Saying goodbye to my Rob Allen Deep Five Fretless

This thread will most likely not be of much interest to those who are not into the Rob Allen / Turner / Godin semi-acoustic basses. I just wanted to give props to this amazing bass, after I dropped it off at FedEx on its way to its new home.

I have had my Turner basses for quite a few years. Due to an illness called "gas", I continued searching for an even better, perfect bass. I bought numerous high-end basses, tried them, and then sold them again, usually for less than I paid for them. I finally realized that I had what I will wanted all along [ my Turner basses ].

Through intensive counseling and checkbook pain, I was able to almost completely cure myself of “ gas “. I get occasional flare-ups now and then, but mostly I have it under control.

However, when I saw this beautiful Rob Allen, deep five fretless bass for sale on evilBay, I had to give it one last shot. Perhaps this could be the one !!

The bass arrived, and I removed it from its case. Oh, such beauty. Such incredible craftsmanship. Such solidity. Simple, yet extravagant at the same time. Just amazing.

When I began to play it un-plugged, I could feel the strings vibrating through the body of the bass deeply. Noticeably more deeply than my Turner basses. I plugged it in to my Acoustic Image amp and the sound of course was lovely.

But alas, after a short time of playing the bass, as exquisite as it is, it was not what I was looking for and would not eclipse any playing time from my Turner basses. If I could justify having the amount of money invested in it for a bass to have around for occasional playing, I would have kept it for sure. My finances don't allow this. So now it has gone off to a fellow TB’er.

What I most like about the Rob Allen:

Exquisite craftsmanship and beauty
Excellent playability
Very nice unique sound

What I do not like about the Rob Allen:

All of the Rob Allen at bases I have played just sounds to “ bassy “ for me. Obviously, much tone control can be done. I just don't like to start off tone wise with so much bass.

The neck design is a little larger than the Turner basses.

The biggest difference between the Rob Allen and Turner basses for me is this:

The Turner basses are just more articulate. Something about the combination of design and electronics is such that I can get a much wider, more articulate palette of tone combinations from my Turner basses. This includes the physical playability of the bass, the neck and how it feels to play. More " areodynamic ". These are the biggest considerations for me.

All said, the Rob Allen basses are incredible and I'm sad to see this one go.

pro pic




With my Turners:
yes the one on the right is in the middle of a string change