Fender Classic Player Rascal Bass

In 2013 Jason Smith from the Fender Custom Shop created an oddball!  A bass guitar with everything from somewhere else. The headstock of a Fender Coronado, the bridge from a Guild, Pickups from a Danelectro… combined with an offset Bass VI body. The Fender Rascal is the “Frankenstein” among bass guitars.

This weird bird was a huge success at the music trade shows and Fender decided to put it in production as part of the Mexican “Classic Player” series. It is a four string short scale bass with lipstick pickups. A bass with guitar pickups? Yes, and the sonic range is awesome!  Besides the “normal” five position switch you can expand your tonal range with another two  by pulling the volume knob.

I like these oddballs, they look cool, play great and sound fantastic! For the demo I plugged this one into a vintage (1969) Marshall SLP and a 4×12 Marshall cab. To my ears it sounded great. It has a very old skool sound, almost like an upright bass. As Antoine says at the end of the demo: “it is not a slapper bass”, … but for anything else it will do the job and make you look cool!

Wham Bam! I am … Boracho! (Fender CS)

Every now and then we do a “warehouse” find at Château PGC!  Ladies and gents… I present you the Fender Cabronita Boracho Bass! Bought it in 2012, used it in 2013 and somehow it got lost in my ever growing stash of gear. Guitar Acquisition Syndrome, you know… it is not a very social disease!IMG_7928.jpg

This baby triggered my old Trace Elliot bass stack and made my trousers flap on stage. The old bellbottom flares got ripped by the lows of the Boracho.

The Trace is my favorite bass amp. It was once used in the backline of Wham and it shows many marks and scars of traveling the world, throwing around in stadiums and sliding of stage ramps. However the beer bottle marks are put there by me and not George Michael!IMG_1081.jpeg

If the amp is the voice then this bass guitar must be “the balls”: The Fender Cabronita Boracho. “Boracho” is Spanish slang for “drunk man”, in my case a very appropriate name.

The Boracho comes from the Fender Custom Shop and is a truly great high-quality instrument. Only a limited number of these basses were produced and it is very unique in esthetics and sounding.  The black nitro finish is relic’d to perfection and looks very authentic. The chunky one-piece quartersawn maple neck with 20 medium jumbo frets has a custom U-profile and black dot inlays, a 7.25” fingerboard radius and the cool headstock shape of a vintage Precision/Tele bass.

IMG_7930.jpgThis instrument sounds incredible, has great intonation and sings out rich harmonics. The Boracho has a lightweight reverse Jazzmaster body and one TV Jones Thunderblade pickup with a volume and a tone control. I am a huge fan of TV Jones pups and this Thunderblade is LOUD! Overwound coils for slightly more “growl” than a P-bass. The pickup is right in the sweet spot, the guys from the Fender Custom Shop got it bang on.

The unbelievably light and reversed Jazzmaster  body made this instrument a bit top-heavy. A fat neck and a recessed upper body gave it the feel the bass was out of balance. I moved the upper strap button to the neck pocket and there… problem solved!

IMG_7929.jpgI put this bass up for adoption! Anyone looking for a cool bass guitar? With this one you will be likely the only one on the block with one of these. Very limited and crafted at the Fender Custom Shop.  It has an “as new” condition. This bass comes with the original oversized hardshell case, case candy, certificate, tags, CS strap and cable and straplocks.  The bass has been taken immaculate care of and is in excellent condition.  Anyone interested can contact me via email or messenger.

Neck: Custom “U” Shape
No. of Frets: 20 Fret Size: Medium Jumbo
Position Inlays: Black Dot
Fingerboard Radius: 7.25″ (18.41 cm)
Neck Material: 1 Piece Quartersawn Maple
Neck Finish: Nitrocellulose Lacquer
Width at Nut: 1.5″ (38.1 mm)
Scale Length: 34″ (86.36 cm)
Pickup: TV Jones Thunderblade pickup

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