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Fretless Precision
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
Aw man... ebony board Precision? Now we are talking! I'm going to have to check one of those out, Dr. Cheese. I'm currently playing an older, single pickup Wal Pro 1e with an ebony board, and am really digging it. Like a Precision, it has a single humbucker and has a thick, precision-like sound (similar to your video, actually), maybe a little more aggressive, but very close.That Tony Franklin Precision is ebony, and it sounds great indeed.
Congrats on that excellent bass. I need to go audition one.
the linded made in american p basses were a run in 1995/96 I believe. I've owned 2 of the american made black with white pick pickguard lined fretless basses. great basses but they had bad luck for me.
it was the first I bought, in 7th grade, used and gigged for years until it was stolen, along with many other instruments in Buffalo NY. our trailer got robbed. took it all except my bass cab, found in middle of the road. they got my 1942 kay upright bass too.....then years later I find another one(fender american fretless p) , and eventually it got stolen from a moving golf cart shuttling our band gear back to our van, at the enormous Rochester NY lilac music festival..Western Ny is rough..so yeah bad luck with those basses but I do like them.
now I just use a Franken pbass. p body, lined fretless jazz bass neck. it does the job and if I fall prey to another "crack for instrument exchange program" at least it's only a few hundred out now
it was the first I bought, in 7th grade, used and gigged for years until it was stolen, along with many other instruments in Buffalo NY. our trailer got robbed. took it all except my bass cab, found in middle of the road. they got my 1942 kay upright bass too.....then years later I find another one(fender american fretless p) , and eventually it got stolen from a moving golf cart shuttling our band gear back to our van, at the enormous Rochester NY lilac music festival..Western Ny is rough..so yeah bad luck with those basses but I do like them.
now I just use a Franken pbass. p body, lined fretless jazz bass neck. it does the job and if I fall prey to another "crack for instrument exchange program" at least it's only a few hundred out now
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My four string is a fretless P. Squier P body with an aftermarket MIM standard jazz neck and Original 62 pup. TI flats, of course. A great bass. I consider it a "Fender imprecision", but it says jazz bass on the headstock, so I haven't bothered altering it.
the last thing we ever want to do is think differently than a cat who couldn't play!
i've shown this one a lot lately, but it's my contribution to the fretless maple thing. it plays like nobody's business and it sounds delicious (dimarzio rail pickups):
i've been playing and preferring PJs for so long that it took me a minute to let go of my pickup-blending routine, but if you can get inside the 'simple/simplicity' aspect of the P's limitations = it's a wonderful thing!
Two weeks in with my first fretless , a new Tony Franklin Lake Placid blue PJ, and have found my fingering even when playing fretted greatly improved. I see that frets allow me to more sloppy in my approach than is really acceptable. The TF sounds great. Looking forward to putting flats on it.
I was very interested in soup bar pickups once, but found out the're not as water resistant as soap bars. Even the soap bars, if you get 'em wet enough times will lose something, but the soupbars - one spill, and they're gone.
There is a reason that I refer to them as a pee and a jay.
The pee can be a fretless, and no longer 'precise'
The jay can play other styles of music, not just jazz
Anthony - thanks for the clips. I have a thing for the classic tones as well as the modern ones.
The pee can be a fretless, and no longer 'precise'
The jay can play other styles of music, not just jazz
Anthony - thanks for the clips. I have a thing for the classic tones as well as the modern ones.
The blue P-bass in my profile picture is a fretless conversion. I’ve recently added a gold anodized pickgaurd and put Rotosound tapes on it. I think that with the Rotos it has finally found its voice, kinda a decent blues and old country upright(ish) sound.
I've thought about the Tony Franklins. I had a fretless P that was almost great, and I almost miss it. What I'd like is a passive fretless P with a 7.25" radius and an ebony board.
I've been gassing for a fretless lately and I prefer the meaty necks of P's. If I get one, I'll just have to call it an ImPrecision.
Looks like zubrycky beat me to it.
Ordered a blue Tony Franklin, can't wait to get it.
I feel bad I forgot about Percy Jones:
I've always thought that model should have been renamed the Approximation Bass.
Have you ever seen the wear on a maple board Tele after a few years of active use? And that's with frets between the strings and the board.
I wonder if a fretless roasted maple neck (with a gloss finish) would feel and sound good on a Precision body.
