New Fender Short Scale Bass

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Fri Aug 22, 2014 1:44 pm

Fender Classic Player Rascal Bass in Ocean Turquoise:

Demo:

[youtube][/youtube]

Â£683 from GAK

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Fri Aug 22, 2014 1:47 pm

Marketing blurb:

Fender Classic Player Rascal Bass Ocean Turquoise.... undoubtedly the best thing you will ever see!

The new Fender Classic Player Rascal electric bass guitar has been a labour of love for Master Builder Jason Smith. Few could say that Fender runs through their veins like Smith, whose father is Dan Smith - a Fender legend in his own right. Drawing from his experience of the Fender family, and utilising his impeccable skill set, Smith has created a sublime model that is set to become a modern classic.

Short-Scale Body

The Classic Player Rascal bass features a curvy and perfectly proportioned short-scale body that revives the look and feel of vintage models. The body has been crafted using alder, a tonewood that has been favoured by Fender since the late 50s due to its delightfully balanced tonal output. Alder is capable of producing rumbling lows, punchy mids, and crisp highs, with the utmost articulation across the frequency spectrum. The stunning ocean turquoise finish is complimented exquisitely by the pearloid pickguard.

Supportive Maple Neck

Fitted to the body is a bolt-on maple neck, which offers a supportive and slender playing surface to navigate. Married to the neck is a sumptuous rosewood fingerboard, home to 21 eager frets that are adorned with white dot position inlays to guide you along in style. The neck plays very fast, allowing you to execute fingerboard gymnastics with the greatest of ease.

Classic Lipstick Pickups

In order to recreate the sound of vintage models, Jason Smith has fitted the Classic Player Rascal with three 'Lipstick' single-coil pickups in the neck, middle and bridge positions respectively. Control over the pickups comes in the form of master volume and master tone pots that are paired with a 5-way Strat-style pickup selector switch. The tonal versatility of this little beauty cannot be overstated, with a huge range of sounds waiting to be pulled out for you to play with.

Tough and Ready Hardware

The Rascal is fitted with a rugged and reliable hard tail bridge, which creates a seamless connection between the strings and body. Adjustment of each string is easy, which means that controlling intonation is straightforward. Vintage-style tuning machines maintain tuning integrity throughout each and every performance with the utmost precision. No matter how enthusiastically you play, the Rascal is more than a match for you.

As you'd expect from a guitar designed and built by a Master Builder, the Fender Classic Player Rascal electric bass guitar in ocean turquoise is one that both collectors and players can appreciate. The attention to detail shown by Jason Smith is remarkable, and as he's an accomplished musician himself, you just know the Rascal is a dream to perform with.

I quite like the idea of "eager frets".

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Fri Aug 22, 2014 1:55 pm

probably a reasonable alternative to a mustang bass if you wanted something with more sounds at that scale length, i suppose.

BillClay · Post by **BillClay** » Fri Aug 22, 2014 1:55 pm

"Eager frets" is the greatest marketing speech I've ever heard.

Concretebadger · Post by **Concretebadger** » Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:07 pm

I have to remind myself that someone gets paid to write this stuff. Eh. It pays the bills I suppose.

It does have a cool Dano look to it though.

Fakir Mustache · Post by **Fakir Mustache** » Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:11 pm

another Fender model they made to get rid of Guild parts they had left over:

George · Post by **George** » Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:14 pm

i like it. it feels like fender is actually trying to think out of their box in terms of aesthetics

JordanD · Post by **JordanD** » Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:47 pm

I like it a lot. OTM is my favourite custom colour though so that probably sways things.

jcyphe · Post by **jcyphe** » Sat Aug 23, 2014 2:22 am

Fakir Mustache wrote:another Fender model they made to get rid of Guild parts they had left over:

It would probably look better with the Guild style pickup, like those cool Lakland basses.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Sat Aug 23, 2014 2:37 am

I want to like it but that demo vid sounded awful.

Sobriquet · Post by **Sobriquet** » Sun Aug 24, 2014 7:10 am

So it's a Bass VI body with a Coronado neck and a Guild bridge.

Man, I really wish they would use OTM more.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Sun Aug 24, 2014 9:37 am

We've seen this before no?

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Sun Aug 24, 2014 9:46 am

It was originally a Â£6k Custom Shop model:

I think this Classic Player version is new though.

[youtube][/youtube]

Gavin · Post by **Gavin** » Sun Aug 24, 2014 11:11 am

Meh.

It looks alright, but I'd rather just get a Ocean Turquoise Jazz Bass with a proper shaped matching headstock. I don't like shortscale basses.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Sun Aug 24, 2014 11:51 pm

BearBoy wrote:It was originally a Â£6k Custom Shop model:

I think this Classic Player version is new though.

They may have fixed the price a bit, now they just need to correct all the other mistakes until they've made a Squire Jazz Bass with a cool new colour.

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 1:54 am

Still like this... production prices make me happ(y/ier)

ultratwin · Post by **ultratwin** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 1:56 am

wrote:Supportive Maple Neck

Fitted to the body is a bolt-on maple neck, which offers a supportive and slender playing surface to navigate. Married to the neck is a sumptuous rosewood fingerboard, home to 21 eager frets that are adorned with white dot position inlays to guide you along in style. The neck plays very fast, allowing you to execute fingerboard gymnastics with the greatest of ease.

I dunno, I think I just got a waft of some kind of fragrant advertising journalism, akin to inducing thoughts of water and glycerin-based lubricants sweet nothings in the ear, hours of wet kissing, and all the good stuff on one's blissful wedding night.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 2:17 am

My frets are eager for you !

ultratwin · Post by **ultratwin** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 9:07 am

I don't know how I missed that one!

If a copywriter over here at my company asked me to use "eager" in a guitar context, I can imagine myself scratching my head and pulling out my pen, only to have her stiffly grab my shoulder and say sternly "No, no, hold it...It's not in reference to your feelings with guitar in hand; the frets should be the subject of the sentence. Got it?"

And I'd be all..

Golden_Sonic · Post by **Golden_Sonic** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 10:13 am

Gavin wrote:Meh.

It looks alright, but I'd rather just get a Ocean Turquoise Jazz Bass with a proper shaped matching headstock. I don't like shortscale basses.

Get a Squier James Johnston Jazz Bass