The final run of Fleabasses, the instruments designed in conjunction with Red Hot Chili Peppers bass maniac Flea, are to ship with no final finish in an effort to allow players to stamp their individuality on the basses.
Don't worry - finish aside, everything else on these basses is complete and up to standard Fleabass spec - you don't have to shape the neck or wind your own pickups. These 'raw' bass guitars have been primed, and simply await the artistic inspiration of players to strike.
Headline, Fleabass's distributor, is encouraging bassists to upload pictures of their decorated Primer Fleabass to its Facebook group or twitter, with the most striking examples winning sets of strings.
Headline Press Release
Headline Music Ltd - UK distributor for the Fleabass range - have announced the release of a unique 'final run' of the well-received, affordable bass guitars designed in conjunction with the Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist and carrying his name.
The last 150 Fleabasses available in the UK are unique 'raw' models that come with a primed white body but no final finish or scratchplate, allowing customers to create their own individual Fleabass with spray or hand painting techniques, stickers, marker pens etc.
Other than the 'finish ready' body, the last remaining Fleabasses retain all the features of the originals with alder body, 34" scale length, 20-fret maple neck (modelled on Flea's personal favourite neck profile), rosewood fingerboard, passive alnico humbucker and through-body stringing.
Headline Music's Gavin Mortimer said, "This is an exciting final run of Fleabasses, which have been really popular. The ability for customers to finish the Primer basses in their own unique way fits in with Flea's own creative personality and we look forward to seeing what people do with their own instruments.
"We're encouraging customers to post pictures of their unique, customised Fleabasses to our Facebook at www.facebook.com/headlinemusic or Tweet us @headlinemusicuk - we'll be giving away a couple of sets of bass strings to whoever comes up with the best finished article by the end of October.
"We're really looking forward to seeing the results, and there's always a chance that Flea will get to see the best of the bunch…"
The Primer Fleabass has a remarkably low recommended retail price of £199, including Fleabass gigbag.
