All user reviews for the Fender Tony Franklin Fretless Precision Bass

Briefly: Hot Dang this bass is cool! Well, OK I'll elaborate. This is the Fender Precision Fretless Tony Franklin signature 4 string bass.

I have a think for sunburst basses. This bass also came with a hip red tort pickguard. Other colors are Olymic White, a Natural Amber color and Black. Actually there is a fretted version out on the market too, but I have not played that yet.

A studio I was recording at had one of these beauties so I was able to play it off an on for a few weeks. Normally these will cost $1700. The price tag is a bit hefty but you are getting alotta bass for the price.

It is rare that you see a fretless Precision, but even rarer that there is an extra hot Jazz bass pickup added in the bridge position.

Throw in a 3 way pickup selector like what is on the early Stratocasters and you have endless options of tone. It can do the Jaco sound as well as just sound like a thumpy fat P-bass.

The C-shaped neck is nice and full, but not a baseball bat. Sometimes really thin Jazz bass necks cramp my hand, this neck is perfect.

The electronics are passive, so no fooling around with batteries here.

The fretboard is ebony. What's so good about that? You can use any strings you want since Ebony is a hardwood roundwound strings will not leave marks as they would on a rosewood board.

There is a Hipshot D-tuner which lowers the E string down to a D. This feature is note-worthy, but not really essential to my playing.

There are not many ways this bass could be improved. If I made more money or if it were cheaper I'd but the fretted model as well.

Well built. They through of everything. The D-tuner, ebony fingerboard, hot wound Jazz pickup. The neck plate is unique. It features Tony's signature which can be removed if you are not crazy about it. I could care less, it's a neck plate, no one sees it anyway.

Tony Franklin dreamed it up and Fender built it! A great fretless P/J bass. This bass can do a fat warm ballad or a cutting rocker.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com