Fender Bass V1 Reviews 5

I had been after this rare guitar for years and had been resigned to getting a re-issue instead of an orginal. I eventually got a call from a shop in London, England. I travelled down from my home in Scotland, had five minutes on it and bought it there on the spot. I paid £1050 for it. I could have haggled but I only had a few short hours in London and I didn't want to miss my train home so I paid up and went on my way.

What I love about the Fender V1 is the wow factor. Guitarists are always the first to want to have a go. A lot of magazines and books list it as a baritone guitar but it's way beyond one of them. It is tuned exactly the same as a standard guitat (E to E), but an octave below. The range of tones available are amazing. If played like a bass it's up there with the best of them but fling in a few lighter chords and it's very like a guitar. I love the fact that I have never seen anyone else with one of these, so people wonder where the bass player. Of course I couldn't finish with out mentioning the whammy bar. A whammy bar that must be used at every chance.

It's very hard to find fault with such a beautiful guitar. The neck is thin so that takes a bit of getting used to especially cos my main guitar is a Fender V string. The only other thing that I can think of is that it shows up what a rotten guitar player I am.

The guitar is what you would expect from Mr Leo Fender. It'w well put together and with a lot of TLC will still be belting it out in years to come. There isn't anything else I can say about it than that. Top banana.

The Fender V1 is not a guitar that I'm going to play on every song but for the odd song here and ther it does provide something a little special. It was a swine of a guitar to get a hold of and now that I have got one I'm holding on to it. If you can get a hold of one I'd highly recommend it. It's like nothing you have ever heard before.

Fender Bass V1 rated this unit 5 on 2004-07-18.

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