Fender Ashbory Bass

This review is for the Fender Ashbory Bass, which was bought brand new from Guitar Center in San Diego, CA. Not sure where it was made, black in color, active electronics, and gig bag.

Fat sound!! This thing has a truck-load of low-end booty! Most of the time, I run this thru my up-right bass amp (A Crate BX-100), and this bass makes it sound like it's got more than 100 watts!

Very well put together, no issues.

I've had this thing for a long time, have played it both in studio and LIVE! I play some pretty unique basses anyway, being a left handed bassist, so no one is ever really suprised at what I might break out from one night to the next!

No issues, never had to use them in 6 years!

Killer bass, killer tone! What else can I say about the Ashbory?!

New, Fender-made Ashbory Bass. Mfg in Korea. Fretless, 17" scale bass with silicon rubber strings and piezo electric pickup with active preamp and tone controls. There are many resources on the net about these. Comes with gig bag.

Think of hooking a regular electric bass into a PA mixer. Now you know why you need a bass amp. Contrary to this, the Ashbory's strings have a natural low frequency resonance that sounds best when left alone. I tried the Ashbory with two small amps, a Galien Kruger Backline 10 and an older Acoustic Image Contra II. The Backline sounds very nice with my Ken Smith electric, but sounds harsh and slightly distorted with the Ashbory. On the other hand, the Contra II is the delight of many upright bassists. It's a flat, full-spectrum amp with lots of ability to hit the lows. The Ashbory sounds really terrific with this amp. Everything set flat. Loads of ultra-low fundamental, without much midrange, and a hint of fingers on the strings, controllable by the Ashbory's treble tone control. Not for rock, but great for jazz and folk. Some say it emulates an upright. I say, maybe not for a piano trio, but for a larger ensemble you would be hard pressed as a listener to tell the difference.

I'm on my third unit. First one was lightly used on ebay. It had a bunch of intermittent electronics problems. Second unit was new and 3 of 4 tuners were messed up. Returned it and asked the seller to hand check the new one before shipping. It works! Check out largesound.com for a discussion thread on Ashbory QA problems. They say that 35% of the Ashbory's they receive are sent back to the factory. Make sure your seller does their own Q&A.

There are a whole range of Ashbory-specific issues to understand. All available on the net.

The 1st string (high G) has a tendency to break. No big deal, but these strings take a few days to settle into pitch and require lots of adjustment during the first few hours. This might make a gigging bassist nervous. I have not played the Ashbory live, but with a nod to vanity, I'm going to guess that most players would decide not to use the Ashbory because it looks like a toy, rather than on sound or reliability issues.

Have not dealt directly with Fender.

God, I really like this weird little thing. It's light, so no hunched back. It's got a short scale and requires very little left hand pressure, so no sore hands. It's fretless, which really makes me feel like I'M MAKING THE SOUND. Yeah! And, it fits with my own aesthetics about the role of the bass in any band. (You should own the bottom, keep the rhythm, outline the harmony, stay out of everybody else's way, and express your own creativity in your choice of interesting notes not fast upper neck licks). But am I brave enough to show my Ash(bory) in public? ;-)