)

• 3TS

• Buttercream

• Polar White

• Sage Green Metallic

Jaguar:

• On Fender's website (not fully working)

• 3TS

• Black

• Tidepool

• Sonic Red

In other news, what's with the new colours? To me there's little difference between 'sonic red' and fiesta red. Is there anything that links sonic red and sonic blue? Or is it just an arbitrary naming choice?

[aliendawg]

3TS and black guards go together pretty well

[cmd2kx]

3TS and black guards go together pretty well

One of my favorite looks . Agreed.

[burpgun]

^


Crap! I don't have a Jag bass...

Oh my god that green Jaguar bass. If I didn't have an American model in boring black, I'd be on it.

[Futuron]

Hi everyone. First post here since forever ago. Anyways, digging through the web I found more info and pictures from these new models. The Jazzmaster and the Jaguar come in 4 colors each:

Jazzmaster:

• On Fender's website (not fully working)

• 3TS

• Buttercream

• Polar White

• Sage Green Metallic

Jaguar:

• On Fender's website (not fully working)

• 3TS

• Black

• Tidepool

• Sonic Red

Thanks for that. Apparently the Jag bass is listed as 34" scale
https://kytary.co.uk/fender-player-jagu ... /HN191920/
https://kytary.co.uk/fender-player-jagu ... /HN191921/

Interestingly the only model in Tidepool that doesn't have a maple board is the 6-string Jaguar. Hopefully that's from feedback (or commonsense) regarding the American Professional line.

[andy_tchp]

Oh my god that green Jaguar bass. If I didn't have an American model in boring black, I'd be on it.

Trade it in

Sage Green Metallic is one of the best colours Fender have ever released, and looks much better in person - About time they gave offset offerings the same love.