Linus27

That second one is stunning, absolutely gorgeous.

Ok thank you. Will go look now. Do you know if it will it fit most Fender Precisions?

Thank you, my current fretless is a Fender FSR 70's Precision, the one that came out a few years ago. I got Shuker to make me a maple fretless neck for it and it sounds wonderful but I should really use flats on it having a maple neck. However, I do really like the fretless tone on a Precision which was why I was thinking of another fretless Precision but a rosewood or graphite neck. What you say is interesting as I can't see me using the J pickup on it's own, so either a P and J combined or P only. Thanks for your thoughts, more food for thought.

As I pretty much only play unlined fretless these days and have moved on all but one of my fretted basses, I'm looking to buy myself a really nice main fretless bass. However, the options available are somewhat limited. I'm pretty much down to a couple of options, either the very expensive Fender Precision Tony Franklin fretless or buy a US Fender Precision, either a Standard or Performer and then buy a Status fretless neck for it. Other option is a Stingray and buy a Status fretless neck for it. My question is, are the Tony Franklin fretless basses worth the money? They are over £2k which is a hell of a lot of money for a fretless Precision. They are also pretty rare so they don't really come up for sale second hand. As for the other option of the Status fretless neck, I've never played one so what are they like, a bit marmite or the best thing since sliced bread? Do they sound or feel any different to a wooden fretless neck? Would be interested in any thoughts.

Really sorry to read this and I wish you all the best and hope there is a way you can still play. I hope you hang around as well, you bring so much to this community.

One of the bands I was in recorded our album with an amazing producer called Mark Wallace (It Bites, U2, Travis, The Primitives etc.) and we spent a couple of weeks in pre-production playing through the songs. The first thing he did was make us set all the levels of each instrument, starting with the drums. So we would play through a song starting with just the drums, then the bass would be added and he would set the volume accordingly. Then add the rhythm guitar and adjust accordingly and tweak the bass if necessary. Then the same for the lead guitar and then vocals and backing vocals. We literally slashed the volume we used to play at by half and not only was the overall sound so much clearer and dynamic, at the end of rehearsals we were so less fatigued. It's something I have gone on to do in every band I have played in. It makes such a difference.

Gorgeous looking basses. I'm considering getting one of these as options on buying an unlined fretless bass these days is so slim. You cant buy an unlined fretless Jazz and a fretless Stingray is impossible to find so it looks like getting hold of one of these is my only option.

I think Sting's sunburst Precision would be worth a small fortune. Pino's fretless Stingray and maybe a Mark King's Alembic as well.

I don't understand the logic of buying the Mexican Precision and then sending it straight to your tech to totally change it. You are buying a bass that you don't like, otherwise you wouldn't be changing the bridge, pickups and tuners, plus changing it without knowing if you like it so already in your head you are not happy with it. Just buy the American Pro II, a US Precision as suggested or look at an alternative like the Lakland or Shuker.

They also made them with matching coloured headstock with the Fender shaped headstock. I'd kill to get one of these in the red or blue.

I believe this is the case and what I've been told on a few occasions when I was enquiring about this bass.

I have one of these basses. Got it new around 87 and its probably the best Jazz bass I have owned. Its done hundreds of gigs, been on TV, recorded albums and is a gem of a bass. A couple of people here have played it and have loved it. I also have two necks for it, the original fretted and a fretless. Mine is thoroughly beaten up these days which just adds to the history of it. So this is what I know about the bass. The ESP 400 Series Jazz was made at the same factory as the Japanese Fender basses. I am led to believe that its exactly the same spec as a Japanese Fender but depending on what the production run is, it could end up with an ESP decal on the headstock, a Fender decal or I think one other. This probably explains why the headstock is identical to a Fender (as it is a Fender neck) and if you buy replacement Fender parts like neck plates, control plates, etc. the screws holes all line up. The bass is based on a Fender 1966 Jazz bass and explains the very thin neck. That's as much as I know about them apart from them being fantastic to play. Here a picture of mine at a gig. You can see its a bit beaten up. I also changed the pickups to Bart's which also sound fab.

Perfect, thank you

Apologies if this has been already mentioned or more likely I'm just being a numpty but I'm having problems with the search function. If I search for say Fender Precision and click on content titles only, I used to get threads but for some reason I now just get a mix of topics and a list of peoples conversations. Am I doing something wrong?

I'm considering one of these as my backup but kind of holding back in case EBS, Ampeg or Ashdown release something similar.

Interesting reading, thank you for posting. I'm thinking of getting either one of these, an Elf or the new Warwick Gnome as a back up and home practice rig. I think the BAM200 is the cheapest of the 3.

Fender Japan everytime.

My home practise rig is an Ashdown Mi550 and Mi10 cab and I use a passive Fender Precision fretless. Been using this for months and months and even up to 15mins before rehearsal yesterday. I even double checked everything was working as it was the first rehearsal for a new project and wanted to check the input level on the amp was set and the EQ was sounding half decent. Once I had, I packed the gear up and headed to the quiet acoustic rehearsal. Set up and plugged my tuner in and nothing. I thought ok, maybe battery so I changed my battery and still nothing. The tuner came on but no signal being received from the bass. So I tuned by ear and plugged the bass into the amp and again nothing. The input needle on the Ashdown amp was not moving. So lots of checking cables and trying different cables and still nothing. So we plugged the acoustic guitar in and it worked. Tried the bass again and nothing. Plugged another bass in and nothing. Changed the battery in this other bass as it was active and it worked. Throughout the night I kept trying my passive bass but still nothing, dead as a dodo. Got home after rehearsal, set the rig up with same bass to try and work out what was happening and it all worked as it has for months and months. To add more confusion, when I left rehearsal, my car wouldn't start. It has a start button and I just have the keys in my pocket and press the button and off it starts. Has worked everytime for years. Last night though when I went to start, it wouldn't and the info screen told me to hold the keys by the start button and press the button to start the car. I have never seen this before but it seemed to work. I have no idea what was going on but it was very odd, especially with the bass.