Talk:Fender Performer Bass

Some issues

This article had some issues. The most important of these was a very long quote, attributed to John Page. IMHO a short quote can sometimes be interesting to illustrate a point, but information from a very long quote should be incorporated in the article. However this presupposes we have a reliable source. So far the only source is this one, where Page is quoted from "a post that the designer John Page made on a guitar forum". As an attribution this is somewhat vague. (Which forum, which date? How can we be sure it was not rewritten, or simply made up?)

I've therefore hidden the quote.

Other issues:

• "The Performer Standard was manufactured in Japan in 1986 at a time when Fender was not manufacturing guitars in the United States." Interesting. However, the Elite-version was built in the USA. How was that possible if Fender did not manufacture any guitar in the USA at that time?
• "many P-Basses at this time had just two bridge pieces" - Absolutely not true; Fender ditched the two saddles bridge on the P-Bass in 1957.
• "A short-lived 5-string prototype of this bass was released in 1987, though less common." - It was indeed less common; only one seems to have been made, as is often the case with prototypes.

Muijz (talk) 21:00, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

Performer Elite does it exist?

To echo one of the issue raised above, I have scoured the internet for years seeking evidence of the American Performer Elite. John Page has described the Performer story several times and never mentioned a USA built version. There is no evidence it ever existed that I can find. Stub Mandrel (talk) 19:08, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

According to The Bass Book (1995) by Tony Bacon and Barry Moorhouse a Performer Elite Bass was produced in the USA, 1985-86. [link] Muijz (talk) 22:27, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

I have found that the USA Performer Elite guitars did appear in a run of Fender catalogues in January 1986, however they did not actually ever come to market. The catalogue ([[1]])does NOT list either a standard or elite Performer bass. I'm pretty sure this was the source of the report in The Bass Book as it appears nowhere else. Unless someone can actually turn up an example (the ebony fretboard and rear mounted controls would be definitive, along with different colours) then I think we have to accept the Performer Elite is a 'unicorn bass'. Stub Mandrel (talk) 17:59, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Okay. We have to update the article then.Muijz (talk) 21:54, 20 March 2021 (UTC)