NOFB day (Fender Tony Franklin content)

[JPJ]

New (to me) old fretless bass day here at JPJ Towers thanks to our own @rockdog

Fender Tony Franklin Fretless Precision in 3 colour sunburst with tort scratch plate. Only arrived an hour ago and I’m posting this between Zoom meetings so only had a quick noodle but boy does she sing! 
Looking forward to getting more acquainted this evening 😎

[Linus27]

Gorgeous  I'm still very tempted to swap my fretless Stingray over for one of these basses. Keep us posted on how you get on.

[wateroftyne]

I've had a couple of these and there were very nice 🙂

[BlueMoon]

Classic and elegant. Indeed, very nice!

 

I like it.

[JPJ]

1 minute ago, wateroftyne said:

I've had a couple of these and there were very nice 🙂

I remember trying one of yours and it stuck with me. As I now have a gig that warrants it, I thought I’d treat myself 😎

[JPJ]

So I took her along to last nights rehearsal expecting to play one or two songs then put her back in her case but no, three hours later I was still slip sliding away. In comparison to my Lakland P, she’s a little heavier and slightly neck heavy but that’s probably the D’tuner which is quite a chunk of engineering.

Sound wise, growl and sustain right across the neck, it’s just so alive. The rehearsal rooms we use have really good gear, but as I really struggle to get a decent clean tone out of the supplied Ampeg SVT III’s I took my own amp along (SWR Marcus Miller pre & Amplite power amp) and she obviously liked the pairing. 
By comparison, I own two other fretless basses (1980 Ibanez and a later Overwater Perception 5 string) neither of which are even close to being as lively as the Tony Franklin. Whatever Fender did when they made this particular bass they did it right. 

[wateroftyne]

Nice! What pickup config did you use?

Edited August 13, 2022 by wateroftyne

[JPJ]

1 hour ago, wateroftyne said:

Nice! What pickup config did you use?

P pickup for the rockier stuff, both for the slower more atmospheric stuff where I wanted a bit more mwah. Got to say it’s amazing how well balanced the pickups are, no big jumps in output as you switch between the various combinations.

I am thinking about changing the three-way for a five-way with fixed resistors to give two blend options but that’s probably overkill in a live setting.

[wateroftyne]

1 minute ago, JPJ said:

P pickup for the rockier stuff, both for the slower more atmospheric stuff where I wanted a bit more mwah. Got to say it’s amazing how well balanced the pickups are, no big jumps in output as you switch between the various combinations.

I am thinking about changing the three-way for a five-way with fixed resistors to give two blend options but that’s probably overkill in a live setting.

Bear in mind there something a bit different about the electronics on these - some buffering or other. Don't know if that changes anything as far as your plans go.

 

One of my favourite fretless P things is to solo the P pickup and play right over the board at the neck joint. Lovely.

[JPJ]

Yep there’s definitely some magic going on here and I’m not referring to the electronics. I restrung her last week with some La Bella Deep Talkin’ Bass strings, tweaked the truss rod and fettled the bridge to get the action lower and now she’s singing.

I currently own three fretless basses and this one is by far the liveliest right across the neck. Lovely and growly down low and then mwah for days as you come up the register. Suffice to say I’m totally in love 😍