Rick Turner Renaissance 4-String Fretless

This is an addition to the review posted above. I've had the bass near a year now, gigged with it a couple times, and played in a variety of settings. It's an amazing instrument--extremely easy to play, extremely expressive, but also unique. It doesn't sound like other electric basses, even though it can do everything they do except maybe slap. It has a TON of fundamental but is also very articulate, but most of all it's just got that swing. Turn up the bass on your amp and they'll swear there's a big upright driving the band.
But before I complained about it being neck heavy. Well, I wrote to Turner and they sent me a black metal dingus that attaches to the back--what a difference! Completely fixes the problem and makes the bass very very comfortable to play standing or sitting, as long as you're wearing a strap, which I always do. They sent the thing right away, charged 15 bucks, and didn't even complain when I forgot to send them the shipping charge

Try one of these if you can--they are, I think, the wave of the future

Beautifully made, easy playing

See above--excellent

I'm convinced I "need" a Turner electroline 5

walnut hollow body with cedar top, one piece 34 scale bolt on maple neck with rosewood board. fret lines but no frets. one piezo pickup volume and tone controls lightweight open back tuners with cool satin finish string through acoustic guitar like bridge oil finish on back, thin poly finish on face, cool "rope" binding

This is an easy polayng bass with a very fast neck. The tones' the thing though. The Ren gives you a feel that's a lot more like an upright. You can make it sound like an upright if you want--it's easy, and most people would be fooled if they were'nt looking. But it's more than that. What I mean is more that like an upright, the sound "breathes." You get an initial percussive thump and then a very organic sounding decay. Of course it's hard to explain tone, but it's 180 degrees different from the typical modern bass sound, which is "tight" and springy. It's much easier to get a line to swing with this bass, because of the "organic" vibe. But at the same time, it's extremely articulate. I find bop lead lines are much easier to play on the Turner than on the fretless Zon I was playing before. And there's a lot of effective bottom. I was rehearsing some honky tonk bass lines the other day, playing the same lines I'd played two days before on a Ken Smith, and when I played them on the Turner, the drummer and guitarist both told me how much better I'd gotten at honky tonk bass. It's the tone--the tone swings. There's a ton of fundamental and yet you can hear everything. the controls are simple but extremely effective--no fun for knob twiddlers, since it sounds good no matter where you set it. It took me a while to figure out what it can do--took me a while to learn to hear it right. It doesn't sound like most basses. It can't do everything: you can't really slap it, and it's not good for imitating Jaco.
This bass is WAY ahead of its time. There are all these standard problems--sustain, dynamic range--and a set of conventional answers. It's like Turner's made an end run around the problem. The bass sustains as well as the Zon, with a totally different design. I've had to rethink some of my lines too. Play it for a while, and be patient. I highly recommend the Turner.

Top notch fit and finish. Only thing I don't like about it is it's a neck diver. I hate that. I'd rather have it be heavier and balance right

Very well made. It's more fragile than a solid body bass, but I'm totally confident in it.

haven't really tried it

I miss it, but not the sound. I may try some other Smiths to see if they have a better sound, or one more to my needs, becasue they make a nice product