Alrighty boys & ghouls, here's the new toy I picked up while on vacation back in the US last month, a Fender Tony Franklin signature fretless P Bass:
The whole shebang:
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Alder body, 3TS nitro lacquer finish, tort guard.
Lemme give y'all some head:
Controls: master vol, master tone, 3-way pup selector.
Bridge: Fender 4-Saddle American Vintage
Pups: Fender Tony Franklin signature P/J set.
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Fretboard: Ebony
Scale: 34"
Frets: FUCK 'EM!
Radius: 9.5"
Side dots: Black dots
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Another look at that ebony, with the grooves already starting to show from playing it with rounds:
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Tuners: Fender vintage 70s style open gear w/Hipshot Bass XTender on the E:
Do she got dat booty doe
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Only proof it's a siggie. No stupid inlay for this beauty!:
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Maple neck:
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Bonus shot of the whole thing with the new amp I also bought while on vacation (Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 & MarkBass Traveller 102P):
Thoughts:
Pros
The neck profile is great. I was a little worried about the P width, since I'm used to Js, but I was worried for nothing. I was comfortable on it immediately. The gloss lacquer finish is outstanding, too. Not sticky or tacky at all.
The pickups are pretty snazzy, too. The bridge is actually a touch hotter than I was expecting, but it has hex-adjustable poles and of course can be raised and lowered, so it's no biggie. The neck pup has dat thiggitty thump.
It's surprisingly nice having a 3-way. I'm used to either two volumes or a master blend, which are nice in their own right, but it's handy being able to just flick a switch to go from J to P toanz. It isn't as microadjustable, sure, but I don't think I really need this to be.
Cons
Yes, there are some.
The case it comes with was decent, but nothing I'd have trusted with baggage handling. Luckily I'm friends with the owner of the store I got it from, so he just let me swap the case for some accessories in his shop, and I ordered an SKB flight case for it, which I'm pretty sure is sturdy enough to protect an archaeologist from a nuclear explosion.
There's a problem with the input jack right out of the box. Not a huge problem, since it still works and is no problem unless I'm up and moving around. However, when I am up and moving, if the jack wiggles at all, it crackles and cuts out. Haven't opened it up yet to see if it's a bad solder point or if the jack just needs tweaked a little, but it's still pretty annoying that an $1800 bass would have a stupid problem like this straight from the factory (the shop ordered it for me straight from Fender, so it spent zero time on the sales floor).
Random
It came strung with rounds, which I wasn't expecting. My Ibby fretless came with flats, which were part of what I loved about playing fretless. My intentions were to restring it with flats ASAP, so I went and bought some the next chance I got.
However, after playing it for a couple days before I could go pick up strings, I thought "You know this isn't so bad...", and it still has the rounds on it. I kinda like the tone I'm getting, and it's nice that it sounds a little more like a "normal" bass than it would with flats, so it sounds more appropriate for all styles than my Ibby does. I think the rounds will stay for a while, but I've got a few different brands of flats to try on it when I feel the need, and even a set of halfwounds, just for ***** and giggles. Still sounds wonky for slap, though, but I'm kinda just growing to accept that from fretlesses.
I haven't put the XTender to much use at all yet. Don't have much use for it, since I don't use drop tunings. Ironically, the band I played in that broke up right before I went on vacation played in drop D, but I always just used D standard because I didn't like having to retune my bass all the time.
The whole shebang:
Invalid Link RemovedThis image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
Alder body, 3TS nitro lacquer finish, tort guard.
Lemme give y'all some head:
Controls: master vol, master tone, 3-way pup selector.
Bridge: Fender 4-Saddle American Vintage
Pups: Fender Tony Franklin signature P/J set.
Invalid Link RemovedThis image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
Fretboard: Ebony
Scale: 34"
Frets: FUCK 'EM!
Radius: 9.5"
Side dots: Black dots
Invalid Link RemovedThis image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
Another look at that ebony, with the grooves already starting to show from playing it with rounds:
Invalid Link RemovedThis image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
Tuners: Fender vintage 70s style open gear w/Hipshot Bass XTender on the E:
Do she got dat booty doe
Invalid Link RemovedThis image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
Only proof it's a siggie. No stupid inlay for this beauty!:
Invalid Link RemovedThis image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
Maple neck:
Invalid Link RemovedThis image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.
Bonus shot of the whole thing with the new amp I also bought while on vacation (Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 & MarkBass Traveller 102P):
Thoughts:
Pros
The neck profile is great. I was a little worried about the P width, since I'm used to Js, but I was worried for nothing. I was comfortable on it immediately. The gloss lacquer finish is outstanding, too. Not sticky or tacky at all.
The pickups are pretty snazzy, too. The bridge is actually a touch hotter than I was expecting, but it has hex-adjustable poles and of course can be raised and lowered, so it's no biggie. The neck pup has dat thiggitty thump.
It's surprisingly nice having a 3-way. I'm used to either two volumes or a master blend, which are nice in their own right, but it's handy being able to just flick a switch to go from J to P toanz. It isn't as microadjustable, sure, but I don't think I really need this to be.
Cons
Yes, there are some.
The case it comes with was decent, but nothing I'd have trusted with baggage handling. Luckily I'm friends with the owner of the store I got it from, so he just let me swap the case for some accessories in his shop, and I ordered an SKB flight case for it, which I'm pretty sure is sturdy enough to protect an archaeologist from a nuclear explosion.
There's a problem with the input jack right out of the box. Not a huge problem, since it still works and is no problem unless I'm up and moving around. However, when I am up and moving, if the jack wiggles at all, it crackles and cuts out. Haven't opened it up yet to see if it's a bad solder point or if the jack just needs tweaked a little, but it's still pretty annoying that an $1800 bass would have a stupid problem like this straight from the factory (the shop ordered it for me straight from Fender, so it spent zero time on the sales floor).
Random
It came strung with rounds, which I wasn't expecting. My Ibby fretless came with flats, which were part of what I loved about playing fretless. My intentions were to restring it with flats ASAP, so I went and bought some the next chance I got.
However, after playing it for a couple days before I could go pick up strings, I thought "You know this isn't so bad...", and it still has the rounds on it. I kinda like the tone I'm getting, and it's nice that it sounds a little more like a "normal" bass than it would with flats, so it sounds more appropriate for all styles than my Ibby does. I think the rounds will stay for a while, but I've got a few different brands of flats to try on it when I feel the need, and even a set of halfwounds, just for ***** and giggles. Still sounds wonky for slap, though, but I'm kinda just growing to accept that from fretlesses.
I haven't put the XTender to much use at all yet. Don't have much use for it, since I don't use drop tunings. Ironically, the band I played in that broke up right before I went on vacation played in drop D, but I always just used D standard because I didn't like having to retune my bass all the time.
I'm not a fan of the jazz sound, so I just use mine as a fretless P, which was what I was looking for to begin with. I bought mine used, and the case I got with it was a piece of crap. I got a SKB case for mine, as well. 
