One of Fender’s big announcements back at Summer NAMM this year was a new Signature Active Jazz Bass for Red Hot Chili Peppers madman Flea - a bass that’s now available, complete with oddball promo video.
In the clip above, Flea plays his new squeeze up in - we’re guessing - the Hollywood hills, through a Fender backline, and spends his time jamming, painting his face, waxing lyrical on music and… not talking a whole lot about the bass.
Fortunately, we’re on hand to dish the dirt on the spec. The model owes its name to a hot Fender humbucker equipped with an Aguilar OBP-1 18V preamp, featuring discrete FET circuits with up to 18dB of boost.
Elsewhere, there’s a quarter-sawn C-shaped maple neck with 12-16” compound-radius fingerboard and contoured heel, a HiMass bridge and custom neck plate engraved with Flea’s signature and logo.
That alder-bodied Jazz Bass shape is adorned with a satin urethane finish available in Inca Silver and Shell Pink finishes. Mmm.
Say what you like about Flea, but he knows how to design a good four-string - this one is available now for $1,699 in the USA, and from January for £1,599 in the UK.
See Fender (opens in new tab) for more details.
