Tony Franklin Fretless Rain Song

[@SonnyGTA]

I met him at a bass clinic. He signed stuff for EVERYONE. Really genuine dude. I LOVE the Blue Murder stuff...lots of feel.

[@janeesposito80]

That was beautiful, one of my favorite songs!

[@handgunner1911]

tony is fantastic and hes a really great person,love his playing.one of the most open guys youll ever talk with.i love how he did this.you hear every pluck,crackle slide,ring,jangle along with how he plays the melody,its awesome

[@johnhouse3898]

He got all the parts in on a 4 string bass, and captured the feeling... that was truly amazing.

[@randalleasley31]

A Foundation of frequency and vibration the others can learn to build on...... Tony for the win!

[@mikesorbassguitar]

Tony Franklin is one of my favorites. This is just incredible. I just gave myself a project.

[@LindaAllman-c2i]

This is such a beautiful piece.

[@Cowgirlcath]

Pretty frgn awesome! One of the hardest songs and on bass to boot but also fretless? Omg! 🤯

[@robertbarwick6197]

That was absolutely killer👍👍👍😎💝

[@TriveMas]

Tony is a Genius!!!! What an Amazing way to play this beautiful song.... his bass can sing and play as good as all Led Zeppelin as a band.... FANTASTIC!!!! Trive

[@cascanicoff5763]

Hats off. A masterpiece, full of skills and soul. Thanks for sharing.

[@turntapzap]

This guy is so gifted. I really dig his style!

[@kennethhacker3014]

Total monster!!! Can't believe this 16 years ago..

[@JasonLeonPike]

Great bass player covering my favorite Zep song! 11 on a scale of 10!

[@jazzprecisionbassist4847]

The 19 dislikes are from bassists who can't play fretless with good intonation. As a person who likes both the Rain Song and Fretless Bass, this a very great arrangment. I hope one day I can be that good.

[@labo1386]

Beautiful play

[@gtmclane]

I saw the Firm twice. He was insane. Best bass player I've ever seen and I've seen a ton.

[@houseofthuan]

Tony Franklin is amazing. He's interpreting the Rain Song on just a 4-string! Playing chords! Using harmonics. Doing the solo parts. with no fretlines! Bow to da man! You are not worthy!

[@peterallardmusic9620]

So great to find this! I worked this event for Union Music in Worcester MA, Tony was there to rep the SWR line Fender had acquired. Very sweet man, kind and patient. Because of his influence I’ve moved into fretless bass for many years and finally got his signature model for my own- beautiful instrument. I wonder if OP has more video from this event? Rock on friends!

[@henryjames2628]

I was there it was awesome

[@christiantaylor4027]

Wow. Not many playing this style well. Really cool to hear. Very inspiring.In the beginners mind there are many possibilities. In the experts mind there are very few. In your mind Tony there are endless possibilities I bet. ........ Is it strange for you to play on fret's? Rock on Tony!

[@lummond]

I would kill for the tab/sheet music for this arrangement.

[@G8GT364CI]

Amazing! This guys intonation is incredible.

[@WesSL]

Very cool - great job on this Tony!!! Wes

[@nikmusic]

amazing !!!really great great great bass player!!

[@paultraynorbsc627]

Outstanding

[@keithleeuwen877]

FANTASTIC !

[@DanieleSturba]

tears... tears... and tears...

[@Zboots]

Very nice job indeed )

[@mineheadX1]

superb !! thx for posting.

[@OnSugarHill]

That's some amazing bass playing. He reminds me of Tommy Emmanuel but on bass

[@Robostomp]

I like this very much! Thank you for this video! :)

[@MartinMcCauslin]

I got to see him in Dallas when he toured with Jimmy Page and The Firm and he really wowed the crowd (most of whom had no idea who he was)

[@bloggulator]

Nice. *Very* nice. Verrrrrrrry niiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

[@howlindogs]

It'a converted 4 to a 5. A peg was put in where the string tree goes and and added part at the bridge to tune that string. It's a wider 60's neck at the nut so it was able to put a 5 string nut on it.

[@parkthedog]

That's so weird. Never heard of that!

[@bass247]

It's obviously his interpretation. Personally, I love it. The Rain Song is fun on a fretless bass because I think the tone of this bass goes quite well with the song.

[@TheCheryl57]

All I can say is WOW!

[@thelowmax]

Yes. Micheal Manring plays a Zon bass that has a Detuner on every string! Hipshot (detuner maker) used to make one with the arm a little bent to be able to swing over the adjacent tuners, but they no longer make them (and when they did they were almost $200!) Detuners won't fit most 4 in line (all of my) bass's except for the E string. I just bought a used regular one to see if I can bend it without destroying it. Wish me luck.

[@demetriostsaros]

seeing this caused me to look at bass in a new way

[@howlindogs]

Go for it. If you go to fretless, becareful at first. Tony said his 1st time playing fretless with a singer he got some looks, like your out of tune a little. So watch that. He also said he wished he brought his fretted when he went to audition for Jeff Beck and Mick Jagger because he thought he would have got the gig. Best of luck with it.

[@colinstewart3699]

Very talented he turns the bass into a very exotic instrument !

[@colinstewart3699]

Amazing demo ☝️👌💕👍✌️✨✌️😎 go Tony go what a Fretless master 👋👍😎✌️

[@HumptyKing]

Wonderful :-)

[@xdux]

nice job mate

[@howlindogs]

DR sunbeams on his fretless.

[@frettls]

4:09 he goes for the hipshot D tuner. He may have a 5, but his main is ol faithful P bass with hipshot D tuner. I believe this to be 4

[@ledzelda9]

tony's the freaking man

[@la196]

Genius!

[@thelowmax]

I was curious about that too. It almost looks like there's a hipshot style detuner on his G string as well. IDo they even make those? He kicks it on at 3:12 and seems to have a different melodic approach. Then he's back at 4:12. Cool.

[@slowemm]

Un friggin real.

[@howlindogs]

That's a 5 string bass. Thanks for the comments.

[@parkthedog]

Really? looks like 4...

[@achaille9110]

@@parkthedog - It's a very specially set up 5 string bass. Set up just for this piece.

[@carvin112]

@howlindogs I think I'm gonna have to call BS on you. I play chords on the bass all the time. He does tune it to open D, though, with a D-tuner on both the E and G strings.

[@jkblight]

I custom built a fretless 6 almost 20 years ago and used it and a series of fretted 4 strings for years, but I found when I was performing, I would always chicken out and play the fretted bass. In around 2001 I switched to fretless exclusively and sold my fretted bass. I played only my fretless for live shows and recordings for about 9 years and it was only then that I got really proficient and confident at playing it. Now I can switch between fretless and fretted and play both confidently.

[@PokerFish2006]

quality!!!

[@bendalong101]

inspired..!

[@mlitrus]

i think this is a very clever arrangement. i do wonder what his tuning is though. i think he's playing in quarter tones... could be wrong though.

[@ziajek00]

this is amazing. does anyone knows if he used standard tuning?

[@carvin112]

That bass has at least two d tuners on it. From what it can see, one on the E and one on the G, so when flipped, it makes an open D chord.

[@la196]

Wow, that's crazy, I used to play this on my acoustic guitars but never considered it since changing over to bass. I would be curious if Tony is tuned to DGDG? On my guitars I tuned DGDGCD to play with the studio version. I haven't spent much time with the guitars for nearly 4 years now since buying my bass guitars. I'm hooked!

[@howlindogs]

don't forget this is a 5 string bass with a hipshot d-tuner

[@la196]

+howlindogs You're right, I was originally watching on an iPhone and it's not the clearest vid:) On my home computer I now see indeed it's a 5 er:) Still it's pretty awesome to play it on a bass.

[@tommysalgueiro4266]

+howlindogs noooo is just four strings

[@mzorza]

excellent. but what is the tuning of each string?

[@therealdmt]

It's funny, I was gonna rag on you for posting that, but as the video went on, I saw you were right! Past his 30 sec. attention span, no doubt. Still, that song/performance, while definitely cool and impressive, is also undoubtably on somewhat on the "mellow side", shall we say. Anyway, cool vid, but that kid was making *me* get ants in my pants!

[@carvin112]

if you think he sucks, i dare you to try to play this on a fretted bass, let alone a frettless. i used to hate the sound of a frettless bass, but he has changed my mind.

[@SonnyGTA]

Was this in Cherry Hill NJ?

[@sifa13]

@DivineWindOfTheSnow You don't really need to know chords. I find all you need to do is fool around and play the notes that you think sound good together. I played a piece I wrote for a guitar player and they asked me where I learned all those weird chords. I didn't learn them I found them.

I wonder how this would sound together with the guitar... :P

[@thelowmax]

They are. He shook my hand once and nearly crushed it like he was juicing an orange.

[@pjh2134]

소름돋습니다

[@bass247]

He tunes his E up to a G on this piece. Wow, this is so pretty....too bad none of his magic rubbed off on me (well no visible effects yet).

[@TheMichaelseymour]

Did you know he is related to benjamin franklin ?

[@bass247]

Or audible.

[@igeebs]

umm that was awesome to be able to put a song written for a guitar with a lot more strings on to a 4 string bass but lets face it, rain song just doesn't sound that good on bass.

[@Robostomp]

Really! Looks very bored :)

[@MrStu9459]

I think the guy in the green shirt thinks this ia a waste of time.... betcha he plays Rock!!! Onya mate rock is better than this Krap!