My friend, professional photographer Alex Kluft, is shooting the exclusive KROQ Halloween Costume Ball, starring the Red Hot Chili Peppers, tonight. He posted some pics with "Flea's bass"... Do you think Fender would consider another Signature model??? Jazz neck, Lane Poor(?) type pickup, BadAss bridge... Count me in!!! Diego
I think it would be financial suicide for Fender to put out another Signature model. I do think this bass sounds very good on live recordings, though.. 2 cents
Looks to me like the pickup has been switched out since Jason Smith of The Fender Custom Shop posted a pic of bass on his workbench back in July.
Is this a rhetorical question? OF COURSE Fender would consider any version of any of their instruments that might sell 5% more than before. Sheesh. Come on people, pay attention!
The original pup is Aguilar AG 4M. Could be the same pickup that simply got some wear and usual blackened sweat pole pieces look. I've heard his RHCP live recordings with AG 4M and it sounds great. I have that pup in my USA SUB and it's sweeeet as.
So a roadworn shell pink jazz body with a mm style pickup, passive with rear mounted electronics and jazz neck is Flea's new bass? I am utterly and completely underwhelmed. That said, I wonder how it plays and sounds!
Yeah it's been that way for quite a while now. I've heard it live this year too, sounds great. He's been using the "Stingray" sweet spot single H basses since forever live, not really shocking. The preamp is also Aguilar, it's either OBP-1 or OBP-2 (he did use 1 for sure, Aguilar told me, but the new jazz basses could be sporting the 2 because that's what Jason Smith said on his Instagram for the pink shell one). His other bass, silver sparkle jazz, is now tuned to drop D and only used on By The Way.