{"id":441,"date":"2014-12-01T05:14:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T05:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bunnyears.net\/guitar\/?page_id=441"},"modified":"2022-01-03T19:53:44","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T19:53:44","slug":"fender-classic-player-rascal-bass","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bunnyears.net\/guitar\/basses\/fender-classic-player-rascal-bass\/","title":{"rendered":"Fender Classic Player Rascal Bass"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rascal_main\"<\/a>Year:<\/strong>\u00a02014<\/span>
Finish: <\/strong>Ocean Turquoise
Origin:<\/strong>\u00a0Mexico<\/span>
Acquired:<\/strong>\u00a02014<\/span>
Mods:<\/strong>\u00a0Schaller straplocks<\/span>
Still owned:<\/strong> No<\/span><\/p>\n

I like offset guitars — instruments that aren’t symmetrical, but instead look a little stretched. I also like Fender basses, and I like weird concepts. The Fender Rascal is a weird concept, originally\u00a0created by Jason Smith at\u00a0the Fender Custom Shop\u00a0in 2013 as a\u00a0tribute to the oddball, pawn-shop, short-scale budget basses of the 1960s. Everything’s from somewhere else, with parts borrowed from other Fender-family models: the body of the six-string\u00a0Bass VI<\/a>\u00a0(which Fender insists is a bass<\/a>, even if it’s\u00a0Nigel Tufnel’s guitar<\/a> that “can’t be played…never”<\/a>),\u00a0the headstock from the Coronado<\/a>, the bridge from the Guild Starfire<\/a>, and bizarrely, the lipstick pickups<\/a> from a Danelectro by way of a Strat. I saw it and instantly fell in love with the shape, color, and overall left-field vibe…but not at the Custom Shop prices (roughly $10K!). Thankfully, the one-off proved such a hit at trade shows that Fender put it into production in Mexico, with a list price of $1100 and a street of $800. Now that’s something I can handle, with a little planning and perhaps culling of the herd.<\/p>\n

I looked for three months to find one in person — they immediately went out of stock, backordered, or “extremely backordered” in my local stores, but you could find them online all over the place. I don’t like to buy instruments without putting my hands on them, so when I finally tracked one down at the always-awesome\u00a0Gelb Music<\/a>\u00a0in Redwood City, I was sold…as long as it didn’t suck when I played it.<\/p>\n

Who was I kidding? The moment I plugged it in and held it, the entire bass leaped up and said “Finally, you’re here! C’mon, lets’s go go go go!” The 30″ scale and slim neck make it a joy to play, and the\u00a0single-coils almost make it a lead instrument. Not only does it have standard five-way switching like a Strat, but with a push-pull volume knob, you can also get the other two pickup configurations (neck + bridge, and all three). There’s really nothing else I’ve ever played, let alone owned, that sounds like this.<\/p>\n

As if I needed anything else to convince me, the last four digits of my Rascal’s serial number are, miraculously, the last four digits of my home phone number when I was a kid. But alas, I decided to sell it during a purge and it’s now with a new owner, who I hope appreciates its weirdness!<\/p>\n