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Post subject: What the heck is this, part two
Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 7:43 pm
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Okay, the Katana in part one was very quickly identified, and that may be the oddest Fender I have.....how about this one?

What the heck is this?

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Post subject: Re: What the heck is this, part two
Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 9:37 pm
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Heartfield by Fender DR-4. Great instrument! Active with both low impedance XLR and high impedance phone jack outputs right?


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Post subject: Re: What the heck is this, part two
Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 5:35 am
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Another story behind this bass. It was designed by Dominec Cosgrove, who went on to moderate fame as the bass player of Rabid Mongoose. He screwed up and didn't follow through and lost all credit and compensation.

At present, he is the assistant manager of Subway in Buffalo, New York.


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Post subject: Re: What the heck is this, part two
Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 6:57 am
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Brother Dave, I was hoping it would take longer but you are spot on. It's an enjoyable play.

From Fender:

Heartfield DR basses (1989-1993). Fender was eager to participate in the late-’80s “super-Strat” boom typified by makers such as Jackson, Charvel and Ibanez—a large market it hadn’t previously addressed—but was aware that the general public identified the Fender name with more traditional instruments. Thus it created a new series of Japanese-made high-performance guitars and basses dubbed “Heartfield” and “Heartfield by Fender” (although some were simply labeled “Fender”). There were two Heartfield families—the DR series, which came first as the 1980s ended, and the Prophecy family of the early 1990s (see below).

The four-string DR4 and five-string DR5 models of 1989 were alder-body basses with active electronics, additional “low Z output,” hum-cancelling pickups, tri-laminate bolt-on necks (maple/graphite/rosewood) and, for the first time on Fender basses, tuners on both sides of the headstock. They were also offered that year in custom-order neck-through versions, the DR4C and DR5C, which had hardwood bodies, elaborate laminated tops, gold hardware and different finish options. The 1989 lineup also included the custom-order six-string neck-through DR6C (curiously, the six-string bolt-on-neck DR6 didn’t arrive until 1992). All had two-octave necks and a 19.7” fingerboard radius except the DR4, which had 22 frets and a 12” fingerboard radius. The fact that Heartfield DR basses were such expensive instruments is what contributed to their demise in 1993 after only a few years in production. They were discontinued not so much because grunge had by then effectively ended the late-’80s dominance of high-performance “super-Strat” instruments, but because the snowballing value of the Japanese yen at the time simply made them too expensive to continue producing.

Oxfan, I was unaware of Dominec Cosgrove working on this design but I know the Australian band Rabid Mongoose dissolved in 1994 and was reborn as Jumpin Joey in 1998. I believe they kept fans hopping into the new millennium.

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Post subject: Re: What the heck is this, part two
Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 7:12 am
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And they never told Dom they regrouped.


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